 Australia places gender equality very high up in our list of priorities in the multilateral system and of course the UPU is no exception there. So we are very pleased to have introduced proposals on gender equality at the ABBA Jam meeting which were accepted and we're very much committed to continue to work with the UPU on gender equality within the organisation and within the postal sector. So I think you know it's fair to say the UPU is on a good track in terms of improving its gender equality. It's really important not just to have gender equality within the organisation but also within senior roles so I mean I think that's something that's definitely a focus. I understand the Director-General is very committed to the objective of gender equality and you know has committed to a number of things including the establishment of a gender equality policy for the organisation and also appointed a gender diversity champion. So that's a really good start and there are of course other things that are in train that he's also committed to like ensuring UPU documents are in gender neutral language which I think is really important and we often see in multilateral organisations particularly where their rules of procedure and you know establishment documents were drafted many years ago that they do tend to have sexist language in them so I think the commitment to ensuring that's not the case for the UPU is really great I think. Australia is committed to continue working with the UPU on gender issues. We hosted a breakfast at the last council meeting which was really well attended had about 150 people there and you know we're really happy that we're able to contribute in that way. Well I think across all Australian government operations there's a focus on improving gender equality and within the Department of Communications which oversees the postal service there are you know a majority of senior executive roles are filled by women. Within Australia Post itself it's got a real commitment to increasing gender diversity in the organisation including in senior roles it has had a female chief executive in the past but also getting women into roles that are traditionally dominated by men so there's a lot of work going on in that space to improve improve the ability of women to take on those roles and there are things like mentoring and flexibility and those sorts of things that also make the career path for women more accessible. More broadly beyond the actual organisation I mean I think it's clear that connectivity is a essential kind of characteristic of our modern society and by enabling women to have access to services to products to run their businesses using the postal service from home those are all really important areas where postal services can play a very important role. Sure well firstly let me say that the policy of ensuring every postal service is digitally connected by 2030 is a really laudable one and you know it really is an important element of bridging the digital divide that is incredibly disadvantageous to people living in countries where that hasn't happened yet. In Australia I mean the post office that you go into today even if you go into it you don't often have to go into it but if you do it is completely different to the post offices that were around when I was a child so you know you can perform a whole lot of different functions there from getting your passport to paying your bills to you know getting your online purchases delivered there those sorts of things and I think you know the postal service is a really important enabler for the sort of economy that we have now and it's important that we continue to diversify the postal service and to improve you know its own capability in that regard I think Australia Post has invested in technology in a big way both in sort of post box services in fleet services and also around the whole sort of e-commerce industry so that's really important as well. Australia is really delighted to have signed the recent declaration with the UPU and with the Asia Pacific Postal Union we've launched a Pacific Postal Development Program which is focused on really improving the infrastructure the services the capability the training of postal services within the Pacific and we are really excited about announcing a number of projects under that initiative in early 2023 but it's great to have the UPU engage with us as part of that initiative I think you'll bring invaluable insights and expertise to that process.