Source: Australian Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry
A very big thanks to Mark for the introduction and the opportunity to say a few words tonight.
To Jane for making the trip to Sydney for the celebrations and for making the time to meet with me this afternoon.
To all the familiar faces gathered here at the Opera House, on Gadigal land.
And everyone from Citi in particular: happy birthday.
One hundred years is an extraordinary milestone by any measure.
But what you may not know is tonight could easily have been your 110th anniversary.
The history of that lost decade sits in our National Archives.
In 1916, the Commonwealth Bank Governor Sir Denison Miller wrote to the Treasury Secretary about a request from the National City Bank of New York to open in Australia.
Sir Denison opposed the request, partly on grounds of international reciprocity.
‘I do not think there is anything to stop them opening a branch if they care to,’ he wrote in his advice.
‘Although the Commonwealth Bank of Australia could not open a branch in New York if it desired to.’
Sir Denison’s letter was signed ‘your obedient servant’ – not how subsequent CEOs of the CBA have described themselves, at least not to me.
But Treasurer William Higgs agreed with the advice, and the request was declined.
History shows the rebuff didn’t stop Citi.
Ten years later the bank opened in Australia.
Since then, Citi’s Australian century tracks the evolution of our 3 economies following Federation.
In the early 1900s, still agricultural and colonial.
Forty years later, a new industrial economy, but highly protected for international banks, following the 1937 Royal Commission and wartime controls of the 1940s.
Then a third economy in the 1980s when Paul and Bob opened us up to the world.
By then Citi was already well known to government, after its big role in the mid‑70s buying Industrial Acceptance Corporation.
When Citi received its Australian banking licence in 1985, it was the only foreign bank to get one without a domestic partner here.
This was a unique marker of trust – but also a sign of where Australia’s more open economy was heading.
Forty years on, Citi is playing a defining role helping to build a fourth Australian economy, powered by cleaner energy and transformed by technology, and helping to ensure Australia is an island of stability and opportunity in a sea of volatility and risk.
That’s why I’m really grateful to the entire crew at Citi – and personally grateful to Mark, who I’ve come to know pretty well.
We thank you for conferring with us and working with us.
One part of our partnership is the A50 forum here in Sydney.
The A50 has become an annual highlight, bolstered last year with the NSW government coming on board, and I acknowledge Daniel Mookhey, who’s here tonight.
There’s a deeper reason why partnerships like A50 are more important than ever in this new world of uncertainty.
A reason that Sir Denison didn’t predict in the letter he wrote 110 years ago.
One of his other arguments for recommending against Citi’s entrance was that it would not help the business of the Commonwealth ‘in any way’, to use his words.
Maybe that view made sense at the time.
But it also illustrates the most consequential change in international finance over the past hundred years.
For much of the 20th century, governments spent a lot of their time filing the sharp edges off markets.
Few would have imagined a hundred years ago the role markets would play in filing the sharp edges off governments.
Finance was seen as a source of volatility and risk that needed to be managed and restrained – and for good reason.
In Australia, we did this by building a robust regulatory system, establishing the rules of the game for capital requirements and risk tolerance.
Fast forward a century and we are living in a near‑permanent state of global economic upheaval.
Four shocks in just 20 years have come from trade tensions, a pandemic, busted supply chains, and financial crises, at the same time as structural changes in AI, energy, demography and geopolitics reshape the bigger backdrop.
In this environment, no government can insure itself against every upheaval.
Public balance sheets alone cannot and should not absorb every risk.
Capital flows and markets can do for governments what governments once did for markets.
Imposing discipline and absorbing shocks.
In an unpredictable world, well‑functioning and well‑regulated capital markets can be a source of stability, not just speculation.
Capital can smooth volatility rather than amplify it, and direct investment toward the technologies, industries and regions that offer the greatest economic potential over time.
We saw this clearly in Australia last year.
The private sector recovery was the primary story in our economy in 2025.
As public demand eased, private demand took its place and more.
Private demand has contributed more to growth than public demand for the last 4 quarters.
In the year to September, annual private demand growth lifted more than five‑fold and was responsible for all our economic growth.
At the same time, annual public demand growth was less than a third of what it was in the prior year.
This private sector‑led recovery was also broader than many economists expected.
It was across consumption, dwelling and business investment, especially in areas like renewable energy and digital infrastructure.
These investments are driving growth now and expanding our capacity for growth in the future.
And in the decade ahead, the way capital is allocated will play a decisive role in determining which countries seize the opportunities of AI, clean energy and the digital economy, and which fall behind.
Your capital will make the most of our advantages in wind and solar, digital innovation and data centres, and critical minerals.
Pricing risk, directing decisions, and allocating resources at a scale no government can match.
We know and embrace our responsibilities as governments to help create the conditions for you to succeed.
That’s why our agenda spans competition policy, better regulation and faster approvals, the net zero transformation, trade and international partnerships, and attracting investment.
It’s why the Budget in May will be all about addressing the more persistent inflation we saw in yesterday’s data, boosting productivity, and making our economy even more resilient in the face of all this global volatility.
Australia’s proposition to the world’s investors is not that we are immune from uncertainty, but that we are well placed to manage it and grasp the opportunities that flow from it: with a stable, well‑regulated financial system; deep capital markets; a world‑leading super system, and a long track record of being a reliable home for global capital, in the fastest growing region in the world.
Citi has been an important part of that story for a century, becoming an integral part of Australia’s financial system, and now playing a key role in this defining and sometimes dangerous decade.
And as we navigate all this uncertainty together, there will be an even bigger premium on relationships, trust and experience.
So, tonight is about celebrating a century of Citi in Australia.
But it’s also about recognising the role you continue to play, in investing in Australia, in getting more capital flowing around the country, and in helping us engage with a global economy characterised by churn and change.
Thank you and once again – happy birthday.