 So Matt we're on the sidelines of Australia 360 which is the Bell Schools focus on Australia in the world and one of the great questions I thought we got during the Q&A session just before was that Australia seems to be doing too much. We seem to be running around trying to focus on all sorts of regions in the world focusing on all sorts of issue areas. What did you make of that question do you think it's right? I think it's definitely right in as much as there's a strong case that can be made that Australia is overreaching and a whole number of areas of activity but the other way to view it is which other country is doing this successfully. You look at the foreign policy confusion really across the western world and do we actually have a model of what it looks like to be focused and to choose priorities? I mean are we focusing on specific issues that we wish to promote whether that be democracy or climate change or are we focusing on specific areas and what does it mean to actually focus on something? Is that a dedication of diplomatic resources? Well that's very easy conversation to have at once but where do we close to help us open somewhere else or are we actually talking something a little bit more broadly about actually our social engagement and our understanding from the public about what it means to be an Asian country or America's closest ally? What's your thoughts on this? Yeah I mean I think one of the issues is that I think everyone in Australia agrees that Asia is important to us and both sides of politics you know they recognize that they talk about Asia all the time Australia is in the Asia Pacific region in the Indo-Pacific region but we've also got this long baggage of history essentially where we identified as a European country and so we have huge diplomatic presence in Europe we have people who are great experts on that part of the world and then from time to time whether it's you know we get involved in the UN Security Council or elsewhere we suddenly get interested in a whole bunch of other issues and even regions like Africa Latin America which are much further afield so I get the sense that we've had this sort of mission creep if you like over time it may be time to start refocusing again on kind of what are those crystal clear areas of importance for Australia? Absolutely I think one other point that I would make is that whatever it is that Australia chooses it has to be sustained and credible it has to really come from an assessment of what it is that Australia can bring to that particular issue or area in terms of its capacity but also in terms of its ideas but then it also needs to be something that's engaged with over the long term which means there's going to have to be consensus between political parties but there's also going to have to be some degree of buying from politicians and ultimately from the electorate itself because whatever it is that Australia chooses sustainability is going to be at the heart of its ability to achieve success. Yeah absolutely and here look I would look at it almost like a Singapore as an example of success you know very small country really shouldn't have the sort of the weight that it does in the world but has been very very focused over time on what Singaporean interests and values were what it wanted to do and it prioritised particular relationships thought about what its comparative advantage was you know a hub a maritime hub a place where great powers might want to locate there the naval ships from time to time and it's prosecuted that pretty successfully and the really interesting thing there is confidence I think sometimes Australia's inability to choose belies a lack of confidence in actually it can have a contribution and it can bring something but a more sort of a certain understanding of where Australia is in the world what its priorities are and where it wants both itself and the world to go I think that would really help make a decision exactly I mean I think you know our inner side we are this lucky country we're in a great region we should be confident about where we go absolutely