I am very pleased to accept the Minister’s invitation to chair the Australia Awards Board.

Like him I believe Australia’s future lies in “thinking big” and “going global”.

This is not a time for narrowness of vision or meanness of heart.

Indeed as I reflect on the state of the world today I see an overarching challenge.

I could call it “learning to live with difference”.

Or I would put it another way — “living by learning from others”.

Let me expand on this.

A number of years ago I delivered a public lecture on the question of living with difference.

In preparing the speech I consulted with two friends, one an Australian Anglican Priest and the other senior politician from Malaysia who has published several books on Islam.

I asked them both — what is the best way to promote mutual respect across the cultures and religions?

Interestingly they both gave me the same answer. It went something like this: “Maximise the opportunities available for people of different backgrounds to work together to solve a common task or to carry out a particular project”.

Yes it is true that high level dialogue across the boundaries at the intellectual and philosophical level is important BUT more important is working together to tackle an issue, solve a problem or build infrastructure.

Here we learn that despite our differences we are all really the same — human beings with flesh and blood, likes and dislikes, hopes and fears, desires and aspirations, strengths and weaknesses.

No longer is it a case of “us” and “them” but “you” and “I” working together to solve a problem, individuals rather than categories.

This is what the Australia Awards are all about — bringing people together under the umbrella of education.

Networks are created. Friendships are formed.

Our stock of knowledge expands. Your stock of knowledge expands. No individual, indeed no nation can ever generate enough knowledge — all of us need to learn from the experiences of others. To believe you know it all sows the seeds for intolerance in outlook and mistakes in delivery.

Trust follows mutual respect and trade and investment comes with that trust.

We gain. You gain. We all gain.

I say this because I’ve seen it happen — and many times when Premier of a state that was internationally focussed and globally connected.

Let me conclude by quoting Mahatma Gandhi perhaps the greatest internationalist of them all.

“I DO NOT WANT MY HOUSE TO BE WALLED IN ON ALL SIDES AND MY WINDOWS TO BE STUFFED. I WANT THE CULTURES OF ALL LANDS TO BE BLOWN ABOUT MY HOUSES AS FREELY AS POSSIBLE. BUT I REFUSE TO BE BLOWN OFF MY FEET BY ANY”.

Gandhi’s view that we need open minds and good hearts is excellent advice to us all.

Thank you and the best of health and happiness.