Ambassador Hockey Highlights Australia-U.S. Relations and Benefits of Free Trade
HOUSTON, January 30 – Ambassador Joe Hockey, Australia’s Ambassador to the United States, joined an engaged audience on January 19 for Australia and the United States: The First 100 Years of Mateship and Beyond. Canberra’s top-ranking envoy to Washington was in Texas for a range of engagements including ceremonies commemorating the United Airlines’ inaugural flight from Houston to Sydney. Ambassador Hockey has a long history of service in Australia, ranging from a Member of the Parliament to his most recent post, as Australia’s Treasurer. He spoke on the Australia-U.S. alliance, forged during World War I in the Battle of Hamel, and noted that Australia is the only country to fight side-by-side with the U.S. in every major conflict since that time.
The Ambassador pointed to the business opportunities for both Australia and the U.S. in Asia, which as he shared is “the fastest growing region in the history of humanity and embraces freedom…in 4-5 years, two-thirds of the global middle class will reside in Asia.” Ambassador Hockey further championed free trade and market economics in driving a country’s economy. He told a story of how his father emigrated to Australia as a Palestinian Catholic and opened his own shop, benefiting from Australia’s open market. In defense of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, which would have originally included the U.S., Ambassador Hockey maintained that “the TPP was about setting rules for the Asia-Pacific, rules under common values, rule of law, and protection for intellectual property.” He shared that he believes the TPP will move forward with eleven countries minus the U.S. and possibly as soon as 2018.