Entries by Rob

Australian Trade Minister prioritises EU Free Trade Deal

Australian Trade Minister, Hon. Steve Ciobo, apparently told members of the European Parliament on Thursday that the country would prioritise its planned free trade agreement with the European Union over that with the United Kingdom, according to a report on the politics.co.uk website. The minister’s address to the Parliament can be found here. In it […]

EU Australia Leadership Forum Launched

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Julie Bishop MP, today launched the EU‑Australia Leadership Forum at the headquarters of the European External Action Service in Brussels. The Leadership Forum will provide a platform for leaders, senior and emerging,  from the […]

Lynette Wood is new Ambassador to Germany

The Australian Foreign Minister announced on 26 August 2016  the appointment of Ms Lynette Wood as Australia’s next Ambassador to Germany. The Minister emphasised that Germany and Australia have a close and productive relationship, sharing common strategic and security objectives. She announced that the two countries will further strengthen our engagement on shared foreign, defence and security […]

Australian General Election Results

At the time of writing, all seats in the House of Representatives have been declared, except for Herbert (Queensland). In Hindmarsh (South Australia) the result is considered close and could be open to challenge. There are currently only 16 votes differences in Herbert between the two candidates, after preferences have been taken into account. Whatever […]

Lucy Turnbull receives German Verdienstkreuz am Bande

Congratulations to Lucy Turnbull on being awarded the German Cross of the Order of Merit for services to Australian German bilateral relations. Lucy has been Honorary President of our sister organisation in Australia for the past three years and has also been active in the Australia Germany Advisory Group. Lucy is also Chair of the […]

ABC Prodution “Ready for This” coming to German KIKA

The German TV channel ZDF has acquired Australian live-action children’s drama Ready For This, originally broadcast on childrens’ channel ABC3 and will show it on the  free-to-air kids channel KiKA . The series follows six equally talented but different Indigenous children who venture to Sydney to realize their dreams. Originally commissioned for ABC3 Australia last year, Ready For This also has Blackfella […]

The Australia-Germany Joint Research Scheme

The Australia-Germany Joint Research Co-operation Scheme is a joint initiative (PDF 1.2MB) of Universities Australia and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Germany’s national agency for the support of international academic cooperation. It aims to foster research collaboration of the highest quality between Australian researchers from Universities Australia member  universities and German researchers from German universities and research institutes. The scheme will […]

Australia and Eurovision

Congratulations to Australian entry Dami Im who came second in the 2016 Eurovision song contest, just being pipped to the post by the Ukrainian entry. SBS don’t know whether Australia will be invited back next year – that depends apparently on receiving an invitation from Ukraine. However, the broadcaster is going ahead with the plans […]

Federal Election 2016

Malcolm Turnbull has announced that the next federal election will be on 2nd July. It will be a double dissolution election in which the whole of the senate as well as the house of representatives will be elected. The senate election will be held under a new set of rules, which was agreed recently by […]

Australian Landing Pad in Berlin

As part of the national innovation strategy, Australia is setting up five  landing pads to help startup companies expand internationally. The Hon. Steven Ciobo , Australia’s Minister for Trade and Investment was in Berlin’s co-working space Rainmaking Loft this week to announce the selection of Berlin as the European launching landing pad. He was joined […]