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Hello, everyone.

It is a great honour to visit Vietnam as Australia’s 28th Governor-General. I am so grateful for the generous welcome my team and I have received.

I am thankful for the warm welcome from our co-host, the Ho Chi Minh National Academy, and particularly its President, Professor Nguyen Xuan Thang.

I also acknowledge members of the diplomatic corps who are here today.

I congratulate the Government and people of Vietnam on the 80th anniversary of your National Day.  

Vietnam’s journey over eight decades is a remarkable story of resilience, dynamism, and achievement.  

On this, my first visit to Vietnam as Australia’s Governor-General, I am delighted to witness first-hand Vietnam’s beauty and vitality in its 80th anniversary year.

But I also reflect on a trip I made to Vietnam in the early 1990s where I first experienced the friendship of Vietnamese people across your beautiful country.

To see Vietnam over 30 years later is such a joy.

I am proud to be part of the third Vietnam–Australia Forum, continuing the fine legacy of Australian leaders who have addressed the first two:

Our Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who opened the inaugural Forum in 2023…

And our Senate President, Sue Lines, who opened last year’s Forum.  

This is an important gathering for both our countries, and for the work we do together, through the Vietnam Australia Centre, and well beyond.

The theme of this year’s Forum is Building Public Service Excellence in a New Era of Growth.

It has resonance for both our countries, and relevance to our plans for the future, both as sovereign nations, and as regional partners.

We are here today to exchange ideas and learn from each other about public sector reform.

We can do this because our countries are longstanding friends.  

Australia is deeply committed to Vietnam.

Ever since 1973, when we were one of the first countries in the world to establish diplomatic relations with the (then) Democratic Republic of Vietnam, just 30 days after the historic signing of the Paris Peace Accords.

The following year, we welcomed the first Vietnamese students to Australia – the beginning of a long and robust education partnership, and an important stage in our evolution as a modern, multicultural nation.

Recently, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of Vietnamese settlement in Australia, where we reflected that the people who began to arrive as migrants in 1975 were the beginning of a community of more than 350,000 people in Australia with Vietnamese ancestry.

We spent time at our National Archives with many of those original Vietnamese migrants and celebrated the remarkable contribution their families have made to Australia.

Without our Vietnamese families, Australia would not be the country we are today.  

And the relationship between our two countries would not be what it is without those 50 years of cooperation, common interests, dialogue and trust.  

Australia is at home in the Indo-Pacific, embedded and connected through forums like this, as well as ASEAN, the East Asia Summit, and others.

Across the region, we are modernising and enhancing our relationships.

In March last year, our two Prime Ministers officially upgraded our relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.  

This was a historic milestone, reflecting the depth of our strategic trust and shared aspirations.  

In 2025, Australia's partnership with Vietnam tackles the complex challenges of our time: from climate change, to regional prosperity and stability, to gender equality and public sector reform.

And the Vietnam Australia Centre is absolutely the centrepiece of our modern partnership.  

It’s a mechanism to exchange knowledge, and to equip leaders with the skills they need to understand and manage the issues of our time.

Australia and Vietnam are both grappling with these issues: global trade volatility, economic growth, digital transformation, the energy transition, social cohesion – and many more we could name.

At the same time, Vietnam is entering a new era, with the ambition of becoming a high-income country by 2045.  

Achieving this vision will require economic dynamism, and private sector growth.

But it will also require modern, robust and responsive public institutions.

This is exactly what Vietnam’s bold new program of public sector reform – the most ambitious since the Doi Moi reforms in 1986, which Australia supported – is designed to achieve.

And what today’s Forum is all about.

As you contemplate these reforms, in the Forum’s spirit of exchange and mutual support, I want to share with you some of Australia’s recent experience of public sector reform.

Before I do, it is important to note that my role as Governor-General has no politics or policy. Nor do I make funding decisions.  

My role is drawn from Australia’s British institutions, which, with our 65,000 years of continuous culture shared by First Nations Australians and the waves of migration I mentioned earlier, combine to make the modern Australia we enjoy today.

My challenge as Governor-General is to approach this most traditional of roles in a way that is fit for purpose for the modern nation we have become.

To make the role visible, transparent and relatable, always with optimism.  

I have put storytelling and transparency at the core of what I do – using modern communication channels to reach Australians and explain my constitutional duties – what they are, why they matter and how I exercise them.

I have also put care, kindness and respect at the core of my work, particularly care for our civics and institutions, and care for the way in which we debate complex issues.

In that sense I consider myself a steward of this position – determined to hand the Office of Governor-General to my successor, whoever she or he may be, in a strong position.

I also believe strongly in the importance of all our citizens having a thorough understanding of our constitution, and our civic institutions.

Our society and our government are designed to function best when most people are engaged and informed.

When citizens understand their rights and obligations within our system.  

So my bold ambition for my term is to reach as many Australians as we can with the meaning, the narrative, and the implications of our system of Government, and my role in it.  

To come back to stewardship, I hope all Australians will see themselves as stewards of our rights and freedoms, and of the institutions that keep us safe and together.

In August of last year, I gave royal assent to the Public Service Amendment Act 2024.

One of the changes now enshrined in law was the addition of ‘stewardship’ as a new value in the Australian Public Service.

Put simply, stewardship in this context means that public servants have a responsibility to preserve and even improve the public sector institutions they work in.

It’s about building the public sector’s capacity to serve the Australian community right now, and well into the future.  

To consider long-term as well as immediate implications of what the public service does.  

As our Minister for the Public Service, Senator Katy Gallagher, put it,  

‘As servants of the public, we are all responsible and accountable for leaving the Australian Public Service in better shape than we found it.’

I reflect often on my focus of putting care, kindness and respect at the centre of my work.

It can be easy to write care off as something soft, but there is a hard edge to care. Care can be rigorous, accountable, and demanding.

In its widest sense, it encompasses care for future generations, manifest in care for the world we pass on to them.

I believe that when we put care at the centre of every decision we make – whether it is in relation to global challenges like climate change, macro-economic decisions that shape the wellbeing and wealth of our people, investment and education decisions and so on – we get better decisions and better outcomes.

I understand that Vietnam has recently introduced its own sweeping reforms by reducing the number of provincial-level administrative units from 63 to 34 and introducing a two-tier local government system and a new administrative framework at the commune level.

I wish the people and government of Vietnam well with these reforms.

Australia’s recent reforms complement a longstanding commitment to ensuring the Australian public service recognises and reflects the diversity of the Australian community.

In the Australian public service, all employment must be merit-based.

This means that we are drawing from the largest possible pool of talent and skill, and also that our public service will reflect the broadest cross-section of our society.

That it will be modern and agile, never the enemy of ambition but its engine.

I am very pleased that Australia’s 48th parliament, which opened in July this year, is the most diverse in our history – including Dai Le [Die Leh], our first Member of Parliament of Vietnamese heritage.

As well as cultural and linguistic and religious diversity, we now have gender parity in the Cabinet, the House of Representatives and the Senate.

And in the public service, women are almost 60 per cent of the workforce and now make up 50 percent of the senior executive service – the leaders of the public sector.

At the highest levels, we are still in pursuit of gender parity.

We have had exactly one woman as Prime Minister so far.

In her address last year, Sue Lines noted that she was the second woman to be President of the Australian Senate in 120 years.

In that same span of more than a century, I am the second woman to be Governor-General.

As all of us in this room know, achieving progress towards gender parity is slow, steady work.

But it is definitely worth striving for, no matter how long it takes.

As another trailblazing Australian woman, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle, said - it is wonderful to be the first woman in Cabinet, but it is more important not to be the last.

I used those same words when I was appointed as the first woman to the governing body of the Australian Football League in 2005.

Today, that sport has almost 50% women in governance, and a women’s league.

Like Senator Wong and President Lines, I am looking forward to a future in which there are many more women leaders.  

Where there are actually fewer ‘firsts’ and more seconds, thirds, fourths…  

Where having a remarkable woman in a leadership role is in itself unremarkable.  

Achieving that balance in leadership is not an end in itself.

The reason we want more diversity is that it’s better for organisations, for people, for families, and for our society.  

The research is very clear that more diverse organisations, and diverse leadership groups, lead to better outcomes – including financial outcomes.

This message was uppermost when I was Chair of the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce, and also when I was Deputy Chair of the Diversity Council of Australia.

I often spoke about the way gender inequality not only holds women back, it holds countries back; and not only socially, but economically.

I told Australian policy makers that ‘as we enter much more difficult economic conditions, the full utilisation of the one of the most educated, energetic and capable cohorts — women— has never been more important.’

Inclusive policy-making, ensuring that reforms benefit everyone – especially women, marginalised communities, and people with disabilities – is just one of many areas in which Australia and Vietnam can deepen our collaboration.

We can also cooperate in digital governance, where technology can transform how services are delivered and how citizens engage with government, including for those most in need and hardest to reach.

And in climate-responsive governance, where public institutions must lead in building resilience and sustainability.

These are not just areas of technical cooperation—they are shared challenges that call for shared solutions.  

As someone who has had the privilege of working in public and private sector roles across my career, I know firsthand the importance of government and the private sector working hand in hand to grow the economy.

General Secretary To Lam has spoken about the private sector as a new driver for Vietnam's economic development.

In Australia, we know this to be true. During my time as a director at Optus (one of the largest telecommunications companies in Australia), I saw firsthand how the private sector can drive ‘breakthroughs’ in digital transformation and technology, together with the Government.

In my current role, I see the great strength and integrity of our public service.

I have a panoramic view of the kinds of work our public servants do – most of them in Canberra, but many also spread out across our nation and the world.

But I also have a close-up view when I engage with different facets of the public service in the course of my duties.

For instance, my three military Aides-de-camp are with me everywhere I go, and they are a window for me, as Commander-in-Chief, into understanding our modern defence force.

I am accompanied everywhere by members of our federal police, and I see firsthand their discipline and dedication to keeping me, my family, and all Australians safe.

Just last week, we lost two police officers in Victoria – both shot and killed in the line of duty.

It was a terrible reminder of the risks our police take to keep us safe.

We will not forget their courage.

I also interact with our public servants in the mechanics of government – the briefs I receive, the bills I give Royal Assent to, the workings of the House and the Senate in the day-to-day business of government.

And, of course, when I travel overseas, I am supported magnificently by our Ambassadors and their staff.

One of the most enjoyable parts of any trip – whether I’m travelling in Europe, or the Middle East, or Southeast Asia – is meeting the embassy and consular staff. Learning about their work, and observing the way they have made themselves at home in another country.

Australia is a multicultural nation – made up, as Minister Wong reminds us, of people from more than 300 ancestries.

That multiculturalism is on show in food and festivals, sharing culture and learning language.

But also in the complex cooperation and international collaboration which is essential to our progress.  

The real strength of our partnership lies in our people—in the public servants, scholars, and leaders, the business owners and community leaders – who work every day to improve lives.

Australia is proud to support Vietnam’s new era of growth, and to be walking together on this journey to create a future-ready, inclusive and diverse public service.  

Through today’s forum, and in the days ahead of us, I hope we can continue to learn from one another, to innovate together, and to build public services that are worthy of our citizens’ trust.