Lifting uranium ban, not China factor, strengthened Australia-India ties: Former Senator Lisa Singh
CHENNAI: It was the move by then Prime Minister Julia Gillard to lift Australia's controversial ban on uranium sales that brought India closer to Australia rather than the China factor, according to Lisa Singh former Australian Senator and first woman of South Asian heritage to be elected to the Australian Parliament as a senator in 2010.
Singh is on her second visit to Chennai, where she will be attending a roundtable conference on maritime security on Friday, and delivering a lecture at the Asian College of Journalism. The focus will be on geopolitical tensions, illegal fishing, preventive pollution, changing of trading routes which come down to Cape of Good Hope. She also highlighted the need for Australia and India to engage with France as trusted partners in maritime security. She will also be meeting Information Technology Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.
"It was that change of policy for Australia on uranium that really signalled India we are open to engagement and have a new start of relationship. And look what happened since then. One tweak of a policy opened doors for such a bigger platform for both the countries as trusted partners," said Lisa, who is now the CEO of Australia India Institute.
Lisa said that she doesn't agree that it was the China factor that brought both the countries closer. "It was the deliberate policy setting through the Uranium agreement that restarted to shift things," she added.
"I was at the Parliament at that time and everyone started to look at India differently after that," said Lisa, who was honoured with Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2015 by the President of India. Recalling her first speech in New Delhi along with the current Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in 2015, which was then sponsored by Australia India Institute, she said the ties had from then on strengthened with six high-level visits of both the Prime Ministers last year alone. "And now I am heading the same institute," she added.
Lisa’s institute has also contributed to the Australian Government’s development of a roadmap. This roadmap will focus and accelerate work and harmonise efforts with state and federal governments, businesses, and community organisations. The report is likely to be tabled during the month of October, she said.
Recalling her roots to India, Singh says her grandparents were natives of Madhya Pradesh and were indentured by British India as labourers to Fiji to work in sugar plantations. When I was in the Senate in 2010, it came as a shock to me to become the first woman of Indian heritage to be elected as a senator in the Australian parliament. "It was the beginning of a journey with India and the Indian diaspora. I already had some connection with India. Over the eight years I was in the senate , I was very much trying to fly the Indian flag and the interest in India was slowly growing but not like what we are today," she said.
On the impact of the visa fee hike for Indian students from Australian Dollar (AUD) 710 to AUD 1,600, she said the fee hike was implemented recently and it is hard to gauge the impact.