The purpose of this important Club event is to raise money for the Rotary Foundation to complement member subscriptions and other individual donations to the Paul Harris Society and end-polio activities. It is a priority for the Club because the Foundation is the heart of the value that Rotary offers the world and its members. Hence, I am pleased to advise members that the Club will net approx. $10,300 this year for the Rotary Foundation from our 33rd event held on Tuesday 18th November at the Windsor Hotel.
Of our 140 attendees, approx. 30 members/honorary members attended, many with partners/guests, and 13 Rotary Clubs were represented.
Speaker Baethan Mullen, CEO of the Superpower Institute, provided a very thought provoking presentation. It covered:
- A summary of the history of Australia’s successful response, in the postwar period until now, to global opportunities which saw massive investment in fossil fuel and mineral resources for export to meet the industrialising needs firstly of Japan, then South Korea and finally China. Exploiting its competitive advantages successfully, apart from often squandering the export earnings, today Australia is one of the world’s great resource countries often from remote and harsh locations. This has created great wealth for each Australian, unparalleled infrastructure, and world-class technical, financial and export capability
- Today, we face a changed global environment. The world must rapidly decarbonise if it is to avert environmental disaster from a climate which is warming too rapidly. Importantly, we must respond to the new demands of our trading partners, which requires that Australia pivot rapidly away from fossil fuels. However, like in the earlier postwar period, there are significant competitive advantages for Australia in this transition, and greater wealth than has been generated to date, if these advantages can be seized
- Over the next 50 years, the world will need value added minerals, and a diversity of refined metal and fertilizer products produced from renewable energy sources which produce no carbon emissions. In addition, coal and gas are now sunset industries. Australia, especially in its west and north, is one of the few countries which can generate the amount of renewable energy at huge scale and cheap cost to produce these high value resources from green electricity, hydrogen and ammonia. In addition, some energy may be able to be directly exported.
For those interested, the link to Baethan Mullen’s presentation is: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/
A big thank you goes to all members who assisted execute the event and especially to: Rohan, Therese, Campbell, Kevin, John, Suvam, Roy, Nicholas, Neville John and Elias. Thanks also to District Governor Peter Shepheard and Foundation Director Julie Mason. Julie provided an interesting overview of our District’s Foundation activities and, from the Glenferrie Club, Endo Masayo a visiting scholar was able to attend.
Despite the major issue of our speaker Superpower Institute Director Prof Ross Garnaut having to be replaced by his CEO Baethan Mullen, we received positive feedback, including that Baethan’s presentation was very valuable.
The SAG is reviewing the event and Rohan and Paul will provide further details shortly. Please provide your feedback and suggestions on the event which are very welcome.