Guest speaker: Andrew Wallace (Federal MP for Fisher)
Andrew has had an interesting career – a carpenter, a builder, a barrister and an MP since 2016.
He is now deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee for Intelligence and Security (aka The PJCIS) in the Federal Parliament. This is the oversight committee of all of Australia’s Intelligence Agencies, Foreign and Domestic. He is also Deputy chair of the Defence sub-committee.
Where we are right now in the world is not a particularly good place. It has been described as the “most unstable geopolitical environment since the second world war”. Democracies are seeing increasing amounts of cyberattacks on critical infrastructure. – “Grey Zone warfare – including attacks on the democratic institutions of western liberal countries. Director-General of Security, Mike Burgess the head of ASIO, has described Australia’s greatest threat as of today as being Foreign Interference.
He stressed the importance of people being aware of the risks that we face. There is a War on European soil. If there was no pushback on V Putin, there is no knowing where he would stop. Australia needs to be smarter in development of Asymmetric warfare technologies. Australia needs to be able to provide potential adversaries with “Pause for Thought”. He discussed Regional issues, including Taiwan where he is due an imminent visit. He discussed the US investments in Airbases etc in Northern Australia.
The first stage of modern warfare is not through the firing of munitions, but through cyber warfare. He discussed the “Pause for Thought” impact of nuclear submarines. and the timescales for the AUKUS agreements. UK and US submarines are Australian waters now.
Hello Friends and Rotarians
Only 10 days to go to the annual Rotary Peace Fellow Seminar. Come and be inspired by Class 21. Hear from a group of young people who are making a positive difference in the world. This is a free event but you must book. It includes Morning tea, Lunch and Networking and drinks at the close.
ROTARY PEACE FELLOWS’ SEMINAR 2024 ‘The Power of Community: Participating in Peace’ 10:30am - 6:00pm (Registration from 10:00am)
Saturday, April 13th , 2024
The Women’s College, UQ St Lucia
10:30am - 6:00pm (Registration from 10:00am)
More details on the flyer attached and we look forward to seeing you there.
Our early club members built the Tourist Information Centre on Caloundra Road, and the legacy of their hard work has now entitled us to rent out the billboard advertising spaces located there.
Council has specified that we advertise tourist attractions only, so when we find suitable advertisers this provides us with a regular source of income for distribution to charities of our choice. This is one way in which we can work smarter not harder. Australia Zoo has just withdrawn their sign, so we now need to find advertisers for the two vacant spaces that are now there. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. The Queensland Air Museum has indicated that they will replace their full-size sign now that we have a long-term maintenance agreement with Council.
- information on events and fundraisers;
- director reports;
- notices of committee meetings;
- community and Rotary news;
- jokes; and
- pictures.