Friday, 31 October 2025
Government House
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn babana gamarada Gadigal Ngura

I greet you in the language of the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the Traditional Owners of this land on which we gather, as I welcome you to Government House. I pay my respects to Gadigal Elders, past, present and emerging.  

Welcome to Government House. Dennis and I are, once again, so pleased to be able to host you all here to celebrate another year of one of the busiest consular corps in the world. 

I extend a particularly warm welcome to our new Consuls-General and Honorary Consuls this evening.

Thank you also to Consul-General Charbel Macaron, Dean of the Consular Corps, for your leadership and wise counsel over the past year.  

The role of Consul – to offer, dispense and take counsel – is as important to our contemporary community as it was in classical times. Indeed, perhaps, the world is in need of counsel and diplomacy now more than ever.  

The word ‘diplomacy’ comes from the ancient Greek word “diploma” which is made up of the word “diplo”, meaning ‘folded in two’ and the suffix “ma”, meaning ‘an object’ – an object folded in two. This diploma granted certain privileges to the person in possession of it, most often as a permit for travel. The term diploma was later ‘borrowed’ by Latin and came to mean an ‘official document’. As the word entered the 18th century, the French fashioned the term ‘diplomate’ to refer to a person authorised to negotiate on behalf of the State, and the phrase ‘corps diplomatique’ referred to those officials involved in foreign policy.^[1]  

Some ten centuries earlier, in 921, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan, an expert in Islamic jurisprudence and a diplomatic envoy of the Abbasid Caliph’s embassy in Baghdad, was sent to explain the Islamic faith and laws to the Bulgar King and his people. The Abbasid Caliphate was the third Islamic Caliphate and ruled between 750 and 1258.  The Bulgars were a nomadic Turkic people who at the time lived on the Volga and Kama Rivers,^[2] in present-day Russia. Ibn Fadlan had travelled some 4000 kilometres through winter’s sub-zero temperatures following the ‘silk road’ caravan routes to get there.  

On arriving at his destination, he presented the Caliph’s letter. The King was most upset that Ahmad Ibn Fadlan did not also hand to him the 4000 dinars promised by the Caliph in his letter. Unsurprisingly, relations between the King and the Caliph soured.  

The King resorted to some interesting tactics, including threatening Ibn Fadlan by showing him the remains of a giant who had been hanged for swimming in the river.^[3]  

This strange but true tale highlights that challenges have always arisen between countries, especially when expectations or understandings differ. Your roles in carefully, thoughtfully, and collegially working for and supporting the interests of your country, is a testament to what you bring to the role of diplomat. 

As representatives of your respective countries, you serve them well here in New South Wales and add much to our State and its peoples.