THE SYDNEY INSTITUTE ANNUAL DINNER LECTURE – DON FARRELL

The 2025 Sydney Institute lecture was given by Senator The Hon Don Farrell at The Fullerton Hotel Sydney on 18 November. Senator The Hon Don Farrell is Australia’s Special Minister of State and Minister for Trade and Tourism and Deputy Leader in the Senate. Don Farrell was introduced by Mary Easson, former Member for Lowe, and the vote of thanks was given by Christian Bennett, Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer at Virgin Australia. The Sydney Institute Annual Dinner was sponsored by Virgin Australia.

THE SYDNEY INSTITUTE ANNUAL DINNER LECTURE

DON FARRELL  

They say Kevin Rudd was the smartest man in the room. I tend to be the shortest, so I’ve always got to adjust the speakers. Mary Easson, that was a beautiful introduction. And thank you very much. I’m so pleased to call you and Michael Easson dear friends and keep drinking those Farrell wines.

You never know what’s going to happen around the corner in politics. It’s a great honour, Gerard and Anne, for inviting me to give this speech. This is either the third or fourth speech I’ve given to The Sydney Institute. But I have never been honoured with giving this speech. So, I’m very proud to have done that tonight.

Can I just mention a couple of names? As I walked up tonight, the ambassador to the Ukraine gave me this little medal. On one side, it says, freedom is our religion and it has the Ukraine flag. On the other side, mateship is our strength. Ukraine’s fight for democracy, against that monster Putin, of course, is our fight. Let us congratulate the ambassador. Stand up. There he is in the corner – we’ll stand with you. Your fight is our fight.

I had the privilege of representing the Australian Government at the funeral of Pope Francis in April, just before the election, in Rome. I met, for the first time, Cardinal Mykola Beshock, the Australian Cardinal of Ukrainian descent. In four weeks, this Saturday, my youngest daughter is marrying a Ukrainian young man at our vineyard in the Clare Valley, and the Cardinal bishop has offered to give them a special blessing. The ceremony is going to be at the Sevenhill’s St Aloysius Church – the great Jesuit church.

I love Sydney. It’s my favourite Australian city. Can you believe it? No, it is. It is. But great to see you all, all here, and welcome to so many of my federal Labor Party colleagues here tonight. There is a disproportionate number of Liberal members of parliament here tonight, and there’s a reason for that. The Prime Minister has called a Cabinet meeting in Perth. I can’t be in two places at once, so the number of Labor ministers has thinned a bit. But of course, we’ve got former Prime Minister Scott Morrison here tonight. Welcome Scott. Great to see you, Scott.

It was recently reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, that great, authoritative organisation, that I was a power broker from the South Australian branch of the Liberal Party. Now I didn’t know what I should do? Should I sue the newspaper for this allegation? Given the large number of federal connected Liberal Party people here, including my good friend Sarah Henderson, what I thought I would do is give you a lesson on factionalism later in the evening. So, if you want to come over here to table 25, later on, I’ll just explain to you how factionalism works, so that you’re not left out and you get a few clues.

It is great to be invited by Gerard. I’ve told this story a couple of times, but it’s worth repeating in such a distinguished audience. I bumped into Gerard at a book shop in Collins Street in Melbourne, just after he’d been on the Insiders program. I introduced myself. I have to say, Gerard, I haven’t seen you on Insiders lately, and I wonder to myself, is that because of your progressive views and you are no longer welcome at the ABC? What I like about Gerard is, given any set of factual situations, the way he analyses that situation. He provides you, whether you agree or disagree with his conclusions, with the factual basis to make the correct decision. That is a real strength in the Australian media, Gerard, and I think we should give you a clap for that.

We do have some links that go way back into time. Back in 1952, the South Australian branch of the Shop Assistants Union had two Farrells, both named Edward Farrell. My father was the one called Black Ted, and the other Farrell was called Red Ted. They started a campaign to regain control of the Shop Assistants Union, then under the control of the Communist Party. And from that time onwards, the South Australian branch of the Shop Assistants Union has been in the control of moderate forward thinking Australians. Of course, the bloke behind all that was a fellow called Bob Santamaria. And I know Gerard worked for a time with Bob. So, although I only met him maybe 15 years ago in a book shop, our links go back much further. Red Ted stayed with the Labor Party. My father went with the newly formed Democratic Labor Party (DLP). After the Labor split, he ran in every election from 1961 until 1975 in the seat of Boothby, which Labor recently won. He started out at 8 per cent of the vote. He ended up with 4 per cent but he always said to me, “Don one day I’m going to be in Canberra.” But, of course, it was his son that got there.

It’s a great pleasure to be here, and of course, I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

Trade and tariffs are front of centre at almost every water cooler conversation these days. I was on the leadership group during the last federal election campaign that had to wake up at 5 am to get the results of the polling from the night before. What we very quickly discovered during the course of the campaign was that when Australians were waking up in the morning, they weren’t turning on the Australian news. They were turning on the American news to find out what President Trump had done overnight.

The United States has imposed tariffs on every nation in the world, and every country has had to decide how to respond. The Albanese Labor government, without compromising any of our fundamental values and interest, chose to strengthen our partnership. That certainly wasn’t very hard for me, a great supporter of the Australian American Alliance. We decided that Australia and the United States were going to make more things together with our historic framework on critical minerals backed by joint investments in Australian projects. We did not impose any tariffs of our own, which would have only driven up costs for Australian families and businesses. As President Trump has found out himself in recent times. We focused on cooperation and collaboration, a decision which was only affirmed by announcements from President Trump this week.

By making decisions to not retaliate with tariffs, we put Australian industry and Australian jobs first. As the Minister for Trade and Tourism over the past three years, that’s the approach that I’ve taken to the big challenge that we’ve faced. When we came to government in 2022, Australian tourism was grappling with the effects of the pandemic. Now, through restored aviation links – and congratulations to Virgin for everything you have done and supporting this event tonight – international marketing campaigns and targeted government support to the sector, we are now nearing full recovery. At the same time, our patient and calibrated approach to trade resulted in the removal of more than $20 billion worth of trade impediments imposed on Australian exports by China.

I would like to put that into perspective. I met with my counterpart a couple of weeks ago in Shanghai. He started the conversation by saying, “Don we’ve resolved all of our issues.” Now. We haven’t quite resolved all of our issues, and I added a few to the list. But that was certainly how he viewed the relationship. That $20 billion equates almost to the total trade we do with the United States. People are very focused on trade with the United States. In that three year period, ending this time last year with crayfish getting back into into the China market, already a record amount of crayfish going back in. That $20 billion equates to almost our total trade with the United States. So, as much as you might focus on the United States, the fact is that we got that $20 billion back, and we got it back plus. So it’s now worth more than $20 billion because despite what everybody says, the Chinese economy is still growing at 5 per cent a year. It’s a big growth.

That is a really important figure to remember when considering our US-Australia relationship. Chinese families are now, once again, enjoying the best wine, not Farrell wine, unfortunately, as we don’t export. Yet. Take lobsters and meat. Meat’s booming. Beef is booming into China and, of course, our wonderful product is selling right around the world. This would not have been possible without active personal engagement, whether it’s the Prime Minister meeting President Xi Jinping on 4 July. Or my 12th meeting with my Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, at the world’s biggest import fair, the China International Import Expo earlier this month. It opened at 10 am. By 11 am, we’d signed $100 million worth of new projects, and that was just the start of it.

We haven’t just been focused on our traditional markets. If the past few years have taught us anything, it’s the importance of diversification and, certainly, not having all of our eggs in the one basket. The Albanese Labor Government has been tireless in our commitment to open new and expanding existing markets for Australian exporters. Through our southeast Asia economic strategy, we’ve supercharged two-way trade and investment in the region, delivering an additional $2 billion. In South East Asia, trade outcomes over the last two years of Australian business have benefitted very much with the support of Export Finance Australia, including unlocking a record $53 billion worth of two-way trade with India last year, after legislating our free trade agreement. On 1 October, our landmark agreement with our biggest Middle Eastern trading partner, the United Arab Emirates, entered into force. Getting our products into the United Arab Emirates is like getting it into the Woollies warehouse here in Sydney. If you can get it into there, you can get into all of the surrounding countries in the Middle East, and that’s a region with about 61 million consumers and a combined GDP of $2.2 trillion.

Next, of course, we look to a free trade agreement with the European Union. I’m meeting my counterpart in the next few days – it’s the missing piece of Australia’s network of FTAs with a market of 450 million consumers. We look to expand our trade deal with India, the most populous nation in the world with a rapidly growing middle class. In September, I launched our $50 million accessing new markets initiative, delivering on a key election commitment to give Australian businesses practical, targeted support to identify new partners and customers.

As we all here understand, diversification doesn’t mean selling any less to our largest trading partners. It means selling more to our new partners, and that’s exactly what this government is proposing to do.

While I could talk about my trade and tourism responsibility at length, as I often do, I’d be neglecting a very important responsibility of mine. While Minister of Trade and Tourism quite clearly tells you some of what I do. I’m also special Minister of State, and this, of course, is where all the bodies are buried.

As special Minister of State, I have the responsibility for, among other things, matters relating to the electoral system. I know this Institute, and those here tonight, have a keen interest in the health of Australian democracy. So, I want to use this opportunity to talk about our democracy and how we can best safeguard it into the future. A couple of weeks ago, the Susan McKinnon Foundation released the inaugural McKinnon Index, a nationwide survey measuring Australia’s democratic health. It revealed what many of us had suspected. One of the good things was trust in our institutions and systems remains high. It’s essential that institutions like the Australian Electoral Commission, which independently and impartially runs our elections, are able to maintain the trust of the Australian people.

Elections are sometimes referred to as the greatest peacetime logistical operation a country can conduct. Our acting Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope, Acting Deputy Commissioner Kath Gleeson and the whole team at the Australian Electoral Commission did an exceptional job in facilitating the last election. The index found high levels of trust in our electoral processes and our institutions. It’s a clear national asset that we have an institution like the AEC, which plays such a critical role in our well-trusted and well-respected democratic system. However, the index also showed trust in our politicians remains low.

According to the McKinnon Index, only 36 per cent of Australians trust federal politicians. These numbers would suggest that almost two thirds of this room don’t trust the people they send to Canberra to represent them. How can we rectify this worrying trend and ensure that Australian people trust not only our institutions but our leaders as well? How do we protect key institutions in an age of mis and disinformation, and how can we strengthen and reform our democracy to make sure that it stays fit for purpose into the future?

From opposition and throughout our time in government, I and my Labor Party colleagues have been considering these questions and working to repair this low trust ahead of the 2022 election. We made a promise to bring forward an anti-corruption commission to return integrity and accountability to government. We’ve also been focused on improving the workplace culture of Parliament House. Our federal parliament should always be a model employer, to always be a safe and respectful workplace for all who interact with it.

Across our time in government, we have worked across the parliament to implement the recommendations handed down by Commissioner Kate Jenkins in the set the standard review into the Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. Last year, we established the independent parliamentary Standards Commission, an independent workplace investigation workforce that will enforce behaviour codes for parliamentarians, their staff and other people who work in Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces, including the journalists.

We’ve worked hard with all of our parliament to improve the culture, to ensure the Australian people can trust their elected representatives. Earlier this year, the government delivered on our commitments to strengthen and enhance the integrity of federal elections. We passed a package of reforms to our electoral system, constituting of the largest reforms to the Australian electoral laws in over 40 years. The electoral reforms package was designed to tackle the influence of big money in politics and protect our electoral system into the future, ensuring that it remains a system that we can all trust.

It is about trust that election results are not unfairly skewed by big money, trust that elections are contests of ideas and not bank balances. And the trust that we know who is funding the election campaigns, with more information about campaign financing now provided publicly faster, and before voting day. So you will know when you walk into the next election voting place, exactly who’s supporting the candidate that you are contemplating voting for. We also slashed the threshold of what has to be disclosed from almost $17,000 back to $5,000, so that when voters go to the ballot box at the next election, they know exactly where the money in politics has come from. We also capped political donations by limiting the amount anyone can receive from one source to $50,000 a year. We’ve limited campaign spending for all other political participants, and we’re restricting big donors, putting a set ceiling on the amount one individual can donate. We’ve brought in better regulation, capturing everybody involved in the political campaigning with dedicated accounts which are available for audit. And we’ve  impose stricter penalties for anybody breaching the law. And we brought in stronger powers for the AEC, helping it to audit, investigate and apply penalties. These reforms strengthen our democracy and enhance the integrity of federal elections.

But, there’s still more work to do. A few months ago, I referred the 2025 federal election to the Joint Parliamentary Standing Committee on electoral matters, and we’ve got Jerome Lazale here tonight, who is chairing that committee. And for many years, under successive governments, the joint committee has continued to operate as a fundamental, trusted, multi-partisan forum to inquire and review the conduct of elections and recommend reform to the electoral system. I asked the committee to specifically look at a number of matters in relation to the 2025 election.

Concerningly, during the last election, we heard allegations of aggressive conduct, deliberate obstruction and intimidating behaviour towards people just trying to participate in the democratic process. This included voters, volunteers and the Australian Electoral Commission officials themselves. The  McKinnon Index saw almost 9 per cent of voters saying it’s sometimes justified to use extreme measures such as violence to advance a cause they care about. I’ve asked the committee to consider how we address ongoing behaviour, because I fundamentally believe that every Australian should have the opportunity to participate in our democracy. The decisions the government still have often monumental impacts on your life, whoever you are. From the access to health services, to the food on your table, to the education you receive, to the roads you drive on, or the public transport you catch, the decisions of government at every level impact on you. You should always have a say in that.

I’ve asked the committee to examine whether now might be the time to consider other big changes to our democracy, like fixed terms and the term length. The McKinnon index showed that over 40 per cent of people do not believe that politicians have the capability to solve long-term challenges. Almost 60 per cent of people do not think politicians are courageous and willing to take risks to achieve this. With a three year term federally, the shortest in Australia, no one is ever very far away from the next election, particularly when the prime minister could choose to initiate one early.

I disagree the Federal Government has not been courageous in its extensive agenda, both this time and last. It be, however, that allowing federal governments the same terms as their state counterparts might allow governments to be more courageous and ambitious and tackle bigger, long term reforms. That’s an important question worth thinking about.

I’ve also asked the committee to consider the size of parliament. Sky News’ Andrew Clennell asked me last week, why on earth do we need more politicians? Well, the last time the size of the parliament was expanded was in 1984 during the Hawke government. It’s only been expanded twice in the whole history of Federation, over 125 years, both times by great Labor leaders.

In 1984, we had a population of over 16 million people. Since then, our population has nearly doubled, and your federal representatives are representing more people than almost anywhere in the world. It’s integral to our democratic system that voters are able to contact and engage with their local members when they need and want to. Both the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory have significantly fewer senators than their state counterparts. I’ve always been committed to ensuring Territorians continue to have fair representation in our federal parliament. These are important questions for the committee to consider as we think about how we keep Australian democracy functioning well into the future, and I look forward to the recommendations of the committee.

You might or you might not believe these are areas worth working through. In any event, what is so important is that we can work through our differences of opinion with ongoing mutual respect. That perhaps is Australia’s greatest contribution to global democracy. It’s not the democracy sausage, but the idea that no matter the nature of our differences of opinion, we can work through them together calmly, patiently and methodically. We can do that here at home with domestic issues, and we can do it overseas with our international partners.

Thank you very much for listening to me tonight.