Officers of the Indian Police Service, ladies and gentlemen, I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather.

I offer my warmest congratulations to Charles Sturt University for this most esteemed Mid-Career Training to Superintendents of the Indian Police Service.

Now in its second highly successful year, this program is a hallmark of your commitment to the wider Australian community, and the internationalisation of higher education.

CSU’s Australian Graduate School of Policing is the leading provider of postgraduate research and education for law enforcement, security and emergency management professionals.

Its teaching and research expertise covers a broad and impressive range

of important global issues: international terrorism, organised crime, drug trafficking, financial crime, corruption, cyber-crime, people trafficking and natural disaster emergency management.

Since 1993 the program’s courses have attracted students from around the world.

Today you offer education and training in Abu Dhabi, China, India, New Zealand, Indonesia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.

I am immensely proud to be an Honorary Doctor of the University;        and, some years ago, to have chaired the Board of Management for its Diploma of Policing Practice, which is now an important part of the education of new police officers in this State; how satisfying it was to work with Professor Ross Chambers – a generous and extraordinarily capable scholar; and to engage with students, teaching staff and serving police officers in a rigorous review of operational and development needs in NSW policing.

Superintendants, I know that this second phase of your Mid Career Training has been demanding.  I hope it has also been rewarding.

For many of you this is a critical opportunity: to build on your field exposure and improve your personal performance levels, to test the validity of your academic learning, to acquire new skills and knowledge that you can use at home to improve the performance of the forces you command.

But, as we say here in Australia, all work and no play, is just not cricket!

I cannot conclude without a mention of the healthy rivalry between our two countries: The World Cup reminded us that India is a great cricketing nation.  The quarter final between Australia and India reached fever pitch here in Australia and showed that 50-over cricket is alive and well.

On Wednesday the former Chairman of the International Cricket Council, Malcolm Speed, launched his book Sticky Wicket and expressed excitement about the potential for a game that has attracted one-fifth of the world’s population.

During media interviews he described his dream to see the game take off in China, which boasts 40% of the world’s population¹.

Can you imagine that? India versus China! What a match!

Superintendents, I wish you well in the closing days of your overseas study tour and encourage you to make the most of your time here in our beautiful country.