 Hello, I'm Michael Fully Love, the Executive Director of the Lowy Institute. Welcome to the 2021 Owen Harry's Lecture. I'd like to start by acknowledging the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which the Institute stands, and pay my respects to their elders past and present. This year's Owen Harry's Lecture will be delivered by the Secretary General of the OECD, Matthias Corman. Owen Harry's passed away in June last year. He was one of the giants of the foreign policy world. In Australia, he was an academic and a trusted Prime Ministeral Advisor. He also spent nearly two decades on the international stage, first in Paris as Australia's Ambassador to UNESCO, and then in Washington DC as the founding editor of the National Interest. In the early days of the Lowy Institute, Owen took an interest in me and other young scholars. He always encouraged me to address big, central issues in my writing, rather than small, marginal ones. If you're going swimming, Owen often reminded me, swim in the deep waters, not the shallows. When I was appointed Executive Director of the Institute in 2012, I recommended to the Board that we establish an annual Owen Harry's Lecture on the practice of geopolitics. The Harry's Lecture has now been given by many important figures, including US Diplomat Kurt Campbell, who was an author of the Pivot to Asia, Steve Hadley, National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush, Ambassador Sharm Saran, the former Head of the Indian Foreign Ministry, Jean-Divide Levit, French Diplomat and Advisor to Three French Presidents, Jake Sullivan, who is now the National Security Advisor to President Joe Biden, and the renowned political theorist, Professor Francis Fukuyama. This year, for the first time, we have an Australian as our Harry's lecturer. Matthias Corman was born in Oipen in Belgium. At the age of 25, he moved to Australia. He served as an advisor to several politicians and worked in the private sector before he was elected to the Senate for Western Australia in 2007. Matthias was appointed Finance Minister in 2013 and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in 2017, serving in both roles until his retirement from Australian politics in 2020. In June this year, Matthias took office as the sixth Secretary-General of the OECD, the first Australian to hold this position. Matthias Corman is a very appropriate Harry's lecturer. Both Owen and Matthias served Australian governments in Canberra before moving to Paris to work in international organisations. Owen's life was concerned with the practice of geopolitics, which is now Matthias' life. I'm delighted, therefore, to now ask Matthias Corman to deliver the 2021 Owen-Harry's lecture. Matthias. Thank you very much, Michael, for that very warm introduction. Michael, distinguished guest. Thank you to the Lowy Institute for your invitation to deliver this year's Owen-Harry's lecture on levelling the playing field and agenda for growth, climate, and I rules by its international order. Owen Harris and Michael just touched on it very warmly. He was an intellectual giant, a prolific and insightful writer, diplomat and adviser who is credited as one of the architects of Australia's modern foreign policy and as founder and editor of the National Interest and in his numerous contributions to foreign policy debates, he challenged governments, policy makers, academics, and citizens to think critically about the future, which has observed us something which has still to be made. In this spirit, I think it is fair to say that Owen would have been among friends here at the OECD. Our members and partners come together to collaborate, to learn from each other and to exchange and develop best practices that empower them to thrive in an increasingly uncertain future. For the past 60 years, the OECD has unequivocally been a force for good in the world. And it has been a force for good in Australia, which this year celebrates its 50th year as a member. The OECD was set up as an organisation to facilitate cooperation among its like-minded members to achieve the highest sustainable economic growth. Our core purpose and our convention is the preservation of individual liberty and to increase economic and social well-being. We aim to help drive the further expansion of global trade. And across international organisations, we have a unique expertise in the proven working methodology, providing comparative data and policy analysis, promoting policy best practice and setting standards to facilitate greater cooperation and interoperability. Our members work together to defend and promote shared values and principles. A commitment to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, market-based economic principles, and our rules-based international trading system. We help our member countries and interested countries all around the world to deliver better policies for better lives, building on those values. Indeed, we engage with other international organisations and fora and with non-member countries, especially developing and emerging economies to broaden and to advance the beneficial impact of our policy values and principles. This was also envisaged in the OECD's convention, which recognises the importance of collaboration with and support for countries beyond the OECD membership. The issues and specific policy challenges, the world faces, necessarily evolve over time and the OECD continues to adapt in response. But our capacity to help find solutions and better wise forward together reminds. Because our shared values and principles have guided us through good and more challenging moments throughout our history, but they have stood the test of time. And they are now also underpinning the OECD's efforts to help the world rebuild after the COVID-19 crisis. Our best practice standards covering taxes, investment, corporate governance, anti-corruption and integrity, small and medium-sized enterprises, financing, state-owned enterprises, responsible business conduct, consumer policy, digitalisation, development finance, to name but a few are one of the major tools which are shared values are given meaning and promoted around the world. They provide the founding pillars of the rules-based international system and they help level the global playing field. And they chart the course to tackle major emerging challenges and advance key global priorities, such as quality infrastructure in developing countries. They support international exchange and I do support the sustainable expansion of global tried and investment. They formalise agreed best practices ensure coordination, shared responsibility and improve collective outcomes where multilateral action is required. They frame our cooperation with other organisations seeking to level the global playing field, including the World Tried Organization, with which we work closely on many issues central to rules by striding system from subsidies and resilient supply chains to excess capacity and digital tried. Crucially, very importantly, the OECD has also developed mechanisms to hold countries to account against our standards and to ensure that they follow through with timely implementation of their commitments. But it is not only our standards that matter when it comes to ensuring all countries by the rules, the five billion data points and supporting analysis that the OECD delivers every year on many issues, education, health, productivity, pensions, many others is shining the spotlight on areas where individual countries are leading by example. And where others can be challenged to do better. The OECD data and analysis provides example after example of policies that work and just as importantly, those that don't. The OECD's work then is an impetus for action and a guiding light for reform. Our work to measure government support in agriculture, fossil fuels, fisheries and industrial sectors is a case in point. This work holds up a mirror that shows governments and their citizens, the nature and style of support and what needs to be done about it. And the results of this work can be quite stark. We've shown that global support, global public support, that is government support to agriculture in 2019 to 2020 reached $720 billion US annually with all of the distortions that come with that. We've revealed the nature and style of government support in aluminum and semiconductors sectors. We've highlighted that support for below-market finance is prevalent in 13 key industrial sectors across the globe, including those affected by excess capacity. And we've confirmed the need to redouble our efforts on competitive neutrality by showing that firms with more than 25% government ownership receive more government support, distorting market outcomes, skewing private investment decisions and consequently reducing growth opportunities. This transparency is the critical first step to reform to make global trade and investment free and fairer. In the coming years, we must continue to protect, promote and advance the OECD's work as we confront the economic and social scars of the COVID-19 pandemic. This means focusing on both the immediate and the medium to long term priorities. Let me highlight five key areas. The first, we are working with member governments and stakeholders around the world to help optimize the strength and the quality of the recovery from COVID-19. Global economic growth has picked up this year and the outlook continues to improve. Though the recent emergence of a significant fourth wave across the parts of Europe shows that serious downside risks remain. Strong fiscal and monetary policy responses, the ongoing vaccination rollout, the gradual resumption of economic activities as restrictions are eased and the accelerating digital transformation of our economies have all helped with the OECD now projecting global GDP growth to reach 5.7 percent in 2021 and 4.5 percent in 2022. The economic outlook is also improving in the Asia Pacific, where we expect growth of 7.4 percent across ASEAN, China and India in 2021. And though with vaccination coverage, lagging in some areas that hampers growth prospects. Growth prospects are also hampered by restrictions and disruptions to tried and mobility. Such developments risk causing longer term scarring for workers and companies. Across the world, new outbreaks of the virus remain our biggest risk. We need to continue to pursue an all out effort to reach the entire world population with vaccines as quickly as possible. And it's great to see that after a somewhat slower start, against the backdrop of very low infection rates in Australia, Australia is now doing exceptionally well on this front. As a result of the massive ramping up of vaccination over the last few months, more than 84 percent of eligible Australians are now fully vaccinated, which is highly competitive at a global scale. But no country will be appropriately protected until every country is appropriately protected. In the meantime, policy support should remain flexible, adjusted to the evolving health and economic situation. Though the composition of that support must be better targeted to those in genuine need and towards future focused investment, particularly into our green and digital transitions and into infrastructure. Open markets, a strong competitive framework, a system which rewards the most productive and innovative business ideas and encourages investment in future growth and success will lead to quality job creation and the lifting of living standards. All OECD members, in fact, all export oriented trading nations, including and in particular Australia, have an interest in strengthening the rules by a multilateral trading system with the WTO at its centre. We also must redouble our efforts to promote equality of opportunities and to foster genuine social mobility, including by restoring and boosting opportunities for women and youth who are particularly severely impacted by the pandemic, those with low skills, those caring for children or the elderly and those who are sick. Second, we do need to continue to drive and promote global leadership on ambitious and effective action on climate change. While emissions across OECD member countries peaked in 2007, there is much more work to be done. Earlier this month, I was at COP26, where the need to accelerate global policy action to much climate commitments was obviously very stark. And it's great that more and more countries, including Australia, have committed to a net zero emissions target by 2050. However, ultimately, it will be real outcomes and not commitments that matter and to be truly effective in helping to reduce global emissions. Climate action needs to be globally coherent and better coordinated. But to better inform the necessary decisions along the way, we need better data on comparative cost, effectiveness and impact of different policy approaches. This is why the OECD established our new international programme for action on climate, which I committed to operationalising my first 100 days in office, which we have been able to achieve. IPAC is complementing the work of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change by helping participating countries track and assess their progress against commitments and improve their climate action plans to targeted policy advice and comparable indicators. Importantly, this is also why we have proposed to replicate the successful OECD G20 inclusive framework approach to help achieve our mission of global net zero emissions in a way that is globally effective and fair. Effective in that ambitious efforts in individual jurisdictions actually help reduce global emissions instead of simply shifting emissions to other parts of the world. And fair in that every country around the world carries an appropriate and proportionate share of the burden. The challenge is to ensure the level of ambition and effort in individual jurisdictions can be lifted to the level required while maintaining a global level playing field, avoiding counterproductive trite distortions and carbon leakage. An appropriately comprehensive multilateral process could help facilitate over time an appropriately ambitious multilaterally agreed internationally more coherent and globally better coordinated approach to the pricing of emissions. If OECD data and analysis of policy effectiveness has told us anything, it is that differing economic circumstances often call for different policy approaches. Our aim should therefore be to create an objectively comparable basis to assess and report on the equivalency of mitigation efforts using different policy levers to reduce emissions, taking into account both explicit and implicit carbon pricing efforts around the world. We need much better data tracking of the cost and outcomes achieved through various measures to help better inform judgments about a globally more coherent approach to climate action. Regular, transparent reporting of effort, cost and impact using different policy approaches from explicit to implicit carbon pricing will help inform better decisions. And over time, I believe an internationally more coherent approach. This is an approach which would complement, not substitute for other initiatives to address the risk of trite distortions and carbon leakage from a lifting of ambition in individual jurisdictions. I believe it can and should be pursued in parallel with other relevant measures that are designed to address the same negative spillover risks. It's also important to remember that securing the transition to net zero emissions is not a job for climate policies alone. We need a carefully sequenced and coordinated fiscal, financial and structural reform package with the whole spectrum of public policy kicking in the same direction. The third priority area relates to the digital transformation of our economies. We need to seize the opportunities of the digital transformation of our economies by better managing the risks, challenges and disruptions associated with it. But the pandemic has further accelerated what was already a rapid pace of digital transformation. For example, business surveys worldwide tell us that up to 70 percent of small and medium sized businesses have intensified their use of digital technologies due to the pandemic. And of course, there has been a massive ramp up in teleworking and indeed e-commerce. The OECD's latest broadband data shows that more than 21 million new fixed broadband connections were added in the year to end December 2020. The digital transformation brings immense benefits to economies and to societies, yet such benefits come inevitably with new and evolving and growing challenges. Today, large gaps remain across and within countries by region, by firm size, by gender and between many social economic groups. We must ensure appropriate and equitable access to digital infrastructure. We must invest in skills development and plan for the future of work to ensure that people, firms and places are not left behind that all have the best possible opportunity to participate and benefit from the digital transformation of our economies. We must also effectively address competition issues and advance work on cyber security, privacy, cross-border data, free flow with trust, tax policy implications, as well as setting values based standards, for example, on the use of artificial intelligence, ensuring it is human-centric. Related to this, but as a fourth point, we need to swiftly and effectively implement the recent historic agreement to make our international tax system fairer and work better in a digitalised and globalised world economy. The tax is one of the most high-profile recent examples of the OECD's efforts and impact to level the global plying field. 137 members of the OECD G20 inclusive framework on international tax, representing more than 90 per cent of global GDP, have agreed a landmark deal to, firstly, reallocate more than 125 billion dollars' worth of profits from around 100 of the world's largest and most profitable multinationals to the markets where they operate and generate profits. And secondly, established for the first time, a globally agreed minimum corporate tax right of 15 per cent, which will help generate about 150 billion US per year in additional revenues. These rules will ensure that large multinationals by a fair share of tax and update the international tax rules for the 21st century. Importantly, the agreement also paves the way for a pause and rollback of digital services taxes and other similar measures, which had been the source of tried tensions, counterproductive tried tensions. We now focus on implementation and on ensuring that all 137 countries and jurisdictions are ready to meet the ambitious deadlines we've set for ourselves to help bring these rules into effect from 2023 onwards. 20 members of the OECD G20 inclusive framework are from the Asia Pacific and the OECD's multilateral tax centres in China and in Korea are providing capacity building support to help officials across the region implement this two pillar agreement. Finally, we need to continue to disseminate and promote advanced OECD values principles and standards across the world, particularly across the Asia Pacific and Africa. The purpose of the OECD's global engagement is to facilitate policy dialogue and knowledge exchange and to contribute multilateral solutions to the global challenges of our time. At the OECD's Ministerial Council meeting last month, we took an important step forward to strengthen our global reach, relevance and impact through our new OECD global relations strategy. Our strategy will enhance our engagement with partner countries through our regional and country programs, as well as our key partnerships with five large emerging economies, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and South Africa. Complimenting this, we have deployed a new strategic framework to guide our cooperation with China guided by the OECD's core values, which we're building on to shape our engagement with other countries and regions. The OECD also serves as a trusted partner to the G20, G7 and IPEC. Through our close partnerships with this forum, the OECD is reforming the global economic agenda in areas requiring international cooperation. And not only by strengthening the global tax rules, which I mentioned earlier, but also by promoting the anti bribery convention addressing over capacity and market distorting practices and advancing global discussions on gender equality and women's empowerment, among other critical issues. Our engagement has also led to breakthroughs in the dissemination of OECD standards. For example, all G20 countries have signed on to the G20 artificial intelligence principles, which are drawn directly from the OECD. We're also leveraging the collective influence of the G20 to encourage emerging and developing countries to move closer to key instruments such as the anti bribery convention and the OECD codes of liberalization of capital movements. We're working closely with Indonesia, head of its 2022 G20 presidency and with Thailand as the 2022 IPEC host to support their respective agendas and bring Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific more broadly closer to the OECD. Michael, let me finish on the issue of OECD enlargement. In the pursuit of a more level global playing field, it's in the interest of OECD members to have more countries commit as fulsomely as possible to our OECD values, principles and standards. We continue to encourage and promote the adoption of our standards by non member countries. But OECD membership is ultimately the most direct and the most effective way for us to ensure the most comprehensive application of our shared values, principles and standards across a larger part of the world, which of course is critically important to help level the global playing field. Accession to the OECD has been positively transformative for those who have joined over the past decades and it has increased our global rage and impact to the benefit of our collective membership. As such, I believe that any market based democracy which shares our values is prepared to commit to our high standards and submit a genuine expression of interest to join the OECD should have the opportunity to make its case. The OECD is currently considering applications from six countries in alphabetical order, Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Croatia, Peru and Romania. To open accession discussions, the roadmap to potential membership and the ultimate decision on membership are all matters for OECD member countries to decide in council. However, over coming months, I hope to be able to facilitate a process that will get the technical assessment process of those applications underway. This will of course also then be the opportunity to provide advice to those applicant countries on where they need to further lift their standards and their performance in order to to be able to join our organization at the end of the process. Michael, distinguished guests, all of these priorities are crucial to level. The global playing field, we're covering a lot of ground. We've covered a lot of ground today and I could keep going. But now it's over to you. Let me close by returning to Owen's Saige observation. The future is something which is still to be made and how it is made and what it will become. Will depend on people like you here and throughout the world. You can count on the OECD's continued support as we strive to chart the course for a better future together. It has been my absolute honor and privilege to deliver today's Owen Harris lecture. Thank you again to the Lower Institute for this opportunity. Thank you. All right, Matias Corman, thank you for a very interesting Harry's lecture. You're right, you covered a lot of ground. I want to go over some of that ground in the questions, but also cover some different ground if I can. Let me start with a reflective question if I can. You had a very successful career in national politics and now you've moved into international politics. So I guess a lot in your life has changed. I'm sure the commute from your apartment to OECD headquarters is a lot simpler and quicker than your commute from Perth to Canberra, for example. But what are the similarities and differences that you reflect on between national and international politics? To what extent is the skill set of an Australian parliamentarian relevant to being the Secretary-General of the OECD? Well, firstly, yes, my commute to the office now is four minutes instead of four hours. That certainly that certainly helps. Look, I mean, you know, as a as a member of an executive government, you focus every day on making the best possible decisions to set your country up for the strongest best possible future. And, you know, the work that you do in national politics, while the work that I've done in national politics has been an incredibly useful preparation for the work I'm doing now. I mean, I'm now engaging with governments around the world, understanding very well some of the challenges that they're facing, understanding very well some of the constraints that I face and in the way they need to make their decisions. But I've got, I guess I've got the luxury now of being able to think more freely without having to be too directly concerned about the immediate political execution. I mean, I think I guess I can think more freely about what would be the ideal way forward and then engaging with member governments and respecting the fact that member governments, elected governments of the day have to make judgments on the, you know, realistic political timetable within which necessary and important reforms can be pursued. So look, it's I see it really as a continuum. I've, you know, in Australia, I've given him absolute best every single day. But, you know, obviously, you learn a lot by doing what you're doing. And it was an incredibly good preparation for what I'm doing now. There was a lot of politics, obviously, for you to be elected Secretary-General of the OECD. It was a contested election. It was a difficult election. You were not the favourite to win. You always had a reputation for being good on detail and pretty good at doing the numbers. But tell us about the experience of running for that kind of election, which is different from a national election, where you're can you're going to capitals and you're trying to make an argument to them. Tell us about, tell us about that experience. Well, look, you know, at the time, there were 37 member countries, 26 of them in Europe, 22 of which were European Union countries, 11 outside Europe. So when you're nominated by a non-European country, of course, I mean, if you just look objectively at the numbers of where the votes, so to speak, are, then I can understand why people take that view. But in the end, the way I experienced the process is that governments around the OECD were very focused on choosing on merit, the best person for the job. The truth is there were 10 high quality candidates who all had a very strong track record of performance in their respective fields. But, you know, in the end, I think that what I was able to bring to the table compared to others was, you know, one substantial domestic policy experience. But but also, I guess, the combined background and experiences of somebody who was born in Europe, grew up in Europe, educated in Europe, but then pursued a professional career, political career in Australia and across the Asia Pacific. And I think there was a view that, you know, in all of the circumstances that, you know, well, in the end, the decision was made that I best matched what members were looking for. And of course, I'm very grateful for that. All right, let me ask you about some of your priorities as Secretary General. You charted these big five themes, and I'll come back to some of those. We asked our audience to submit questions. And I have one question from Judy Schneider. Judy asks, what changes would you like to make to the OECD so that it can better performance mission? Now, you mentioned enlargement, so the membership of the OECD. But you're a rest of mind. You've been with the organization now for some months. Have you noticed some things about the OECD that you would like to change so that it can fulfill its mission of better policies for better lives? Well, you know, people often ask me the question, and, you know, what do you want to change at the OECD? And I've got to say, I mean, I think the OECD is an amazing organization, both in terms of the values and principles that we are custodian of, as well as its core working methodology has really stood the test of time. It's, you know, I'm a great believer in the power of freedom and free enterprise and open markets, you know, improving economic and social well-being on the basis of your open markets, market-based economic principles, but also facilitating social mobility and equal opportunity. These are all things that the OECD stands for and that we focus on. In terms of the methodology, we are a platform for cooperation. We have a fantastic convening power, bringing countries and stakeholders together to think through issues and find the best possible rise forward. And of course, we have this capacity where we provide this comparative data and policy analysis, best practice advice, and we set standards. Now, in terms of all of those fundamentals, I mean, I think that these are values and tools that we have to preserve. Now, the challenges and opportunities evolve over time. And right now, our challenges are how we can optimize the strength and the quality of the recovery post-Covid, how we can lead an effective response to climate change, how we can best manage the digital transformation, how we can ensure that we have well-functioning global markets in the context of pressures on our trading system before the pandemic, but still now and how we can engage better with even more areas of the world. Now, that means that in terms of your organizational lineup, you've got to ensure that you've got the skills and the capabilities that best enable you to meet those objectives and to deliver on those priorities. But I don't see a need for substantial whole change, whole side change. In fact, I mean, often, I think it's as important to be very mindful of all of the things that you need to preserve and not change as it is to think about the things that might need adjusting. I mean, to the extent that there is adjustment, I think it is evolutionary and at the margins, not sort of fundamental reshaping. All right, Matisse, you mentioned that more than 130 countries have signed up to a global minimum tax rate for big business. I'm sure there are armies of tax lawyers around the world that are licking their lips at the work that they have in front of them. How confident are you of implementing that policy? Well, look, I'm quite confident. I mean, the difficult part of this process was to get 137 countries to agree. I mean, and indeed, you know, we ended up with 137 countries representing more than 90% of world GDP. But also every G20 economy from the US across Europe, China, India, Russia, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and indeed every European Union country on board. So, and, you know, importantly, I mean, this is not about eliminating tax competition. There is, of course, an important spice for tax competition, but it puts multilaterally a great limitation on it. And, you know, we do believe it will make the global tax system fairer and work better, given that, you know, increasingly because of digitalization and globalization, too many of the largest, most successful companies were able to restructure their affairs such to apply very little or no tax on the profits that they generated in markets around the world. So there was a real inequity. There were some real distortions that had to be addressed and our deal addresses them. You see, I mean, if a particular country doesn't implement this deal, I mean, they're just harming themselves because other countries now have the right and the power to rise revenue of up to at least 15% on, you know, on profits on relevant profits generated. So, you know, if you don't give yourselves a tool to do that yourself out of your own country, you leave money on the table for other countries. So, I mean, I think I do believe it will be effective and I do believe that there is an interest, the serve interest for all countries around the world to implement this consistently. Matthias, let me ask you, the OECD is an organization of market-based democracies, largely like-minded countries. I know that the OECD itself probably doesn't have a direct role in meeting the challenge posed by a rising China, but you are mixing with officials and elected officials from like-minded countries all the time. Do you detect in those meetings a focusing of the mind on China? Do you detect a change in the way European countries are thinking about China, for example, from thinking of China really as a market opportunity to thinking of China in a more 3D way as a strategic actor and potentially a threat? Well, look, firstly, I mean, China is, of course, a significant market. It's now the world's second biggest economy. It's a biggest trading partner to a growing number of countries around the world. And so, of course, countries around the world have an interest in having the best possible relationship with China and they're also issues, whether it's climate change or international tax or a series of other issues that can only be effectively addressed by having all of the major and minor players around the table. And issue like climate change will only be able to be addressed effectively if the US, China, India and others are around the table. So there's a whole range of areas where it is very clear that we must find ways to effectively cooperate. Now, I mean, having said all of that, yes. I mean, the OECD is an organization that brings together market-based democracies, so that share a commitment to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, market-based economic principles and the political and economic system in China is different and inevitably there will be pressure points from time to time. Now the key is going to be to work through those in as positive and constructive a way as possible, but also to be very clear on where it is important to stand up for interest and to draw lines in the sand. And when I think that that's gonna require appropriate balancing for some time to come. I mean, ideally, we will end up with an appropriate sustainable accommodation in the context of an international rules-based order where we can continue to live together harmoniously, peacefully and pursuing the further expansion of global trade to mutual benefit. Matthias, you spoke a lot about climate change. Let me ask you about Australia if I can. As you mentioned, Australia has now committed to net zero emissions by 2050, but we still don't have a particularly ambitious 2030 target. Would you have liked to have seen countries like Australia take more ambitious targets to Glasgow? Well, look, the key is to move the world to global net zero by 2050, and we do need to have credible and realistic transitions there. But we also got to recognize that different parts of the world have different starting positions and face different circumstances and find themselves in a different economic context. And when I think it is very significant that Australia has committed to net zero emissions target by 2050 and there is a transition pathway now under why. I mean, Australia historically has a truck record of not just meeting, but exceeding its emissions reduction targets. It's made and exceeded its Kyoto targets. As I understand it, Australia is on truck to meet its 2030 emissions reduction targets, which on a per capita basis is one of the steepest targets around the world. But look, I mean, I think it's always important to be more ambitious, but it's even more important to be able to deliver the outcomes and the outcome that we need the world to deliver is global net zero by 2050. And in that sense, we've got to continue to make decisions that help reduce the global problem that don't just shift the problem from one jurisdiction to other jurisdictions around the world. And I mean, Australia compared to Europe is a comparatively small domestic economy. It's export oriented, a trading nation, but it's also an export exposed trading nation surrounded by comparatively lower cost, higher emissions intensity, manufacturing competitors. And these are all things that you need to consider when you make your policy decisions. As Europe is now, of course, considering the risk of the competitiveness implications and carbon leakage risks in the context of its discussion on the carbon board adjustment mechanism. I mean, we need Australia to reduce emissions in the wide that helps reduce emissions for the world. We don't need Australia to reduce emissions in the wide that shifts those emissions along with activity and jobs into the neighborhood where for the same level of output, emissions would be higher. I mean, the worst thing in terms of our overall objective would be if Australia were to make decisions that shift activity, jobs and emissions into other parts of the world where emissions are going to be higher and the global emissions outcome would be worse. I mean, that's been my consistent argument incidentally. And that is why I'm very much from this position trying to help drive a globally more coherent, a globally better coordinated approach to the pricing of emissions because that is the only way you ultimately can use that tool to help drive effective emissions reductions globally. All right, Matias, let me ask you about COVID. Vaccine take-up is very strong in countries like France and you mentioned Australia, but of course there are huge parts of the developed world where vaccination is not going to take place for a very long time. As you sort of intimated, I think in your lecture, none of us really are safe until all of us are safe. Shouldn't OECD members be doing a lot more to vaccinate the developing world? Well, I mean, OECD member countries are doing a lot, but I mean, it is true. I mean, the challenges, you know, logistics and distribution challenge, which shouldn't be beyond us to resolve. I mean, you're right. I mean, there's a particular challenge in developing economies, but there's also perhaps not as well known a pretty significant challenge across a large part of Europe. I mean, yes, France, Belgium, Germany, countries in Western Europe have got relatively high vaccination rights, but if you look at Bulgaria, Romania, some of the central European countries' vaccination rights are quite low and the fourth wife that is going across, you know, everything east of Germany at the moment is pretty significant. Now, look, yes, I mean, the short answer to your question is yes. Developed economies have a responsibility to do more. It's not just charity either. It's self-interest because we won't have sustained health protection until such time as, you know, we've got appropriately comprehensive global coverage of vaccinations and we won't, I mean, the economic recovery will remind at risk until such time as we've got appropriate coverage, global coverage of vaccinations. And in the end, our biggest risk continues to be the further waves of infection. Let me ask you about Australia's approach to the pandemic. The Fortress Australia approach certainly kept Australians safe, but there were significant downsides to that. We more or less locked off the country for the better part of a year and a half. I think the effects of the policy were felt very much by immigrants to Australia who weren't able to visit family overseas, expats, members of the Australian diaspora, of which you're now a member. How do you feel about the approach that Australia has taken to dealing with the pandemic? Look, I mean, I don't think that given my history and even my current position that I should be a commentator on domestic politics in Australia, I mean, let me just say that countries, in countries around the world, governments of around the world were faced with an external shock for which there was no rulebook on how to deal with it. Governments around the world might, the best possible decisions about way of crisis response, I think that Australia performed very well in that context. In the end, I mean, there's our judgments for democratically elected governments to make and I guess as a citizen, the observation I would make is that the governments that have been subjected to democratic scrutiny of an election since the pandemic and since the sort of response has been rolled out in Australia have all done very well. So it appears to me that the population of Australia in the broad is supporting the government's responses in the broad. Like, I mean, moving forward, of course, I mean, we want to move into a world where, we can live with the virus where we can manage the risk of the virus while returning to as close as possible in a COVID-safe way. And that's where high vaccination right is so important. I mean, Australia now has a vaccination right approaching 85% of the eligible population, which is tremendous. And that will be the key to help, I guess, return life back to normal. I mean, having the East Coast now open for return travelers without quarantine, for return vaccinated travelers without quarantine, obviously shows what is possible when you have appropriately high vaccination rights. And I do hope that Australia can remind comparatively COVID-safe. Now, Matthias, I know you don't want to get into Australian politics, but I do want to ask you about immigration, if I can. And it's a question actually from my chairman, Sir Frank Lowey. He's a believer in immigration. And I know you've had a remarkable immigrant life, really, immigrating to Australia in your mid-20s, playing a significant role in our national politics, and then going overseas to represent Australia, as it were, as the head of an international organisation. It's a testimony to you, but also, of course, to the Australian society that is open to immigrants in that way. The question I have for you from Sir Frank Lowey is this. During the pandemic, immigration to Australia essentially stopped. Do you think that Australia should now boost its immigration intake to make up for the immigration pause we've just experienced? Well, look, you know, firstly, I'm a great believer in, you know, the beneficial impact of migration among Australians, an incredibly successful multicultural society which has been able to successfully integrate successive wives of migrants from all corners of the world. And, you know, my message to migrants in my first speech in the Senate, the Australian Senate, was that Australia is a country where, you know, if you put your shoulder to the wheel and if you come with the right attitude and have a go, there's really no limit to what you can achieve. And it's genuinely true because, I mean, Australians are very open, minded, very welcoming, and really just look at what you do and not at where you come from or what your background is. Very, very open and welcoming society. And look, the specific decisions in terms of level of migration, I mean, there's going to be judgments for the Australian government to make, but as a principle, of course, I mean, I'm very supportive of strong levels of migration. I think that migration has served Australia very, very well. I mean, in terms of the economic and social development of our country. Can I ask you, Matthias, you're a rare Australian in running an international organisation, and your election reminded me that there haven't been that many Australians running for and winning top job, top international jobs. Why do you think that is? I don't know. I mean, I, you know, the Prime Minister asked me whether I was prepared to put my hand up for this vacant position at the OECD. After some thought, I said, yes. And, you know, we worked as a team. There was a team Australia effort to try and secure the position. And I was very grateful for that support. And as a team, we were ultimately successful. Now, I mean, I think it's really a case-by-case proposition. I mean, I think that Australia and Australians have a lot to offer. It really just depends on the opportunity and making sure that, you know, when it arises, that you give it your best possible shot. All right, final question, Matthias. I've mentioned this, the journey you've had in your life, moving from the heart of Europe to Perth and now travelling back to the heart of Europe at the OECD. And you mentioned that in your campaign, you were running as an Australian, of course, but someone who'd grown up with Europe, someone with a European heritage. Do you find now that you look at Europe through Australian eyes? But I got to say, like, so I left Europe in the early 90s. And so shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, shortly after, I guess, you know, central and Eastern European countries opened up. And to come back, you know, 27 years after I first went to Australia and to sort of see how those parts of Europe, which were behind on the other side of the Iron Curtain, have developed and gone, you know, in leaps and bounds forward, is just really heartwarming. I mean, it just shows it's such a case study again, long-term case study, which shows that, you know, market-based economic principles work in lifting living standards and quality of life. I mean, political choices matter, democratic governance matters. And indeed, market economic principles work. I mean, I was in Warsaw yesterday to mark the 25th anniversary of their membership of the OECD. And I mean, over the last 30 years, since Poland regained its freedom and opted for democracy, I mean, they've just really gone in leaps and bounds forward. I mean, their GDP per capita has quadrupled over 25 years. And, you know, to see the transformational power and the impact on the quality of life of real people all across, even across the world of the values and principles that we as an organisation stand for, it's just really heartwarming. Matthias Corman, thank you for joining us from Paris today for delivering the Harry's lecture and for taking my questions. You have an exceptionally interesting job and we wish you well. Thank you very much, Michael. And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for the 2021 Owen Harry's lecture. Next week, the Lowy Institute will host a digital conference on the Indo-Pacific operating system. There'll be keynote speeches by Matthias' former colleague, Defence Minister Peter Dutton, President Biden's Indo-Pacific Tsar and former Harry's lecturer, Kurt Campbell, as well as by Lowy Institute non-resident fellow, Nadej Roland. Please register for that conference. And in the meantime, thank you again for joining us to listen to Matthias Corman and to honour Owen Harry's. Thank you.