An update for May

It's been a little while since I have written here in the blog - last time was February, and all of the sudden it's May!  It has been a busy couple of months, and all my very brief updates were going straight on to Facebook.  So if you aren't a member of the Facebook group yet, you better get on board!

We had the Malaysian Prime Minister's visit to Canberra and Melbourne in late February, which was very successful.  It is only in recent days though that we have seen some of the results of that visit with the announcement of the asylum seeker deal.  Whatever the merits or otherwise of that policy, it certainly demonstrates that Australia's relationship with Malaysia is at an entirely different level to what it was in the past.  Kiong attended the luncheon in Canberra, which also gave him the opportunity to meet with a number of Federal MPs to discuss issues relating to trade and other matters.

In early March we had the Shoulder to Shoulder event, raising money for victims of the Queensland floods. The AMBCQ was part of the organising committee for that event which included the Singapore Business Council, the Tamil Association, the Vietnamese Community, and many other groups. A number of our members made significiant contributions including Sue and Bryan Davies, Debra Jarvis, Tamara Foong and Clem Grehan. In all the event raised over $20,000 for flood relief and attracted numerous VIPs and guests.

We have also had the privilege of attending quite a number of consular events with diplomats organised by the Australian Council for Europe.  These were all very interesting, and universally the guests were of excellent calibre.  They have included the Ambassador for Brazil, the High Commissioner of Canada, the High Commissioner of Britain and the Ambassador for the EU.  One particularly interesting guest was His Excellency the Hon Dr Brendan Nelson, former Federal Minister for Defence who is now the Australian Ambassador to the EU, NATO and Luxemborg.  Given Dr Nelson's vast career, spanning medicine, politics and now diplomacy, he was a very interesting speaker.  It was also interesting to hear a different perspective, as an Australian diplomat representing us to the European Union and to NATO.

There have of course been our own meetings, the meetings for Shoulder to Shoulder, and the meetings for the upcoming Dragonboat Festival at Forest Lake.  Again, the AMBCQ has been invited to be involved in the organising committee.  The festival, lead by Cr Angela Owen-Taylor and the Hakka Association, attracted several thousand people.  This year the festival will be held on the 4th June at Forest Lake.  But I'll write another post to let you know more about the Dragonboat Festival shortly.

Well, that about rounds up February through to May this year.  There are a few more exciting events on the horizon, so please stay posted!