Februari 23, 2017
welcome back to the our ambassadors series, today we're joined by australia's ambassador to zimbabwe matthew neuhaus, thanks matthew for joining us thanks dana good to be here so matthew whats the situation like in zimbabwe at the moment well it's complicated uh... we have elections coming next year and president mugabe's zanu pf party which is currently in a coalition government with morgan tsvangirai of the mdc
and another smaller mdc party uh...will be competing again in these elections so people are a little bit worried as to weather we will see violence again and weather we will see some of theproblems that happened uh... in the past but for the moment the place is prettystable the two indeed three parties are workingtogether in this coalition government and um... uh... the mdchave really developed their capacity for government
and have managed to make some progress with their policies uh... and withfreeing up the uh... democratic space we have a situation where we do haveindependent newspapers where we do have a robust politicaldebate at the moment there's a uh... debate over new constitution there's still not agreement as i speak onthis new constitution but it would be good if we could getagreement on the new constitution and it be adopted in a referendum before we go to elections
so there's a bit of a wait-and-see in termsof the political process but meanwhile economic development is proceeding and we've come back from those dark daysof high inflation uh... dreadful diseases like uh... cholera and uh... real poverty and misery so what can australia do australia is doing a lot we're now one ofthe largest donors there
in fact after the uk us eu and un australia is the fifthlargest 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 typhoidand cholera and helping with
basic health needs true that we've also been helping rebuild theagri-business uh... area of activity so that the fields which were idle leading tostarvation in the past after farm invasions are now being utilized and many new often younger farmers are beingtrained in commercial farming technique so they can make it a goodliving and we're also helping in areas like therevenue authorities so that zimbabwe
can start to pay its own way again but beyond that with supporting civilsociety we're supporting democratic groups as as they work tobring back democracy in zimbabwe so the people can have their say and beempowered there's quite a few australians inzimbabwe we have over seven hundred registered but we have many morethousands with strong links here who've been educated here who are building up commercial contactshere who are working in the growing mining industry
we even have rio tinto here with adiamond mine in zimbabwe and we have other interests so it's important that from australia we do our bit and we really are doingour bit matthew you cover a lot of different countries form dangerous places like the democratic republic of congo to a range of other countries includingzambia and touris areas like victoria falls what's your advice to australians who mightbe visiting some of these places
well it's a mixed bag i have to sayuh... of course democratic republic of congo is a particularly tricky destination uh... i'm the first australianambassador to be accredited there but it's a part of the worldwhich is mineral rich and australian companies are becoming more and moreengaged but there's still conflict going on in the northeast of the country on theborders uh... 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 likethe mining area around kitunga which is you know fairly safe to visit and those more dangerous areas where wereally strongly advise you don't go other parts of my patch like
malawi or zambia they have famous tourist destinations like the victoriafalls or lake malawi and we get a lot of australian touristsgoing to these places they're fine they're good but you have to always be wary as a tourist and it is important thatyou read the travel advisories we keep these updated every few months so you get thelatest information
and uh... i really encourage people to register with the uh... 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 betweenaustralia and the countries of africa and how is it changing well at the moment the relationship isperhaps in the best shape it's ever been uh... for a long time
australia did see africa's somewhat out of it's sphere of influencewe were very focused on asia and the pacific and beyond that of course we have traditional ties with europe and we have always engagedin the united nations and multilaterally we have more more interest now in africai've just come from the africa down under miningconference in perth and we had over two thousand people there
numerous companies i mean over a hundredcompanies i think and we had a i'd think around twentyministers from african countries and it justsymbolized for me the the way the relationship has grown and we had senator carr there for his first time in africa down under we had julie bishop there from theopposition side we had uh... gary gray there we had the premier himself colin barnettengaged with us and stephen smith who did a lot to pioneer
this uh... uh... relationship and kevinrudd was one of the key speakers so at the highest political levels now wehave this engagement with africa we are now giving over a thousandscholarships a yaer through the ausaid australia awardsprogram my patch um... this is really appreciated and it's making a differenceto the capacity of governments and through the ausaidprograms exciting new programs like mining for development and the food security initiatives
we're really starting to make a difference in africa and helpafrica too help itself it's about sharing experience andexpertise and as it was said by senator carr we're neither europe nor the us we are australia inafrica we come without that
historical colonial baggage and we are a partner in asia and they'relooking 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, howwould you describe the relationship between australia and zimbabwe well ii started by saying it'scomplicated and it remains complicated because of the nature of the complicatedgovernance arrangements there uh... australia though has
i would want to say it has a goodrelationship with zimbabwe certainly with the zimbabwean people because we want to support thezimbabwean people in their quest for democracy in their quest for economic empowermentuh... now there may well be differenceswith parts of the government and some of the policies of the of the government which as i'vesaid before is is a coalition but in a few words we have there for thepeople of zimbabwe
and we're doing our best to assist them thanks very much matthew for speaking to ustoday that's great dana thanks very much and that was matthew neuhaus, australia's ambassador to zimbabwe
Tidak ada komentar
Posting Komentar