Dec 19 - Australia Supports Gibraltar’s Wish To Remain British
Australia supports Gibraltar and its wish to remain British - this was the message a senior Australian official who is in Gibraltar on a familiarisation visit.
This is the first time Gibraltar is hosting an Australian official, and it’s Alexander Downer AC, the Australian High Commissioner to the UK, who has come to the Rock to get better acquainted with its people and its politics.
Speaking to the press today at the University of Gibraltar, Mr Downer said his commission has consul responsibilities for the small number of Australians living in Gibraltar.
He said that although Gibraltar is small, it enjoys a strategic location and that’s what makes it important, adding that his interest in the Rock stemmed from the Australian government wanting to get some perspective on Gibraltar’s relationship with Spain.
Mr Downer said: “We have a very simple view of that, and that is that the people of Gibraltar should be able to determine their own future, they’ve made it emphatically clear that they want to maintain their status as a British Overseas Territory and there seems to me to be no inclination to want to change that and we fully respect that.”
Just before meeting with the press, Mr Downer met with the University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Daniella Tilbury to speak about opportunities for the University of Gibraltar to work with Australian universities.
Mr Downer said Gibraltar’s financial sector might also be attractive to Australian firms for future investments. He added that online gaming and gambling is a sensitive issue in Australia and is heavy regulated. The rise in the FinTech sector in Gibraltar has caught Mr Downer’s interest, especially the evolution and how quickly it has grown.
With regards to the importance of fostering links with Gibraltar, especially with a backdrop of Brexit, Mr Downer said Australia did not view Brexit quite through the same lens as the UK and even Gibraltar does, however he believes whether the UK voted to remain or to leave the EU, Australia’s relationship with the UK would continue to be strong, adding that there are more British-born people living in the Australia than in the whole of the European Union’s member states.
He added: “I think the relationship with Gibraltar is going to be naturally a very uncomplicated one.”
Mr Downer said that once the UK leaves the EU, they will be negotiating direct trade links, and would want to incorporate Gibraltar into those negotiations.
While the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo is on paternity leave, Mr Downer has been shown around Gibraltar by the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, and while he’s been here he’s met with His Excellency the Governor Lt Gen Ed Davis, as well as the Attorney General Michael Llamas QC, and other government ministers.
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