The ‘Asian Century’, an opportunity for the business leaders of the future
Like Mumbai, London, Moscow, New York or Bali before it, an Australian has again been killed in an act of jihadist terrorism on foreign soil.
Address to Monash University Alumni and MBA students
Hon Bill Shorten MP
Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Financial Services and Superannuation
I did my MBA up the road at the Melbourne Business School, so whilst I don’t find myself amongst my alumni this evening, I am certainly sympathetic of the late nights opining on the merits or
otherwise of quantative risk analysis.
To those still doing their Masters please accept my assurances that at best, studying for your MBA will be worth it and at worst, it won’t go on forever.
It’s always a pleasure to meet fellow MBA students and graduates.
You are people who are keenly interested in making us better organised, more co-operative and more productive individually, in our workplaces and as a nation.
Your studies and your qualification give you expertise and license to share your knowledge and insights across the gamut of capitalist enterprise right around the world.
So to fellow students, graduates, and fellow capitalists, I bid you good evening.
I want to talk to you briefly tonight about the challenges and more importantly opportunities of the Asian Century, specifically those presented in China, for you as individuals and for Australia as a nation.
Rather than speaking for too long, I’m more interested in taking questions from you, so I’ll keep my comments brief.
It’s no secret we find ourselves, as a nation and as individuals keen to make a difference, in a remarkable time and a remarkable place.
Our place is one which has been relatively constant.
It is a matter of geological fact that our land Australia is one of the oldest slabs of mantle – up to 4 billion years – on earth.
Our first inhabitants are part of the oldest surviving culture on the planet.
And we’ve been a Federation for over a century.
So by any measure, we’ve been where we are for quite some time.
The times however, are winds which only relatively recently are filling our sails.
We find ourselves in the region of the world which will shape the next century of life on our planet.
Whether they like it or not, know it or not, every person on the planet will be in some way touched by the Asian Century.
Asia is re-emerging to global leadership. And the world’s economy is coming our way.
The epicentre of all global consumption is moving east by 100 miles every year – by 2025 it will be in central India.
In the same year, 2025, most of the world’s middle class will be in Asia.
So friends, I do believe the times suit us.
Our relationship with China has a long future, built on a similar way of thinking, and face-to-face meetings like the one I articipated in with the Chinese government in Beijing last month.
More than anything else it’s a relationship built on respect.
‘Guangxi’ I believe is the apt word – a respectful and cooperative relationship which leads to trust and confidence in one another.
That is what I think we have today and what we continue to invest in.
It cannot be taken for granted – gaining and retaining Guangxi is a long task that needs stamina and deep will.
Australia’s friendship with China bears this out. It was 1971 when Gough Whitlam had the vision, and the sense of history, to send a message to Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai suggesting they meet to discuss ‘matters of mutual concern.’
Whitlam, then Opposition leader, was panned by his critics and provoked fascination from international observers with his historic reaching out to China.
It is a matter of historical fact that Whitlam made the right call – and indeed that his public trip coincided with clandestine meetings between Henry Kissinger and the Chinese government showed that Whitlam was a leader truly ahead of his time.
During those few weeks in July 1971, a few days before Whitlam’s birthday, a connection was made.
Tom Burns, the then President of the ALP and a member of the 1971 delegation, recalled in 2006 that it was close to midnight when Whitlam and the attendant press pack was summoned
to the Great Hall of the People.
There the two men sat.
Prime Minister Whitlam – the erudite Sydney barrister – youthful and supremely self-assured. Premier Zhou – the suave bureaucrat raised on classical Chinese literature – toured the international horizon with Whitlam, who by all accounts acquitted himself well.
As Burns recalls, after three hours of conversation Premier Zhou corrected his interpreter in perfect English, with a smile.
The two spent the next half hour talking in English about Greek mythology, their travels in France…
…“matters of mutual concern” indeed.
Save for the gold spittoons and endless packs of Panda brand cigarettes, the Great Hall of the People – with its mammoth wooden doors, huge gold columns and romantic landscape murals
– has stood largely unchanged since that first meeting between China and Australia.
But our friendship, our Guangxi, has gone from strength to strength, to the benefit of both our countries.
During last month’s visit to China, I joined to Prime Minister to announce Australia’s will be the third major currency in the world to be directly convertible with the Chinese Renminbi, after the US dollar and the Japanese Yen.
More importantly, I witnessed the signing of an agreement between Australia and China which elevated our relationship to new heights.
It is truly the most significant step forward between our great nations since Prime Minister Whitlam and Premier Zhou sat down in the Great Hall all those years ago.
Our leaders will meet annually, we’ve strengthened defence ties, we’re selling our cultural delights to the Chinese in their own cities.
This is Guangxi at work.
Not suspicious, short-sighted, out to make a quick buck.
But thinking about the next 20 years, beyond the minerals boom, and always focussing on our personal relationships.
We must foster and promote a friendship based on mutual respect, trust and confidence.
As Ruyard Kipling rightly wrote:
Here lies the fool, in sepulchre cool,
Who tried to hustle the East.
This of course means freer trade with China, better integration of our financial systems, more tourism.
And this undoubtedly means big ships taking a few thousand metric tons at a time of our land Australia across the seas, to power and construct an ever growing China.
But there’s something more fundamental going on here.
It’s about people – it’s always been about people.
Our export of knowledge to China is creating just as much energy and growth as our resources.
That’s why I’ve been saying for a while that the future is a good job.
Let me explain what I mean by that.
All the challenges we face – whether it’s globalisation, the skills race, empowerment of workers and consumers, the re-emergence of Asia – all of them come back to the brains and ability of our people.
To grow sustainably in the 21st century, Australia – and, I suspect, China – needs a healthy, highly educated, creative workforce.
Everyone in this room is playing a part in this.
Many are probably already working.
Most are probably thinking about a better job – and creating good jobs for others.
All of you are motivated to change the world around you.
I suspect many in this room will play a big part in growing our fundamental relationship and our future partnership with China and our other Asian neighbours.
Amongst us there are future leaders – in business, global forums, and yes, even politics.
But I have never believed leaders are simply born, leaders are made.
Leadership is a skill to be nurtured and constantly honed.
That’s why the MBA is so important – it gives you the tools to find waste and inefficiency, and maximise the productive capacity of the workforce around you.
As the Minister responsible for maximising the productive capacity of Australia’s workforce, I want to see better leadership right across the economy.
That’s why the Gillard Government is investing in an Australia first Centre for Workplace Leadership – to increase workplace level productivity and the quality of jobs by improving leadership ability in Australian workplaces.
This will not be another training company. The Centre will drive a broader movement to provide good leadership which empowers employees and delivers greater job satisfaction, productivity and motivation.
To conclude, I am enormously optimistic about Australia’s future, and I believe you are as well.
But to grasp what the future holds, we’ll need the brains and ability of our people, long-term vision and personal commitment to nurturing our relationships around our region and the world.
So I look forward to this evening’s discussion, and this exchange of ideas.
I thank you.