Premier Chris Minns India
Pawan Luthra: Premier Chris Minns has just returned from India with deals, new partnerships and plenty of optimism about the future of the New South Wales-India relationship. But beyond the photo opportunities and boardroom meetings, what did the Premier actually learn about India and what does he intend to do differently now that he’s seen the country up close? Welcome to Indian Link, Premier.
Premier Chris Minns: Thanks so much for having me, I appreciate it.
Pawan Luthra: Premier, you went to India knowing there was a huge opportunity for NSW. After being there, what did you see that made you think this is an opportunity you haven’t fully understood before?
Premier Chris Minns: Well, whilst we were in India, it was confirmed that their economy is growing at over seven percent and that’s in, you know, a difficult global economic environment – but it was confirmed to be exponentially increasing growth and the middle class is exploding, that the country’s changing rapidly, that there are wonderful opportunities between India and Australia because we’ve got largely complementary economies.
We’re not particularly in competition with one another, so that’s the good news. The bad news or the challenging news is that India has options. They’re ideally placed to go east or west and they’ve got markets available to them around the world, so we can take advantage of their massive growth but we’re going to have to work at it and probably work harder than we have on the Chinese relationship, for example.
Pawan Luthra: Right, this is in fact my second question, because India is moving incredibly fast. What do we do, what do we need to do from a NSW point of view to get more connected with India to make sure that once a visit is over, they don’t forget about us?
Premier Chris Minns: Well, let them know about the opportunities here, whether that’s in education, critical minerals, tourism, agriculture, and finance. I mean there’s wonderful things, institutions here that are very compatible with Indian businesses. But, I mean those people-to-people relationships are still hugely important because I think that’s the initial step you need to take to get a deeper commercial arrangement. We also need to see Indian-Australian kids, Australians with Indian heritage, to think about starting businesses and exploiting their family, exploiting their cultural language and familial links because, you know, they have a big advantage because they can be based here in Australia but have access to this fast-growing economy.
Pawan Luthra: So that’s back on the Indian-Australian community but from the government point of view, do you see an increase in trade commissioners, increase in more missions coming from here, like the education minister going there on behalf of NSW? Are there any plans on that basis?
Premier Chris Minns: There are. We were able to meet the Chief Minister of Maharashtra who made a decision to start a working group that would be formalized in 90 days to deepen relationships between NSW and Maharashtra with a specific aim of looking at bilateral opportunity. So, if you’re a company that can see advantages in Mumbai and the surrounding economy, which is large as well, it’s roughly the same size as NSW economically, although it has 104 million people in it, then that is an exciting opportunity and that’s government-to-government. It was his suggestion; Fadnavis made the offer, and I took him up on it.
Pawan Luthra: Anything coming from NSW point of view to have more trade commissioners or more visits to India?
Premier Chris Minns: Yeah, well I mean, I think the visits are important. I’m, you know, I’m a spendthrift. I want to make sure that we’re using taxpayer dollars efficiently and we’ve got a presence, we’ve got a fantastic presence in Mumbai and in Delhi but I think in some respects this is going to be driven by the government here and businesses in Australia.
Pawan Luthra: Fair enough. Now you mentioned about the Indian diaspora. Now after spending time in India, did you come away with a different understanding of the Indian-Australian community and the role it can play as a bridge between the two countries?
Premier Chris Minns: I don’t know if it was a different point of view. I mean to the extent I had a point of view; I understood that, you know, the diaspora here in Australia is very passionately Australian but has deep reverence and respect for their Indian roots. I mean, it’s hard to speak stereotypically of hundreds of thousands of people.
People have got different views about all kinds of things but my understanding of it is – deeply proud to be Australian and have a deep understanding of their Indian cultural roots. I don’t think it’s my trip’s changed that view other than a realisation that this is a big economic opportunity for us and you know I’m a big defender and supporter of the Indian community here in Sydney. In some political quarters they’ve been heavily criticised, completely unfounded and unfair because they’ve been wonderful Australians and they need someone who’s got their back and that’s going to be me.
Pawan Luthra: Wonderful. Premier, on that topic, India is watching Australia’s debate about migration and increasingly racism. What message did it take to India about how welcome Indians are in NSW? You are (welcoming), but do you think other politicians from different sides need to be stronger in confronting racism against Indian-Australians?
Premier Chris Minns: Well, you can see racism if you want to see it. It’s very clear when someone is attempting to demonise a different group, a different community, say that they’re not proud Australians and they don’t care about the country or that they’re trying to come in and just support one political party. I mean all of that is terrible for that community.
It’s unfair, it’s not the Australian way. It’s antithetical to the kind of multicultural community we’ve built in Australia. So, on basic fairness grounds, it should be rejected. It’s also very counterproductive to our economic growth and opportunities because we want this group to do well in terms of international trade and we want to say to big countries like India that we’re proud of our Indian-Australian diaspora and we think that they’re fantastic Australians.
Pawan Luthra: Do you see that rhetoric increasing in the next few months as we go to the elections in the state?
Premier Chris Minns: Look, I hope not, but I can’t promise that, but what I would say is that when I see it, I’ll call it out. It needs to be confronted and if it’s left unconfronted, you’re not forthright about what this community’s done for NSW and Australia, I think it gathers momentum. So, people have to stand up and defend the kind of community that we have here.
Pawan Luthra: Wonderful. Premier, now putting aside the Premier and the trade mission hats, just aside for a moment, what personally surprised you most about India? What did you see or experience that you simply did not expect?
Premier Chris Minns: Look we saw groups from many (layers of society), it’s a complicated country, and you know, has enormous wealth, enormous prosperity and also got sections of real poverty. But I thought that even in desperate situation where you had really impoverished people, their sense of optimism and hope about the future was infectious and generally speaking as interesting and dynamic and green and verdant as it was, the best thing I took away from it was how lovely the people were. We just felt welcome wherever we went.
Pawan Luthra: Warm and friendly.
Premier Chris Minns: Warm and friendly, absolutely.
Pawan Luthra: Premier, now this is a current local issue which is of interest to a lot of Australians and the migrant communities in Sydney’s Western suburbs. Is your government prepared to put taxpayers’ money on the line to rescue Bathla and get these unfinished homes completed, or will the hundreds of buyers who have already put their life savings into these projects be left to carry the cost?
Premier Chris Minns: Well, there’s two separate questions there. I’m not prepared to bail out a private company that has its own investors. I mean ultimately that’s a private firm; they’ve made the decision, and if that happened, I’d be a government that would be expected to do that in every and all circumstances, and it’s not my money.
It’s New South Wales taxpayer money.
Pawan Luthra: My money.
Premier Chris Minns: It’s your money. Now the story out of Bathla is that it’s opaque finances; it’s unclear where the money went, it’s heavily indebted. I don’t think it’s our state’s interest to be piling money into that business on behalf of those owners. The question as it relates to unfinished homes and contractors is a separate one and of course, we’ll talk with administrators about how we can help those that have put down deposits or are waiting on the house to be completed as well as the contractors who are in the field, but I’m not interested in 9bailing this company out). I mean, they asked for $20 million upfront with potential for an extra $100 million. That’s half a hospital. We were given 24 hours to agree to it.
No businessman, no Premier, no one who cared about finances would make that deal, and I’m prepared to look at and see what we can do for the subbies and those who are waiting, but I can’t bail out the private investors.
Pawan Luthra: Fair enough. Premier, did you get a call from George Bailey while you were away? He’s the Australian cricket selector and after watching your cricket peformance he said there’s a two-down position of Marnus Labuschagne open. Did you get that call yet, or are you waiting for that call?
Premier Chris Minns: (Laughs) I actually got a bit of criticism for my cricket! They reckoned I was too slow off the back foot and my cut shot was late.
Pawan Luthra: I think you and High Commissioner Green got into a bit of a competition.
Premier Chris Minns: Well, he was going for it! So, the natural spirit came out in the competition. I probably should have gone a bit easier but no, it was good fun.
Pawan Luthra: Lovely. Thank you, Premier Chris Minns India
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