 Today in the Our Ambassador series we're talking to Australia's High Commission to Sri Lanka, Robin Moody. Thanks very much Robin for speaking to us. Thanks very much, it's a pleasure to be here. So to start, how would you describe the bilateral relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka? Sure, well the relationship between Australia and Sri Lanka is, we like to say, the sum of many parts. We've been present in Sri Lanka since just after independence in 1948 and so we've got a long and enduring relationship which was based first and foremost on our people-to-people links. We were a founding member of the Colombo Plan which was established in the 1950s and what that's meant is that thousands of Sri Lankan students have studied in Australia over the decades and that has created a very strong bedrock for our relationship. It gives us a depth of understanding I think which perhaps we don't have with other countries. There's a very large Sri Lankan Australian community here in Australia, around about 15,000 and that means that we have this ongoing connection. It's very rare for me to go to any function or event without someone saying, oh Australia, I have an uncle, sister, aunt, daughter, son who lives there and then we go on to talk about that connection. So we have an instant rapport and I think a shared understanding. Sitting on top of that sort of very solid basis of relationship is a wide range of interests which we pursue for Australia. We have a solid trade and investment relationship which we're hoping will grow over the years. We have an active dialogue on a number of political issues and of course we're at the forefront of countries encouraging Sri Lanka to address issues of reconciliation and accountability in the post-conflict era and then of course there is the overarching issue of people smuggling which I might talk about later. So in that sense we have a very diverse political and economic relationship with Sri Lanka. We're also a major aid contributor and again I might talk about that a bit later on but that's given us a connection which perhaps many other countries don't have. So it's a very wide relationship and I think we have a lot always to talk about and a very strong understanding and of course there's shared membership of the Commonwealth and cricket which means that at any given function when I'm not talking about people's family connections with Sri Lanka we can talk about the cricket. So it's a good relationship. So what then are the main responsibilities of the High Commission in Colombo? Well I've already described the various elements of the relationship and of course we pursue all of those elements on a daily basis in various ways by maintaining our ties and connections with people across government and in the community in Sri Lanka but to drill down a bit further. Like all of Australia's overseas missions we have consular responsibility for Australians travelling abroad and that includes not just tourists but for Sri Lanka with its big community here, those people who are going back to visit family and friends or to pursue business interests in Sri Lanka. So Sri Lankan born Australians are also part of our consular responsibility. We also have a very large visa operation run out of the High Commission because of the numbers of people who wish to migrate to Australia or have family reunion visits or simply to visit. So DIAC, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship has a big presence there and we have a large team of people operating that. We also have a number of agencies who help to pursue our people smuggling interests. So we have AFP, we have Customs and Border Protection, we also have Australia and AusAid who are pursuing their own programs. So it's a very broad range of responsibilities. It's also our responsibility of course to maintain a positive profile for Australia and to make sure that our partners and friends in Sri Lanka understand who we are, where we're coming from, what we're like and so we have a large public diplomacy program which we run and we bring out a number of different events every year. We've just run two very interesting indigenous based events. One was the message stick art exhibition which went down very well with our Sri Lankan audience. We showed brand new day which is of course a very vibrant and humorous look at Australian culture and we found Sri Lankan audiences responded to that. We share a sense of humor I think and we also have just had Albert David who's a former member of Bangara who came and put on a series of workshops with Sri Lankan dance schools and then gave it performance and all of this I think it helps to show Australia is who we are and shows our differences and our distinction from other partners and we find that we have a very good response to that. So it's all part of building a positive profile of Australia and then of course we have to run a large and complex administration look after our security and our welfare of our staff and you know the budget and administration all of these things come into the daily running of the High Commission. You mentioned people smuggling earlier which of course is a key issue for Australia and Sri Lanka has been one of the countries from which people have been coming to Australia. What are we doing to cooperate with Sri Lanka to combat the people smuggling trade? We've got a very strong cooperative relationship with Sri Lanka on this issue because it's a shared challenge for both of our countries and the cooperation spans a very wide range of operational capacity building activities including intelligence sharing, naval cooperation, legal cooperation and capacity building, law enforcement and also trying to reduce the incentives for people smuggling ventures. We also run a comprehensive communications campaign which is intended to inform people in Sri Lanka about the risks and dangers of people smuggling and basically to stop them being hoodwinked by what are essentially you know criminal activities in the country. And this has included radio and television and also cinema advertising and we've also had something of a road show which has gone out into key people smuggling hotspots to tell people at the grass roots level what it's all about and why they shouldn't believe what people are telling them about what might await them if they get on a boat and come to Australia. The key message that people need to understand in Sri Lanka is that by joining a people smuggling venture you risk your life, you risk your money, you're probably going to lose it and that if you don't engage our protection obligations here in Australia we will send people back and I think people do not really understand that and it's a message we need to continuously keep pushing out. We've certainly been working on it in the last year. So can you tell us a little bit more about the aid program? Australia of course has been a major donor to Sri Lanka in the post-war period. What is our commitment there and how is it helping people on the ground? Well as I said earlier Australia has been a development partner for Sri Lanka for a very long time from the time of the Colombo plan in the 1950s and so we've been there as a consistent supporter of their growth and development for many years. In the post-conflict era we have very much focused our support on the immediate humanitarian needs of the country and since the conflict ended we've contributed around about $144 million worth of development assistance. In the immediate post-conflict environment we were focused on very strong needs such as demining and Australian assistance has supported the clearance of around about 74 square kilometres of land from mines. That work is ongoing but it's tapering off and the situation there is improving dramatically. We were also very supportive of resettlement of families who had been displaced during the conflict and we've supported them in very practical ways reconstructing houses, reconstructing schools, providing livelihood support, things like farming equipment and tools and seeds. We've also strongly supported fishing communities which were badly affected by the conflict and I recently opened a new fisheries harbour in the north of the country which is basically giving the fishermen more direct access to the shore so they can come in close to the shoreline and unload their catch in much more stable circumstances than was the case in the past and all of this helps people get back on their feet and helps the future of the country's economic growth. As things have improved and the country is developing very fast and recovery has been quite rapid we're moving into longer term sustainable activities so in the future we'll be supporting the education sector in Sri Lanka infrastructure development and large scale projects which will take the country through into the future. One of the critical parts of our aid delivery has been supporting the more vulnerable members of the Sri Lankan community and among these is the the the large number of female headed households, households which were directly affected by the conflict and these women obviously are more vulnerable than other parts of the community and so we very much supported empowering them through livelihood support providing the basic needs to to have a trade or have a job and support their families and all of that's a very important part of our program. So it's a very diverse program and we're very proud to be one of the major bilateral donors in Sri Lanka. It seems at the moment when you talk to people you hear a lot of Australians are going to Sri Lanka on holidays the tourism industry there seems to be growing is it a safe place for Australians to visit and what should they be aware of if they do go there? To reduce the the level of our travel advice for the north of the country so that it's consistent with the rest of the country so currently we have a travel advisory of exercise a high degree of caution and of course that means taking all the usual precautions about checking for security situations staying away from large public gatherings and demonstrations and being aware of where you're traveling but generally the the environment is very stable and people are traveling more and more in fact we had around 51,000 Australians visiting Sri Lanka last year which is up from less than 20,000 just a few years ago so the numbers are climbing and Lonely Planet designated Sri Lanka as its top tourist destination for 2013 so there's plenty of reasons to go it's a beautiful and diverse country there's a lot you can do in quite a small space Sri Lanka is around about the area of Tasmania and it has the population of more than Australia around about the same as Australia in the area so it's vibrant it's diverse very rich in culture when you're traveling obviously you need to pay attention to the usual precautions your safety and security there are incidents of violent crime and those sorts of things do happen we've detailed all of this in our travel advisory which I would encourage people to read things like mosquito-borne diseases need to be paid attention to you need to take appropriate precautions and you need to obviously know where you're going and be contactable at all times other things that people need to think about when traveling in Sri Lanka are there are a range of wonderful activities you can do white water rafting is coming along and kayaking and all climbing and various things that you can do adventure activities but you need to take the appropriate precautions and there are wonderful beaches around the edge of the island you can swim anywhere in it it really is quite beautiful but all of the seas around Sri Lanka are subject to strong rips and currents so you need to pay attention and even the most robust Australian intrepid swimmers need to think about those sorts of things because life-saving facilities are not as we would expect you know perhaps here in Australia so take precautions be sensible but enjoy this beautiful country and I think we would be encouraging people to to look at it as a tourist destination but we would also encourage you to obviously register with a smart traveller and read the travel advisory carefully before you come of course you're also accredited as Australia's high commissioner to the Maldives there's been a lot of political upheaval there in the past couple of years how does that affect your role as high commissioner well we've got a very strong interest in seeing the Maldives continue on its path to becoming a strong and functioning democracy it's a relatively young democracy and in the last 12 months there have been some political upheavals the the transfer of power last year introduced a certain amount of instability and uncertainty to the situation so we have had a strong interest in engaging directly with the Maldives to encourage them to follow a path which will reintroduce legitimacy and credibility to the administration and the most important step of course is holding elections in September this year we've been encouraging them through that direct dialogue but also through our membership of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group to make sure that those elections are held in a credible and stable environment we also have shared interests in a number of different issues internationally such as climate change and rising sea levels and over the years we've worked with the Maldives which is an active member of the international community to help them address those issues and we'll continue to do that in the future we also have an aid relationship with the Maldives we've provided annually around about 30 Australia Awards scholarships to young Maldivians and they're in areas which are really important to the future of the Maldives things like environmental studies, healthcare, governance and legal areas so we will continue to provide those sorts of numbers of scholarships in the future hours a day, seven days a week, you're also a mother with a couple of young children how do you manage to balance that commitment to being Australia's High Commissioner with your family life? Well yeah it's a challenge and I think any working mother would agree with that and any working mother in the 21st century would know that it's just a juggling act you have to be very disciplined about giving your all to your professional life as well as to your family life and I think all of us as working mothers in this century in any culture would know that you try and give your best to both sides of the equation and we have very high expectations so I think one of the key challenges is managing those expectations and accepting that I can do my best in all circumstances but sometimes it's not going to be quite what I would expect you know my my standards are very high as a High Commissioner some of those challenges are magnified because you are out a lot during the week I have functions many evenings of the week which means that the time I get to spend with my children is more limited than it would be in Australia and I really have to make sure that the time I do have with them is as valuable as it possibly can be and that involves a great amount of discipline in setting work aside and switching into mother mode being there for them a hundred percent and ignoring the winking light on my blackberry which can be a challenge it's a great opportunity I mean taking young children into a different culture and giving them a few years living in a different country is a wonderful opportunity for them and my two young boys are really enjoying Sri Lanka they're learning a lot and I think when we eventually come back they'll miss things like you know elephants monkeys temples and wonderful beaches it's also a great opportunity for them to experience that that diplomatic life and to see that a woman a mother can take on that role and do a good job as well as being there for them and so what I hope will come out of all of this is that they'll have a great role model for the future and that when they eventually meet people in the future and perhaps marry and have children of their own that their expectation will be that they'll be equal partners in the relationship and we'll be able to carry an equal load and and manage that role and of course I couldn't do any of this without a supportive spouse I have an extremely flexible and supportive husband who has been doing this job with me for the last 20 to 23 years and without his support and managing things on the home front and accepting that this is part of the life we live together I don't think I could do the role the way I do it so it's challenging but it's worth it and that was Robin Moody Australia's High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives