 Ladies and gentlemen, very distinguished guests, distinguished guests and less distinguished guests, welcome all to the gala dinner for Asia Pacific Week. Those of you, which is the vast majority of you who have been participating in Asia Pacific Week, this comes as a bit of a climax, a time to relax, a time to reinforce some of the contacts you've made over the last few days, time to make some new contacts and a time to celebrate what we've done over the last four days. My name is Andrew Walker, I'm your emcee for the evening, that means master of ceremonies for anyone who's not familiar with the emcee concept, which I'm not. My job basically tonight is pretty low-key, it's to introduce the introducers and the first thing I'm going to do tonight is to introduce Andrew McIntyre, who is the Dean of the College of Asia in the Pacific, who is going to introduce our very special guest. So I don't need to talk any more with no further ado, let's welcome Andrew McIntyre, Dean of the College. So Andrew Walker and I have a firm belief that you can never have too many Andrews. It's a real pleasure to have the role of introducing Malcolm Fraser this evening. Among Australia's Prime Ministers a small number of them were long-serving, one elections many times. Malcolm's one of those, he won three elections or led his party to three elections in 1975, 1977, 1980, before losing office in 1983. And he's a really wonderful person to have here tonight as our guest of honour to share some informal remarks because he played a very important role in strengthening and deepening Australia's ties with Asia and the Pacific. And I'll say more about that in a moment, but just to put him in some context, particularly the people that have come from outside Australia. When Malcolm was winning his third election as Prime Minister, I was in my second year of university as an undergraduate, which quite a few of you will be I'm guessing. To my friends and I he seemed a stern, forbidding sort of figure. And I remember one of the cartoonists at some stage likened him to one of those big Easter Island statues with this sort of forbidding appearance. He was a politician who cut his political teeth during the Cold War. Among his early ministerial roles before he was Prime Minister, when his party had previously been in government in the 60s, he played key roles in security portfolios during the height of the Cold War, the Vietnam War was in full flight. When he came to office as Prime Minister, the economic tide across the OECD was turning in a dry direction. So he had this image to my friends and in my eyes, as I say, this forbidding stern conservative figure. And it's interesting in thinking about what one might say in introducing him this evening and looking back on his recording office and after. And starting to realize that it was more nuanced, more complex than I saw at the time. You see this particularly in the foreign policy side of things, very activist period in Australian foreign policy. And along with a staunch commitment to the Australian Alliance with the United States, you see under his leadership Australia being very active in opposing apartheid in South Africa, in opposing white minority rule in Africa more broadly. In changing our immigration policy, making humanitarian considerations a formal major part of our immigration policy. In seeing many more people coming from Asia to Australia as part of our immigration policy. And more broadly, it's really why we were so keen to have him in this role this evening, he plays a key role in strengthening and deepening this country's relations with Asia. I'll give you three illustrations of that. One is he signed and carried through the NARA agreement between Australia and Japan which was really important in transforming the relationship from being much more than just a commercial relationship. Which is what it was in the post-war years. Broadening it into a wider, deeper relationship. NARA was really important for that. Following the diplomatic recognition of China by Malcolm's predecessor, Gough Whitlam, Malcolm plays a really important role, even if it's not a high-profile role that sticks in the memory of many Australians. It's a really important role in strengthening deepening high level contacts between China and Australia. Personal contacts that stayed with him long after he left office. And I guess the third illustration I give, which the ANU community is always very mindful of, is that it was Malcolm Fraser that, in effect, commissioned the ANU to launch and supported the ANU in pursuing what was known at the time as the Pacific Community Seminar. Which is where the key thinking was done. Which paved the way a decade or so later for APEC. It's where all the key thinking was being done in consultation with colleagues in Japan and elsewhere in the region. That was sort of the brain's trust for this. So in lots of ways. An interesting person to speak at this evening's gathering. And again, for the benefit of, particularly for people from outside Australia, I think Australians are in the process of, I'm quite sure what the way of putting this is, of revisiting their opinions or their assessments, their impressions of Malcolm Fraser. I think a lot of Australians probably saw him as the Easter Island sort of figure. But if one looks at many of the things he did since leaving, since leaving politics. Very active involvement in humanitarian causes. And in a quite strange way, sort of becoming one of the significant articulators of the Australian conscience today. Not the only one. Nobody would be described in that way. But I would say one of the significant articulators of Australia's collective conscience in this period. So an interesting person to have here this evening. Ladies and gentlemen, Malcolm Fraser. Well, thank you very much for that introduction. I'm not sure if there is an implication in the introduction that the Easter Island Fraser has changed. I would argue that he hasn't. And if anyone wants to argue that contention, the easiest way of doing it is to go and buy a book that was published last year. It's called The Phraser Memoirs. And somebody else did all the work in writing it. And made it readable. Which I wouldn't have done. But my basic views haven't changed. World and circumstances changed. I'm glad you mentioned the conversations that ANU was heavily involved in from the very early 80s on, or maybe 1980. Because they began not insignificantly because of discussions and because of ideas that Prime Minister Ahira had about how to improve relationships between Japan and Australia. And also how to establish a closer and more effective, more cohesive Pacific community. And the great sensitivity of the time, of course, was how to do all of this without offending Asian, which was then fairly new, not 100% sure of itself. And so it was done. Three consultations that were led by this university and private business bureaucrats were also involved. But the government sort of stood back. You had an intense week of discussions, or there's one other thing I wanted to say. Looking around the room, I think quite a large number of you were born after I left the parliament. And so if I'm talking about history of which you know nothing, because you weren't alive, forgive me. You've had an intense week of discussions on global and strategic issues. And I just wanted to mention a few thoughts, which may put some things, perhaps in a different perspective, or into my perspective. Australians are often not good at understanding how other people see us. We have our own view of ourselves. And as an island continent, we too often seem to believe that we can do as we want to do without much concern for the views of other countries. That might not have mattered much in the days of empire, but it certainly matters in today's global world. And we will not be able to conduct effective and sensible policies unless we learn to understand how people in other countries view the actions that we're taking and view the decisions of the Australian government. We sometimes forget that Australians are used to speaking bluntly, although that's something I was never accused of. Well, that was an Australian laugh. Often too bluntly, whereas in many countries of our own region and indeed further afield, leaders I've found will be gentle and polite and not critical. And it's sometimes hard to sense the real views that other people may have or what you are in fact doing. After the camper incident, I had communications from the Kennedy School, Australian students there asking how long they had to pretend they weren't Australian, from places like Cyprus, from Latvia, from Finland, and far afield from around the world. What were we doing? Why? Did we have no concern? Did we have no compassion? Did we have no concern for the law of the sea? Recent debates between major parties have reinvigorated the concern and the suspicion that many people overseas have of Australia. The credit we've gained over 40 years of large-scale post-war migration, culminating in the largest ever humanitarian migration from one region in the late 70s and early 80s, has been thrown into serious doubt. We might think our actions have no consequences beyond our shores. That's a dangerous self-deception. Many examples can be given. Opponents of climate change legislation says Australia, as a country, produces so little. What does it matter? What we do. But many others, indeed most others, look at emissions per capita. And then we come out, if not worst, second worst. These are but two quite different examples of the way in which actions too many believe are purely domestic in their consequences, resonate unfavorably for Australia around the world. In Australia, the press, and I'm sorry, more of them aren't here tonight, seems quite often hostile to China and China's actions in ways which I believe are misleading and damaging, damaging to us more than to China. We question China's military buildup without paying regard to China's own circumstances. Their nuclear armory, for example, is not much larger than Israel, which nobody dares talk about, probably on a par with Britain and France. So far it has been a deterrent force only and a deterrent force in fixed silos. There's a weight of missiles available from Russia and the United States that does not constitute any kind of adequate deterrent. A deterrent force needs to be in submarines whose location cannot be so easily found. China's criticized for wanting to build a navy. But why shouldn't it? It's a great power. And if its nuclear arsenal of about 300 missiles is to be an effective deterrent, it needs nuclear armed submarines rather than land based fixed silos. I often wonder if China didn't go down that direction 20 or 30 years ago. In addition, China has on its borders some of the most unsettled and dangerous countries in the entire world. And I wonder how Australia would feel if we lived in the center of such turmoil. North Korea is unpredictable. The outcome in Iraq is problematic. The West will claim success for its mission. But we will not know whether it is a success or a most ghastly failure until sometime after the last American troops have been withdrawn. I've been involved with a non-government organization that delivered humanitarian and developmental aid. And I'm certainly no defender of Saddam Zayn. But after the First Gulf War, it was the safest country in the world for care to work in amongst the poorest of the people in Iraq. After the Second Gulf War, it very quickly became the most dangerous country in the world for care to work in. One of the consequences of the West's actions. In Afghanistan, there's little sign of real military progress. There is little sign that there are sufficient leaders in Afghanistan dedicated to building a cohesive centralized state. Warlords still dominate their own regions. The Taliban does not have to hold territory. It only has to demonstrate that NATO and Afghanistan forces, official forces, cannot provide protection. They seem to be doing that reasonably effectively. While the topography is totally different, and while comparisons can be dangerous, the central thesis of building up Afghani forces until they can defend themselves, allowing NATO to withdraw, was the central thesis that enabled America to withdraw from Vietnam, claiming victory, but knowing it was defeat. The days may well have passed when the Western Army can impose a government on the people whose culture and traditions and history are not only extraordinarily independent, but also totally different from the culture and history of the West. But when will we learn that particular lesson? The lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan give at the very least some credibility for that thesis. And then there is Pakistan. We're overwhelming the Pakistan's believe the United States has required Pakistan in the name of the war against terror to do things contrary to Pakistan's own interests. Too many civilians have been killed by cross-border missions or by predator missiles. It would be naive, it would be naive to believe that this feeling has not infected significant parts of Pakistan's ruling establishment and of Pakistan's military, whose unity and cohesion is central to holding the country together. The one thing we can be sure, there'll be no military solution in Afghanistan. The most military force can do, and this may be optimistic, is to provide a negotiating coin that will enable a negotiated settlement of some kind to be put in place. That would depend on sufficient members of the Taliban being prepared to participate in government, being prepared to put aside the extreme elements of their fundamentalism as a price of NATO's withdrawal. Apparently some discussions have taken place, but it doesn't look as though great progress has been made. The United States and other NATO forces are now setting withdrawal timetables. Our government and our opposition both say Australia will stay until the job is done. What job and is their view sustainable? It's a remarkable piece of bipartisanship because the only thing the parties today seem to be bipartisan about is extraordinarily bad divisive and destructive policy. In addition, India and Pakistan still dangerous rivals are capable of causing a nuclear war or on China's borders. These unsettled borders give China an external rationale for reinvigorating her own armed forces. And when we look at what she has done, it is miniscule compared to the 60% of world military expenditure on arms which derives from the United States alone. Even Japan's military forces are far more formidable and far more effective than many believe. There are strong moves against the post-war demilitarization of Japan. Strong moves are supposed in both direction to maintain it but to undo it. The addition of long range ships and aircraft would give Japan a fully rounded military force and their missile systems and technology would be comparable to any in the world. The United States attempts under the Bush administration to persuade Japan, Australia and India to participate in an anti ballistic missile shield could only be regarded as inimical to China's interest. It was foolish of us to consider participation in such a venture and foolish of Japan also. In recent years, however, successive governments seem to have regarded that their best serve Australia's interests by doing whatever the United States wants. Such attitudes in fact do not strengthen the alliance but weaken it because most Australians believe that we have interests which are Australian which do not always coincide with those of the United States. Participation in the war in Iraq was a classic example. Anders was invoked but Anders is a treaty strictly limited by geography. Iraq and Afghanistan were far beyond its geographic limits. Before the Iraq war began the majority of Australians were clearly against it but the truth seemed not to matter to the leaders of Britain of the United States and of Australia and they all went to war on a lie which they knew at the time. Ahead of the time a senior American saying to me you know Australia is coming to be known as one of our worst allies. I responded I think I know what you're going to say I knew this person fairly well but tell me we expect a good ally to have a mind of its own and not just blindly to follow or to support or to encourage irrational actions by a president that did so much damage to America's interests and indeed to the interests of the world. It was not only a question of going to war at America's behest we also accepted unlike the United Kingdom that the United States had the right to imprison Australians in Guantanamo Bay and subject them to torture. There was no protest from the Australian Government there was indeed connivance in a trial that would have been regarded as quite illegal in Australia or in Britain or in any civilized country for that matter. America now moves in a different direction but the legacy of death of overextended commitments created in the Bush era have left President Obama with intractable and extraordinarily difficult problems and I hope very much he's able to overcome them sufficiently to win a second term. What happens at the end of President Obama's first term is enormously important not only to America but to all of us because whatever my criticism might be from time to time of the United States the best of America has done so much for the world and American leadership remains the best hope for a peaceful and for a cooperative world. We could do much more to support the United States where President Obama has taken courageous actions over Israel over moves to reduce dependence on nuclear weapons over the first we've been weak and silent and over the second we started with enthusiasm which was soon pushed aside. The Australian military has the potential military relationships has the potential... they're not too paid to start together I'm sorry somebody who's trying to sabotage me. Apart from these thoughts we need to understand that Australia has always had a sense of dependence. That might be concrete a mythology but it's factually correct. We had no defense of foreign policy up to the time of the Second World War unless it was a defense and foreign policy to do that which Britain wanted. We relied on Britain when British help proved unavailable and not their fault they had no option. We immediately transferred our sense of dependence to the United States where for too many people it has remained ever since. That has infected the relationship especially in recent years. Too few know that when the Chinese, and this is history for most of you, when the Chinese were shelling Kremoi and Matsu offshore islands in the Taiwan straits and President Eisenhower moved the Pacific Fleet in or close to those straits in the middle 50s, Prime Minister Menzies quietly told the President that if there were a war with China over Taiwan it was their affair and not ours. Contrast that attitude with attitudes expressed by recent administrations of whatever party and Prime Minister Menzies for a country like Australia living in this region was right. It is not only in political terms that we've been too compliant. The close relationship between the United States and the Australian military has the potential to create obligations quite concrete to Australia's long-term interests. The extent of those relationships are not always and not necessarily declared to ministers. The last defense white paper was the worst white paper published in over 40 years. It was also the most damaging, the most destructive, the most extravagant and arguably the most foolish. That's being moderate. The United States alliance is important but it does not mean that we do everything that America wants. We have a mind of our own and the best of America expects us to have a mind of our own. We should exercise it and make careful judgment of Australia's own interests. We have not done that in recent times. The attitude of subservience has been well-noticed in countries of our own region around North and China. Other policies are also noticed. The racism evident from time to time from the time of Pauline Hanson onwards has been noted in countries around the world. Australia's behavior of the Tampa incident where fully armed troops were placed on a vessel that had rescued refugees at sea and the demeaning arguments of a refugee policy in the years since have done much damage to Australia's international reputation. Some are even asking despite the great migration made possible by bipartisanship between the major political parties over 40 post-war years. Has Australia really changed? In my view it has, but there are some overseas who ask whether those in government long for the old Australia, the narrow inward-looking introspective and racist Australia. The way some of our political leaders speak reinforces that attitude. In 1938 at Avian in France an international conference was called attended by over 30 countries. It was purpose was to seek a solution to the problem of Jews fleeing or seeking to flee from Nazi Germany. The Australian representative for minister of the government, Sir Thomas White of the day, regretted that we could not do more to help because we had no racism in Australia and had no intention of importing it. The post-war record has given the lie to that statement but there are still people whose views are clearly influenced by race in a divisive and destructive fashion. We have not all fully accepted that we are part of one world and being one world does not just simply mean financial deregulation, freedom of trade and implies in all respects policies that are free of racism of discrimination on any grounds whatsoever. The debates that continue in our federal parliament do us significant damage and to mean Australians and in my view did not represent by any means the best of Australia which would support quite different policies if only they were given the lead. These may be sobering thoughts but they are ones that Australians need to consider if we wish as we should to play a constructive role in world affairs. A role open to us almost beckoning us with other middle ranking powers. We should not however think that these challenges are unique to Australia or that they cannot be overcome. We've done good things in the post-war years. We need to build on those and put aside the negatives of the last 20 years. With other middle ranking powers we could do much to create a better world. Thank you. Thank you very much Malcolm Fraser for a fascinating perspective on some of the challenges that Australia faces in the region at the moment. At this stage I must admit I have something of a public confession to make because the last time I listened to a speech given by Malcolm Fraser was in the election campaign of 1983 and he spoke in Martin Place in Sydney and I and some friends wandered over from Sydney University and I must confess Malcolm we heckled and we heckled so vigorously that we were eventually escorted away by some of New South Wales best police force. So many things have changed since then but one thing perhaps the most important my manners have certainly improved. So we're going to serve the main meal very shortly and then we'll have a formal vote of thanks from Dr Nick Farrelly and also some closing words from Sam Wall but enjoy your main courses until then. Ladies and gentlemen we're now going to move into our next phase of the evening which is a vote of thanks to our distinguished speaker. The vote of thanks has been presented by Dr Nick Farrelly. Hang on a couple of brief words of introduction. One of the pleasures one of the pleasures of academic life is when a student becomes a colleague and a friend. Nick Farrelly first came to me more than a decade ago he was a gormless youth he more so than he is now even and he was looking for somewhere to go in Thailand for a placement on a course and I helped line him up to go to a place in northern Thailand. Since then we've worked together we've become great colleagues great friends and he's become a tremendous asset for this college so Nick Farrelly who's going to move a vote of thanks to our guest of honour. Thank you very much. Gormless youth you be the judge thanks Andrew wonderful to be here. The right honourable Malcolm Fraser distinguished guests Asia Pacific Week delegates ladies and gentlemen it is my extreme pleasure to offer this vote of thanks to our former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. In my area of research which is Southeast Asian politics we spend a great deal of our time and energy trying to understand layers of auspiciousness. Every time there is a coup in Thailand for example we all scramble for our numerological charts and our other fortune telling paraphernalia to try and work out exactly what just happened. The 2006 coup timed to perfection by drawing on a mind boggling array of interlocking auspicious elements was a case in point. Some of you may also recall a recent campaign to send underwear to Burma's military dictators in the hope that the inauspicious tidings carried in the mail would lead to regime collapse. So far that particular intervention has failed. With these Southeast Asian examples as a start I know our former Prime Minister won't mind if I reflect on the layers of auspiciousness that flow from this evening's speech. First I think it is especially auspicious that we are all enjoying this grand meal tonight at Australia's old parliament house now our Museum of Australian Democracy. What a location for the final hours of Asia Pacific Week 2011. That we have just heard from Malcolm Fraser a great and liberal figure in Australian political history ensures that our auspicious surroundings are matched by an auspicious guest of honour. Our international visitors do by now appreciate that it is from right here in this very building in the corridors officers and parliamentary chambers around here that Malcolm Fraser governed our country. His achievements in that respect are often I'm sad to admit overlooked by Australians of my generation. For years I should point out a father of the multicultural and tolerant society that we all enjoy. Malcolm Fraser has for decades fought the specter of racism in all its forms and for that he deserves our special appreciation. He took Australia in part from a predominantly white Australia and made it something much much more. Malcolm Fraser's speech tonight was auspicious for another reason we are too rarely prompted to recall our creative responsibilities. The former Prime Minister reminded us that Australians must avoid becoming beholden to the whims or ambitions of our great and powerful friends. He argued that we are in fact well positioned to work in concert with friends big and small near and far to build a better world. His sentiments I know are shared by many in this room who also hope that creative diplomacy built on compassion and fair-mindedness can enjoy a central place in international affairs. Whether we labor in academia, politics, the public service, the arts or the media we can all make contributions that bear out the deep truths in Malcolm Fraser's reflections. It is those more fundamental truths beyond the details of today's political, economic and strategic realities that are most auspicious of all. Those of us here tonight study and work on so many different topics in a range of languages and with a simply daunting portfolio of intermediate goals in mind. But the deeper truths and thus I think the more auspicious goals are almost always the same. Shared humanity is the auspicious message that Malcolm Fraser has left with us tonight. It is the spirit of this message that I'd suggest has also infused Asia Pacific Week 2011. I know from the parts of the program that I was privileged to share that there is a tremendous appetite for better understanding the Asia Pacific region in all its diversity and with all its challenges and opportunities. I'd humbly suggest that seeking to improve our collective knowledge of this region is a particularly auspicious thing to do. To be here tonight, you, the Asia Pacific Week delegates, have come from pretty much every corner of the world. So whether you've travelled from Cambridge or Canberra, Canberra's a suburb of Canberra, or from Darwin or Dixon, Dixon's another Canberra suburb. I know there's a Dixon contingent here or whether you've come from Calcutta or Kaleen, big shout out to Kaleen. I hope you have all enjoyed the opportunities of Asia Pacific Week and of this gala dinner. It is an opportunity to share a relaxed evening with so many by now good friends. This is also the most auspicious moment to pay tribute to Sam Wall, Elizabeth Reside, Alice McAvoy, Rommel Vagis, Millie Green, Ippie Mondal, Kyle Barnes, Samantha Tung, Henry Chang, Phoebe Malcolm, Belinda Miller and Brodie Warren. Let's give them all a round of applause. I'm sure you would all agree that the Student Organising Committee for Asia Pacific Week 2011 have done a simply outstanding job. It is a huge credit to them as a young discipline team that they could pull all of this together. You have, I think, the thanks of our entire college and congratulations to you all. Finally, I should note that in some of the Southeast Asian societies that I study, simply saying thank you is considered auspicious enough. So allow me once again to thank our guest of honour, Malcolm Fraser, for reminding us of our shared humanity and the responsibilities that should follow. Distinguished guests, Asia Pacific Week delegates, ladies and gentlemen, an auspicious toast I think is in order. Firstly, can we toast our guest of honour to Malcolm Fraser? Thank you very much to Malcolm Fraser and I think to wrap up my reflections on auspiciousness and auspicious toast to Asia Pacific Week 2011. To Asia Pacific Week. Thank you very much Nick. Talking of gormous youths, when I was at Sydney University there was someone we liked heckling even more than Malcolm. President of the Student Representative Council, big ears, a bit of a boxer, not long out of the seminary, are we getting the hint? Now our heckling obviously had no effect on him because he's now the leader of the opposition and looking increasingly likely to be Australia's next Prime Minister unless things turn around pretty quickly, Tony Abbott. So this is what this is what can happen to gormous youths who sort of excel at university and so who knows what might happen to Sam Wall. He wears a suit like a liberal and he's got the the drive and ambition and to take him to the very top so Sam now he's done as Nick said a simply tremendous job on Asia Pacific Week is now going to say a few final closing words. Thank you very much. Firstly I'd ask Andrew to never again make that comparison. The right honourable Malcolm Fraser, distinguished guests, Asia Pacific Week delegates, Asia Pacific Week organizing committee, ladies and gentlemen, perhaps the only inauspicious thing about tonight is my misfortune to have to speak after Nick but I've got this extremely humbling task of attempting to give a vote of thanks which I'm sure Nick would call something auspicious in its own right and after the week we've had together filled with engaging panels sessions and even a TV show this afternoon all that remains is to say thank you and to consider what's next. I've learned a lot over the past eight months since we first began to organize this conference but it was actually the kind Andrew who taught me that a long vote of thanks in any long vote of thanks you'll forget at least one person and you'll always use your audience. So I simply have three votes of thanks to give. First to the College of Asia and the Pacific in total. In a week of activities showcasing the ANU's expertise on the Asia Pacific region perhaps the biggest compliment and the biggest advertisement for the Australian National University is the fact that they were willing to give a bunch of fairly underqualified undergraduates an opportunity to organize a conference on this scale and attach the college name and the university name to you know activities that weren't formed a number of months ago. To the drastically underpaid Peter Drysdale. The week would have been implausible without your support from the very beginning. To Professor Andrew McIntyre, Dr Andrew Walker and Dr Nick Farrelly our ever available academic support team from within the college to all the session organizers and speakers the entire tech and AV support team Bruce Bergman and Burton and Garen for accommodation the co-op for hoodies and Murray's Buses. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone here. The second thank you goes to the delegates who make up the large majority of the people in this room and this thank you goes to you because it's what it's all about. Many people have asked me in particular throughout this week why on earth did you take this on and it's for this for the opportunity to spend this time unless someone is willing to do the work and you know get these things off the ground something like this can't happen and having spoken to my team throughout the week many of them will be happy to do it all again also they say now for these kinds of opportunities so to the delegates thank you. Finally I'd like to thank my team Nick alluded to it before but what he didn't say was these guys have worked between three to in one horrible week 60 hours each to get this off the ground and I think that speaks for themselves while attending university and any other number of commitments while working I think the the toast has been done but if you could all please join me in one final round of applause. So tonight as it all comes to it to an end I'd like to remind you of what we said at the beginning we posed you three aims of which only one will remain relevant after the conclusion of proceedings tonight and that was to foster personal professional and academic linkages with one another throughout the week you could very easily go home tonight and never speak to anyone else in the room again each of you have separate and having read your CVs very interesting lives but tonight we the organizing team pose a challenge to you make the friendships meet up use Facebook whatever you want to do if you take whatever you take away from this conference is entirely up to you perhaps if you can walk away with just a few good friendships you can contribute as mr Fraser said to shaping a better world this century thank you. On consulting my program thank you very much Sam I think we're done with the speeches the next event on the agenda is deserved served so thank you all very much now it's time just to completely relax let's take Sam on his word I think the really important thing certainly in my experience of conferences and seminars whatever you get out of the content the best thing you get out of these sorts of events is the contacts so here's a chance to reinforce some of those contacts and make sure you keep them up in the coming coming months and years thank you all very much