Victorian Alumni Event Hong Kong

It is a pleasure to join you tonight.

While this is my first Official Visit to Hong Kong as Governor of Victoria, my first visit to this place goes back some five decades.

During the 1970s, while a member of the Industrial Relations Department at the University of Sydney, I spent several months here as part of a research team exploring the dynamics of the Hong Kong labour market.

It was a formative experience early in my academic career, and it is a privilege to be here now in my capacity as Governor of Victoria.

When I was first here, Hong Kong still had its own Governor – a reminder of our shared colonial past.

In fact, one of my early predecessors in this role, Governor Sir George Bowen, later went on to serve as the Governor of Hong Kong from 1882 to 1886.

Perhaps the most obvious example of our common heritage is the name ‘Victoria’ – shared by our State and the famous harbour which we gather near tonight.

Both were proclaimed in honour of Queen Victoria during the mid-19th century, a time when our State and Hong Kong were both colonial outposts of the British Empire.

Since that time, countless vessels have arrived at, and departed from, this famous harbour, travelling to and from our State of the same name.

Our economies have traced a similar trajectory in their development to today.

From our colonial pasts we have both followed a course of opening to the world and exchanging with one another.

This includes the many outputs that cannot be carried by vessels – the sharing of skills, education and investment.

The most important thing we have in common today is not our early beginnings, but rather our shared commitment to be outward-looking.

It is an approach that has built Victoria and Hong Kong into what we see today.

During times of uncertainty, they are the strengths we should lean into – rather than shy away from.

Yet this will not just happen by chance.

It relies on an ongoing commitment from both sides to continue to build connections.

That includes through the work of all of you here tonight – as well as the role of the Victorian Government Trade and Investment Office here in Hong Kong.

Every step forward in the relationship is the direct result of someone who has innovated…

…built connections across borders…

…or taken the leap of faith of moving to set up a business, a career, or an education in Victoria or Hong Kong.

In 1976, I took such a leap of faith when I came to study here in Hong Kong.

Fifty years later, this place remains an integral part of what is now a much larger and interconnected regional economy.

And I am here now not as an academic – but as an advocate – to renew Victoria’s faith in growing our economies and building our shared future together.

Thank you.