Gerard Barron

Such a privilege to be here.

Well, I should correct that a tiny bit.

It's more, you know, Tonga is a beautiful Pacific Island country, but I should mention Tonga and Nauru, which is also an even smaller country, little island in the Pacific.

But, look, it's a pretty –

I'm a pretty frequent traveler, that's for sure.

And I'm Australian, of course, as you said.

But over the last 14 years, I've been working with Pacific Island countries.

And I mean, they are amazing people.

I mean, Tonga is beautiful.

Nauru is really special.

It's where the birds used to stop when they headed south.

No kidding.

And so it was discovered about 80 years ago that it was rich in phosphate.

And so the Germans and the English and Australians and Kiwis came and took it all.

And, you know, it was discovered back when good old James Cook was sailing the world after he discovered Australia and he called it Pleasant Island.

And then

Everyone came and took all of their beautiful phosphate, which was used to feed the world.

And so now you have 80% of the island that's uninhabitable.

Then they handed the country back to the people of Nauru.

Said, how would you like independence now that we've taken everything that you've got?