 Well, thank you so much Violet. I think you've really set the scene. We're here in the Cambry Centre and Cambry means meeting place and what a wonderful opportunity for scholars and alumni to meet to make new connections and to learn from each other. So just before we start I'd like to warmly welcome our special guests. We're joined by Christine Clarke, Australia's Ambassador for Women and Girls. By Catherine Campbell, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Rod Hilton, First Assistant Secretary of DFAT's Development Policy Division and also a number of other special guests that you'll meet during the program. I would also like to warmly welcome you, the 400 NCP National Summit Delegates. We have in the room 150 New Colombo Plan alumni and around 250 New Colombo Plan scholars, young people who have yet to go out into the region and experience the adventure and the journey that is the New Colombo Plan. There's a few admin notes that I'd just like to get through before we get into the exciting stuff. So in line with ANU's COVID safe policies, we do ask that you please keep your masks on unless you're eating or drinking and if you happen to need a mask during the day please ask our team. The New Colombo Plan team are wearing sort of blue shirts with the New Colombo Plan logo on them or back outside into the atrium at the registration desk. You'll be able to get a mask should you need one. Also please follow all the COVID safe practices that I know you're all used to using the hand sanitizer regularly and if you do feel unwell please remove yourself from the group. The exits from this auditorium are pretty clearly marked. Should we need to evacuate please follow the team, follow the wardens. There's an exit down here as you can see to your left at the bottom and if you're up the top it's up there on your right. So I think we should just kick off and get started with our first speaker. Our first speaker today is Mr. Rod Hilton. Rod is the First Assistant Secretary of DFAT's Development Policy Division. He has previously served overseas in New Delhi and Port Moresby and in Canberra has held a range of positions. He's also served on boards of the Green Climate Fund and the Global Green Growth Institute and Mr. Hilton is an alumnus of this very school here ANU. So without further ado I welcome Rod Hilton. Thank you Shona and a very special thank you to Arnie Violet for that wonderful welcome to country. I too would also like to begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people, traditional custodians of the land on which we gather today and pay my respects to their elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here today. Welcome to the New Colombo Plan National Summit. It's wonderful to have so many of our NCP community here with us here in Canberra today. My name is Rod Hilton. I'm the First Assistant Secretary for DFAT's Development Policy Division which includes the New Colombo Plan Secretariat. The theme for today's summit is NCP to 2030 reconnecting in the region. Topics will cover climate change, disaster risk and preparedness, Australia's relationship with the Pacific, the global economy and more. Sessions will delve into advocacy, personal identity, ways of doing business and how as alumni you can keep these connections alive. Throughout we're keen to explore with you what the future of Australia's people-to-people connections with the Indo-Pacific will look like today, tomorrow, out to 2030 and beyond. We're so pleased that the bulk of today's sessions were conceived and will be driven by NCP alumni. It's a great testament to their belief in the importance of the program and their desire to give back. It is now my pleasure to introduce you to our keynote Catherine Campbell, Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Secretary has held many leadership roles across the Australian public service having joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as our Secretary in July last year. Prior to that she was Secretary of the Department of Social Services and before that Secretary of the Department of Human Services. The Secretary has also had a distinguished career in the Army Reserves rising to the rank of Major General. She was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 2010 for her service as commanding officer of the Sydney University Regiment of the Army Reserves. In 2019 she was appointed as an officer of the Order of Australia for her services to public administration and the Australian Army Reserve. This year, 2022, she was awarded a bar to her CSC for outstanding achievement as a commander of Second Division. For the STEM crowd participating today it would be remiss if I didn't also point to the Secretary's academic pedigree. Secretary Campbell holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Applied Mathematics, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Information Science. She's also a Fellow of Certified Practicing Accountants Australia. At DFAT, we summarise that by calling her the Human Calculator. For any of us that need to brief on topics including numbers, we definitely know we need to be on our toes. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Secretary Campbell up on stage. Thanks very much, Rod, and I do like numbers to add up. I don't think it's unreasonable. Can I start by thanking Aunty Violet for that wonderful welcome to country? As you can see, Aunty Violet is incredibly committed to her community and active reconciliation. Every time I hear her speak she has researched what the audience is doing and she has commentary on what are the current events. For Foreign Affairs it is Ukraine and it is Solomon Islands today. And, Aunty Violet, we love you for your work, for your commitment to us, and more importantly, your commitment to your community and that active reconciliation, and we look forward to working with you again in the future. I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners on the land in which we meet today, the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. And I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from everywhere who are here today. Australia's approach to international diplomacy is becoming ever more shaped by Indigenous cultures and people. At DFAT our Indigenous diplomacy agenda guides our work to ensure Indigenous Australians have a central place within our overseas engagement. I've just come back from Dubai where I saw Expo and saw the wonderful interpretation to ensure that the people of the world know about our important Indigenous culture. I'm very pleased that the NCP is taking strong steps in this direction with NCP Indigenous Fellows and Indigenous alumni ambassadors helping to promote the value of Indo-Pacific study and work placements to all communities. And I'm sure you're looking forward to this afternoon's plenary session, Learning from Indigenous Engagement, that will explore how we can continue to draw on the wealth of knowledge and practices of engagement led by our First Nations Australians. As you probably know, unless you haven't been watching any media, the Prime Minister has announced that there will be an election on the 21st of May. And so the caretaker period has now commenced. And so accordingly I will limit my comments today to factual issues and matters of administration of government policy that has been announced already. I'd like to welcome everybody who is here today, the nearly 300 participants of the New Colombo Plan program, alumni and scholars for 21 and 22. I'd like to also acknowledge the diplomatic corps who are here today, heads of mission, your excellencies and esteemed members and senior figures from across our business landscape, academia and some of Australia's key foreign policy think tanks. Like almost every part of Australia's interactions with the world, the NCP has of course been heavily impacted by the pandemic. The government in response to the pandemic closed Australia's international borders just over two years ago and it was inevitable that the program would be changed and we would see an alteration of what we were doing. For the 79 NCP participants that were already studying or embedded with business in the region in March 2020, COVID meant an abrupt return to Australia. For those of you who were preparing to start your NCP journey, the pandemic forced a suspension of your plans. As dramatic as those steps were, COVID didn't bring the New Colombo Plan to a complete halt, as everybody here today knows. Rather, we quickly adapted our program to ensure that we could continue to deliver. We did this by connecting with the region virtually and through online professional development and well-being seminars including our NCP momentum series. Over three and a half thousand people, including NCP, community and senior business and academic leaders have taken part in these virtual sessions. Today I'd like to extend DFAT's thanks to those who gave their valuable time through that process, including many of you who are here today. I'd especially like to thank NCP alumni who are giving back to the program through activities like these, supporting those who are coming after you and helping to make the networks gain through the NCP self-sustaining. We have an amazing group of alumni that we've generated in the last eight years. Our alumni are working in business, industry, government, state, territory and Commonwealth, international organisations across the region, think tanks and research institutions, establishing their own social enterprises and connecting with community groups at all levels. I'm going to call out some great examples. Like our 2016 Thailand scholar, Thomas de Jose here with us today, the founder of Maisie Consultants, an Australian social enterprise working to provide water, sanitation and hygiene access for vulnerable communities across the Indo-Pacific. Also from 2016 with us today is Bronwyn Mercer who studied in Singapore, who is now co-lead of the Sydney Chapter of the Australian Women in Security Network. Mentoring Australia's emerging cyber security talent. NCP alumni are truly an impressive representation of Australia and that's why this program is so important. One of the great values of the NCP is the diversity of our scholars and alumni and unique perspectives they bring. From the 2022 Scholar cohort, we have 21 scholars who are the first in their family to attend university, 12 scholars who identify as living with a disability and 36 who speak a language other than English at home. We also value the diversity in what our scholars and mobility students choose to study and I have to do a call out for the STEM subjects there as you can see from my background but it's great to see people from creative arts, management, commerce, engineering and technology. It is important that we have what I call diverse thinking as well as those other diversity categories, people who approach a problem from different perspectives. During COVID we continue to run our selection processes and now have a pipeline of scholars ready to go. Many of you are here today in this group. The good news is that the international borders are opening again with progress in how we manage the spread of COVID and with the impressive uptake of vaccines in Australia we're able to get back to business this year. I know I travel in the region and I'm constantly keeping track of what's open with our quarantine and how we can get to really important partners in our region. This year we're expecting more than 90 scholars to depart Australia to one of our 40 host locations. It's a good thing and it's really important that we get back out there and ensure those people-to-people links are sustained. As much as the NCP offers profound experience and insights in those of you in the program it has broader benefits as well, benefits that very much serve Australia's national interest. First of all the NCP supports a new generation of Australian leaders to better understand our neighbours, learn a language and build connections that will last a lifetime. With those tools you will help make Australia better into the future as well as understand the region in which we live. Second the NCP promotes a richer understanding of Australia so while you're out there we want you to tell everybody about Australia. When you interact with communities in your host countries you share our way of life, our way of doing business, our values and our worldview. During your time as an NCP scholar in the Indo-Pacific you are representing Australia and I know that each and every one of you are looking forward to doing that. These endeavours will never be more important. The world is, there's a lot happening in the world as Aunty Violet explained to you, Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine has reinforced that fact. Surging oil prices are weighing on the economic recovery of many countries in our region after COVID and the ripple effects are causing concern with food security. As NCP recipients you will bring back valuable insights about how our neighbours see global issues from climate change through to international security and major economic challenges. This enriches our whole of nation engagement with the Indo-Pacific now and in the years ahead. So building understanding and connections across our region is very much in Australia's national interest and your involvement is an important part of that. I know from my own experience of leadership roles across economic, social and national security functions of the government the leadership in all sectors is only enhanced by having a deep understanding and connection to our region. So I'm very glad at this point in 2022 that the NCP is shifting back into gear again and with some of our scholars already back in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Fiji. To those of you who are looking forward to taking part in the NCP I'd like to thank you for all the hard work you've put into getting to this point and much of this hard work I'm sure will be very rewarding. To those of you in business and academia who have strongly supported the NCP and increased its value through internships I'd like to thank you for your contribution now and into the future. Government can set the direction, provide baseline support and so on but the dynamicism of our engagement is driven by the ideas and commitment we find most often in the sorts of sectors that business and community represent. So thank you for your involvement and we look forward to it continuing. And of course thank you to our host locations represented here today by members of the diplomatic corps. We know that the best way to engage is people to people links and that's why we are running this program. Without your support and the welcome of the people across the Indo-Pacific the NCP would not be possible. With that I'd like to congratulate everyone here today and wish you all the best for the future, for the NCP and your experience that lie ahead and importantly you as representatives of Australia. This is a rich and a rich country who wants to engage with its neighbours, who wants to be part of the Indo-Pacific and you will be our ambassadors out there. So thank you.