Australia Day celebrated at Australian High Commissioner’s residence
The Australian High Commission celebrated Australia Day this year with a lunchtime reception on 25th January hosted by the Australian High Commissioner, H.E. Ms Julienne Hince, at her residence.
Over 200 guests were in attendance including the President of Malta, H.E. Ms Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, the Minister for Home Affairs The Hon. Mr Michael Farrugia, many Ambassadors, diplomats and of course Australians.
This year the High Commission had a couple of lucky door prizes on offer, two akubra hats, for two lucky guests. Entertainment included pianist Mro. Dominic Galea and Tenor Georg Zammit and finally Ivan Grech of Winter Moods who kindly donated his time to sing at this year’s reception ahead of his performance in Williamstown (Melbourne) in November this year.
The High Commissioner used her speech to acknowledge Malta’s support for the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement as well as to foreshadow the huge development in Maltese-Australian investment in the form of Malta’s Virtu Ferries purchasing what will be the largest high-speed ferry in the Mediterranean from Incat Tasmania.
The High Commissioner also took this opportunity to talk about the bilateral collaboration between Malta and Australia; including the recent signing of a Memorandum
of Understanding on women’s affairs. Another area of collaboration is that of security and disarmament; Malta is due to host a meeting of the ‘Australia Group’, consisting of 41 countries that as the name suggests is led by Australia and seeks to harmonise agreed controls over the export of certain chemical and biological substances.
Finally, the High Commissioner took the opportunity to farewell outgoing President H.E. Ms MarieLouise Coleiro Preca and thank her for her strong support of Australia, host to Malta’s largest diaspora, and her efforts in preserving and enhancing the strong people-topeople links enjoyed by our two countries.