 Welcome back to the Our Ambassadors series. Today we're joined by Australia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Matthew Newhouse. Thanks Matthew for joining us. Thanks Dana, good to be here. So Matthew, what's the situation like in Zimbabwe at the moment? Well it's complicated. We have elections coming next year and President Mugabe's Zanu PF Party, which is currently in a coalition government with Morgan Changurai and the MDC and another smaller MDC party will be competing again in these elections. So people are a little bit worried as to whether we'll see violence again and whether we'll see some of the problems that happened in the past. But for the moment the place is pretty stable. The two indeed three parties are working together in this coalition government and the MDC have really developed their capacity for government and have managed to make some progress with their policies and with freeing up the democratic space. We now have a situation where we do have independent newspapers, where we do have a robust political debate. At the moment there's a debate over new constitution. There's still not agreement as I speak on this new constitution but it would be good if we could get agreement on the new constitution and it be adopted in a referendum before we go to elections. So it's a bit of a wait and see in terms of the political process but meanwhile the economic development is proceeding and we've come back from those dark days of high inflation, dreadful diseases like cholera and real poverty and misery. So what can Australia do? Australia is doing a lot. We're now one of the largest donors there. In fact after the UK, US, EU and UN, Australia is the fifth largest donor to the country and we've been assisting in areas which are really quite crucial. Water and sanitation, rehabilitating the water systems of major cities and helping to get rid of diseases like typhoid and cholera and helping with basic health needs through that. We've also been helping rebuild the agribusiness area of activity so that the fields which were idle leading to starvation in the past after farm invasions are now being utilised and many new, often younger farmers are being trained in commercial farming techniques so they can make a good living and we're also helping in areas like the revenue authority so that Zimbabwe can start to pay its own way again. But beyond that we're supporting civil society, we're supporting democratic groups as they work to bring back democracy in Zimbabwe so that people can have their say and be empowered. There's quite a few Australians in Zimbabwe, we have over 700 registered but we have many more thousands with strong links here who have been educated here who are building up commercial contacts here who are working in the growing mining industry. We even have Rio Tinto with a diamond mine in Zimbabwe and we have other interests. So it's important that from Australia we do our bit and we really are doing our bit. Matthew you cover a lot of different countries from dangerous places like the Democratic Republic of Congo to a range of other countries including Zambia and then tourist areas like Victoria Falls. What's your advice to Australians who might be visiting some of these places? Well it's a mixed bag I have to say. Of course Democratic Republic of Congo is a particularly tricky destination. I'm the first Australian ambassador to be accredited there but it's a part of the world which is mineral rich and Australian companies are becoming more and more engaged but there's still conflict going on in the northeast of the country on the borders with Rwanda and it can be quite dangerous. The UN has a big peacekeeping operation there. We have travel advices out which make the difference between places like the mining area around Katanga which is fairly safe to visit and those more dangerous areas where we really strongly advise you don't go. Other parts of my patch like Malawi or Zambia they have famous tourist destinations like the Victoria Falls or Lake Malawi and we get a lot of Australian tourists going to these places. They're fine, they're good but you have to always be wary as a tourist and it's important that you read the travel advisories. We keep these updated every few months so you get the latest information and I really encourage people to register with the embassy and to read their travel advisories. Since you joined the department you've had quite a few different postings. What's the relationship like at the moment between Australia and the countries of Africa and how is it changing? Well at the moment the relationship is perhaps in the best shape it's ever been. For a long time Australia did see Africa as somewhat out of its sphere of influence. We were very focused on Asia and the Pacific and beyond that of course we have traditional ties with Europe and we have always engaged in the United Nations and multilaterally but we have more and more interest now in Africa. Many countries come from the Africa Down Under Mining Conference in Perth and we had over 2,000 people there and numerous companies, I mean over 100 companies I think and we had I think around 20 ministers from African countries and it just symbolized for me the way the relationship has grown and we had Senator Carr there for his first time at Africa Down Under we had Julie Bishop there from the opposition side we had Gary Gray there we had the Premier himself Colin Barnett engaged with us and Stephen Smith who did a lot to pioneer this relationship and Kevin Rudd was one of the key speakers. So at the highest political levels now we have this engagement with Africa we are now giving over a thousand scholarships a year through the AusAde Australia Awards program. My patch, this is really appreciated and it's making a difference to the capacity of governments and through the AusAde programs exciting new programs like Mining for Development and the food security initiatives we're really starting to make a difference in Africa and help Africa to help itself it's about sharing experience and expertise it was said by Senator Carr we're neither Europe nor the US we are Australia and Africa we come without that historical colonial baggage and we are a partner in Asia and they're looking more and more to Asia we're a partner in Asia for them for the future. And so just to finish up in a few words how would you describe the relationship between Australia and Zimbabwe? Well I started by saying it's complicated and it remains complicated in the nature of the complicated governance arrangements there and Australia though I would want to say it has a good relationship with Zimbabwe certainly with the Zimbabwean people because we want to support the Zimbabwean people in their quest for democracy in their quest for economic empowerment now there may well be differences with parts of the government and some of the policies of the government is a coalition but in a few words we are there for the people of Zimbabwe and we are doing our best to assist them. Thanks very much Matthew for speaking to us today. That's great Dana, thanks very much. And that was Matthew Newhouse Australia's Ambassador to Zimbabwe.