The United Kingdom’s high diplomat in Australia has used a nationwide handle to assert whereas the 2 international locations could also be “best mates”, it was a friendship which may by no means be taken as a right.
British excessive commissioner to Australia Vicki Treadell, in an handle to the National Press Club on Wednesday, additionally addressed that whereas the UK had labored to confront its colonial previous, there was ongoing work wanted.
Ms Treadell’s handle, titled “Modern Britain: Our journey beyond colonialism”, was a somewhat-response to Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong’s speech in London final month.
In Senator Wong’s speech to Kings College, she urged the UK to come back to phrases with its personal colonial previous, to ensure that the 2 international locations to modernise their relationship with Pacific nations and stabilise the area towards a rising China.
She stated that regardless of that, the 2 international locations had been “the best of mates”.
Making reference to Senator Wong’s speech, Ms Treadell stated whereas the UK and Australia remained shut allies, that relationship couldn’t be taken as a right.
“There’s a phrase we like to use a lot about the Australia and UK relationship, ‘the best of mates’,” Ms Treadell stated.
“The thing about mates is that you should never take them for granted.
“Friendship can be built on old ties, but true partnership requires renewal and growth.”
On the topic of acknowledging the facility’s personal colonial previous, Senator Wong final month drew on her personal Malaysian heritage to warn colonial powers just like the UK wouldn’t discover frequent floor with smaller nations in the event that they remained “sheltered in narrower versions” of their histories.
Ms Treadell, additionally Malaysian-born, used her speech to focus on her personal success as proof the UK had confronted its previous, and stated a few of the “nuance” had been misplaced within the response to Senator Wong’s speech.
“I agree with Penny Wong. We must frame ourselves for who we are today. We must not let others constrain us in a past reality,” she stated.
“To understand modern Britain is to understand that we must protect with pride our modern multicultural reality.”
Speaking of her personal upbringing, Ms Treadell – who has no “British blood” – stated whereas the face of contemporary Britain had certainly modified, there was nonetheless “more work to do”.
“In ethnic terms, I am Eurasian – the daughter of Chinese and Dutch Burgher parents who migrated to Britain with me in tow aged eight,” she stated.
In her speech, she stated when she first joined the Foreign Office in 1979, she was informed “I don’t understand how you hope to be a member of Her Majesty’s diplomatic service”.
“I told him, ‘I am a legacy of Empire, and you reap what you sow,’” she stated.
Ms Treadell was the Foreign Office‘s first female high commissioner of colour when she was posted to New Zealand.
She said Britain had more modern success with diversity than Australia did, making reference to new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak – the son of Indian migrants and a practising Hindu.
She said that remained a dream in Australia.
“I recently met with a Year 11 student, a high-achieving young woman of Asian ancestry,” Ms Treadell said.
“I asked, as I often do of young people, where she hoped to be in 30 years. ‘Prime minister of Australia,’ she stated.
“On this International Women’s Day, it’s heartening to recall her say this with a surety that belied not a dream, however a purpose to be attained.
“It’s an angle we’ve sought to foster within the UK.”
Originally revealed as Vicki Treadell responds to Penny Wong’s colonial previous claims
Source: www.dailytelegraph.com.au
