Good morning, everybody. Welcome. We're delighted to finally be in Australia's neighborhood. As everyone knows, the embassy is right across the street. It was really the first modern building that was built on Massachusetts Avenue after World War II. But it still holds its age beautifully.  And Kim, thank you for all of your help through the years. We're delighted here. And I would like to say special thanks to the foreign minister for coming today. This is the foreign minister's first public speech in Washington. Of course, she's been here for a couple of days with the Osmond, and really burning things up. It's really been impressive. And to give us a chance to welcome her and host her here is a real honor. I would say thank you, everyone, of course. Of course, knows that, well, Margaret Thatcher is the Julie Bishop of the United Kingdom. That's just the only way to really say that. And I had the privilege of talking with her a little bit last night. And as we say back home, she's tougher than a woodpecker's lips, and she's a one strong and capable person. And I could understand why when the government was forming up, and Tony Abbott was here, you came a year ago, and we had a chance to meet briefly. And I thought, this is a government that's on the rise. And it came in, and we're delighted that you've been asked to lead the nation's foreign policy establishment at a crucial time. This is a tough time. But it's a time when leadership matters. It's a time when character matters. And I've seen both of that in Foreign Minister Bishop. And so we're delighted, really honored to have you here. This is an event that's hosted by the Cemetery Bonnian Tree Leadership Forum. Ernie, I want to say thank you. Ernie is going to be moderating our discussion. I'd like to think that it was my letter of invitation that got Foreign Minister Bishop here, but it was really Ernie's charm. I know what that's like. And so I've been kind of seeing his tail lights for an awful lot of my time together. We're working together. We are broadcasting live. We are tweeting. I'm not a tweeting kind of guy. But I guess if you do hashtag CSIS live, you will hear something on the other end of that. Little tweets, I guess. But this is going to be a rare and wonderful opportunity to get insights at the start of a new administration that's looking at Asia with friendly eyes, but very important eyes for us to see through. America needs friends not to tell us what we want to hear, but to tell us what we need to hear. I think we have seen that time and again from our friends from Australia. Certainly right now with Foreign Minister Bishop. Would you please with your applause welcome her to the stage and welcome her to Washington. Thank you, John, for that introduction and Ernie. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, Twitter followers. All. I'm absolutely delighted to be here at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in your brand new premises, a stunning building in the heart of Washington, DC, conveniently located across the road from the Australian Embassy. Your proud history of providing 50 years of non-partisan assessments and policy advice, including on Australia's immediate neighborhood, what I'll call the Indian Ocean, Asia-Pacific, makes yours a natural venue for an address by a visiting Australian Foreign Minister. Coming to Washington within a few weeks of being appointed Foreign Minister, I am reminded of my distinguished predecessors who paved the way in developing Australia's relations with the United States. And one eminent figure who comes to mind is Sir Percy Spender. Appointed as Minister for External Affairs in Sir Robert Menzies' 1949 government, Sir Percy was Minister for only 16 months. Now, that's not actually why he springs to my mind. But he subsequently became Australia's Ambassador to the United States, then Vice President of the UN General Assembly with his career culminating as the President of the International Court of Justice. However, in his short time as Minister, Sir Percy left a lasting legacy, finalizing with the US envoy, John Foster Dulles, the terms of the Australia-New Zealand United States Treaty, ANZUS, and representing Australia at the treaty signing ceremony in San Francisco on the 1st of September of 1951. His views on Asia and the United States were influenced by a visit to Southeast Asia in 1950 when he became convinced of the need for a Pacific pact. Spender believed that engagement with the United States was crucial and that a Pacific pact without the United States would be a meaningless gesture. I believe his perspective remains current to this day. Governments in Australia from both sides of politics have come and gone since Sir Percy Spender's days, yet in successive parliaments and governments as busy and bruising as Australian political affairs can be, there is an unequivocal bipartisan consensus about the importance of the United States regional and global role. And the central, vitally important truth which underpins Australia's foreign policy remains the ANZUS Treaty. The principles of the alliance hold firm despite changes of government and the strength of our relationship should never depend upon the particular party in government. So the Australian government changed hands at the general election last September and I assure you that the new government is fully committed to the alliance and to working as closely as possible with the United States. It remains fundamental to how we in Australia perceive our own security and foreign policy outlook. But it's not just a treaty that brings our two nations together, it's our history that binds us. We have fought together, we have died together. From the trenches of the First World War to Afghanistan's valleys from Korea and Vietnam to the Gulf, Australians and Americans have stood together and given their lives in every single major conflict of the past 100 years. We started to find out about each other in the First World War, the centenary of which we begin commemorating next year. The first fight in which American troops were engaged alongside Australians was at Hamel in northern France under our general monash on the 4th of July, Independence Day, 1918. But it was during the depths of the Second World War that our enduring bonds were forged. Australia and the Pacific Theater were a very long way from what was centrally occupying the thoughts of the Allied commanders, North Africa and Europe. But critical elements of the US military determined Australia should be a focal point of the Pacific fight back. In March, 1943, 70 years ago, the United States' seventh fleet was formed in Brisbane to meet the threats in the Pacific. Many Royal Australian Navy vessels came under the US fleet and the overall leadership of General Douglas MacArthur. One million American servicemen and women passed through Australia. However, it wasn't until 1944 that General MacArthur commanded more Americans than Australians. As Australia and the United States stood together to defend the Pacific, we formed a partnership in a time of crisis and challenge that endures. On the 14th of September, 2001, just three days after that fateful day, Australia invoked the terms of the ANZS Treaty for the first and the only time. We were with you in your darkest hour. The Australia-United States Alliance, tested by time and events, remains the indispensable feature of Australia's strategic and security arrangements. Our ties haven't been determined solely by conflict and challenge. Our paths have been shaped by similar legacies and narratives. In each other's story, we see a reflection of our own pasts, ancient cultures from an ancient time, migrants who crossed continents and oceans for a new life. From all parts of the globe, people have come to our countries to search for a brighter future for their children. Each new arrival, adding diversity and vibrancy that makes our nation's dynamic and innovative. And as new world countries, we believe that regardless of who you are or what your background is, everyone deserves a fair go and an opportunity to succeed. It has bestowed on both our countries a global outlook and shared values. We believe in democracy in the rule of law and the fundamental freedoms. A liberal international order backed by strong institutions to underpin stability. And a commitment to an open rules-based system of trade to drive economic growth and enterprise and to provide job opportunities. Our belief in these values has been pivotal to our ability to confront shared global challenges over the last century from two world wars, the threat of communism, financial crises, to terrorist attacks. Our alliance shouldn't be considered just in the context of the past or what we have achieved. It should be viewed through the lens of future opportunities and challenges. The alliance will hold us in good stead as we face the changing nature of the regional and international landscape. The gradual emergence of what I'll call the Indo-Pacific region as an economic, political and strategic center in its own right will be one of the most significant developments of this century. This region stretches our traditional focus on East Asia to embrace India. It links two magnificent oceans, the Indian and the Pacific. And it reflects the fact that the big strategic challenges of this century are likely to be maritime. History will have no bigger arena this century than the Indo-Pacific. Already the region, including the ASEAN countries, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia, accounts for a third of global GDP. By 2020, it could account for around one third of global trade. The emergence of the Indo-Pacific's middle class is stunning and is expected to mushroom to 2.5 billion people by 2025. 60% of the globe's middle class, up from 20% in 2013. The Asian story today is about exports. Tomorrow it will be about consumption and investment. But population growth in the short term will be checked as the Asian population ages and hits a demographic ceiling. China expects its population to peak at about one and a half billion in the 2030s before a predicted demographic decline. Japan is facing a similar problem. Meanwhile, by the middle of the century, India will become the most populous nation in the world. Continued economic growth and higher standards of living will put increased pressure on resources. Infrastructure is already inadequate and is in turn creating barriers to growth. Demand for energy will grow. In the Indo-Pacific region, demand is anticipated to grow by around 40% by 2020. Wealthier populations are also demanding more and better food. They'll need more water too. As populations become wealthier, they will demand higher environmental standards. And the rapid economic transformation has created a new dynamic, rising ambitions and rising tensions. New dynamics create uncertainty. And with it comes risk. The region already contains long-running potential flashpoints, Kashmir, the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula. Territorial disputes have emerged which could stoke nationalist tendencies and drive political and foreign policy outcomes. And as new powers emerge, new balances of power and influence are being forged. China is an emerging global power and modernises India, the world's mega-democracy, and Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim democracy. New dimensions of technology and national wealth are being created. By 2020, Asia's share of global military spending will have grown to nearly one-quarter. Militaries throughout Asia have sought to modernise and continued economic growth will encourage the acquisition of higher technology military systems. For Australia, engagement with the Indo-Pacific is not just determined by a geographical proximity. Our engagement with the Indo-Pacific for the future is about a region of global significance in its own right. We are living through a period of history when a country's capacity to adapt and respond sensibly to rapid change will determine its prospects for many years to come. These are exciting but demanding times. The stakes are high and will test the strategic maturity, restraint and adaptability of all nations. It calls for innovation and vision. Australia approaches our changing region, clear-eyed and with a sense of optimism. We reject the notion that the future is predetermined in that we do not see conflict as an inevitable result of changing strategic relativities. We do not view regional politics through the prism of a zero-sum game. What we do see is a region of remarkable promise and we have an opportunity to help shape its future, an opportunity to calibrate our collective diplomatic and strategic assets to ensure that in this century our region will be peaceful and prosperous. To promote a web of stability to allow the engines of economic growth and trade to continue to lift millions of people out of poverty. To provide continued opportunities for the new middle classes. To promote an international order where the rights and responsibilities of all nations are protected and upheld. Responding creatively to these realities and fulfilling our potential in the world's most dynamic economic region constitutes the foremost challenges of Australian foreign policy. Maximising economic opportunity, minimising strategic risks. So it's against this background that we see no more important strategic decision in recent years than that outlined in President Obama's speech in Canberra in November of 2011. President Obama made clear that the United States would play a larger long-term role in shaping this region and its future by upholding core principles through close partnerships with allies and friends. Not only on the bilateral front, but also with trilateral and quadrilateral arrangements and more, the United States and Australia will be active in connecting our partners. I was pleased to meet National Security Advisor Susan Rice yesterday and to compliment her on her speech this week about the US rebalance as a cornerstone of the Obama administration's foreign policy. Dr. Rice expressed clearly and unequivocally that no matter how many hot spots emerge elsewhere, the United States will continue to deepen its commitment to our region. There is no doubt President Obama will be very welcome when he returns to Asia in April, as the rebalance is vitally important. It is the logical continuation of an American perspective that's been trending gradually towards Asia for nearly two centuries. It is a continuation of the US commitment that assisted Japan and Korea emerge from the ashes of the Second World War, a commitment that has seen the United States Navy guarantee safe passage of maritime trade which has underpinned regional trade and economic growth, a regional presence that has provided a vital check on North Korean provocations and nuclear proliferation, a security commitment that has allowed countries in Asia to prosper and to grow. That commitment is as important now as it has ever been. It might be impolite for a foreign minister to opine about the national interest of another nation, particularly while traveling in that country, but I think I'm on pretty firm grounds in saying this. United States engagement in our region is more in the American national interest than it has ever been in the past. And in my meetings with regional leaders, they want to see more United States leadership and not less. And let me be clear about this. Australia wants the United States to remain engaged with and committed to our region. It'll be the partnerships and cooperation we forge or enhance now that will help shape the region's future. And that's why I'm here in Washington with my colleague, the Minister for Defence, Senator David Johnston, of the annual bilateral talks known as OSMIN. With our counterpart, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel, we spoke of how to further our enduring strategic partnership, bilaterally and regionally, and in multilateral arenas. We shared insights and perspectives. You know, one of the most impressive things about the Alliance has been our two nations' ability to adapt how we use it to meet the changing security challenges we both face. Bilaterally, we've continued to strengthen our military cooperation and interoperability over several decades. The strength of the United States also lies in its network of alliances and partners around the world. And the Australian government is mindful of the need to play its part within the United States security umbrella. And we will restore defence expenditure to 2% of GDP, which we believe represents Australia doing its part. The Minister for Defence and I expressed our strong commitment to the implementation of the U.S. Force posture initiatives in Northern Australia, announced by President Obama in November of 2011. That was a change that we welcomed in opposition and we will continue to support in government. The Force posture involves rotational U.S. Marine Corps deployments and increased rotation of U.S. Air Force aircraft in Northern Australia. Over coming years, we expect substantial progress towards rotations of around 2,500 U.S. Marine Corps personnel and equipment. Last Wednesday, we signed a statement of principles with the United States, which provides a common vision for implementing the Force posture initiatives. We will commence the negotiations on a binding agreement to support the future cooperation. We're also committed to ensuring our bilateral cooperation through this Force posture achieves the goal of increased linkages with other countries in the region through combined training, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercises and multilateral engagement in the broader Indo-Pacific region. We've pledged to strengthen and regularise our biennial talisman sabre exercises involving around 28,000 personnel. It is Australia's and the United States' largest bilateral exercise. The scenario tests high-end military coordination, but it also incorporates a significant civilian component to test disaster and humanitarian response readiness. And we've seen recently in the response to the Philippines typhoon how our cooperation prepares us to move quickly to help our neighbours in times of crisis. Australia is one of only two countries to share a defence trade cooperation treaty with the United States, making sure our military forces can work together effectively. The United States and Australia's history of close cooperation in space was deepened this week with our signing of a memorandum of understanding, governing the arrangements for the relocation and the joint operation of a highly advanced US space surveillance telescope to Western Australia. Our shared intelligence cooperation has enhanced our security and counter-terrorism capability and has saved lives. Our alliance will continue to adapt and change and move into new spheres and new frontiers as we work together to enhance security in the Indo-Pacific region. Our commitment to achieving regional security will shape the form and content of our strategic partnership. Our government is committed to what we term economic diplomacy using our foreign policy assets to promote productivity, prosperity and growth, at home and in the region. And it's our shared belief in free trade and open markets that guides our cooperation with the United States in regional trade negotiations as exemplified in our efforts on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the TPP. I welcome the United States leadership in setting an ambitious timeframe and agenda for TPP negotiations. With membership currently covering some 40% of global GDP, it is right that we hold ambitious outcomes for the TPP. Like the United States, Australia can see the huge potential benefits of liberalizing trade among such significant players in the global economy. The TPP has the potential to deliver a major boost to trade and investment in the region that is already driving global growth and trade. The region can use more openness, transparency and lower tariff barriers to propel economic growth. When signed, the TPP stands to be a vital building block in establishing and confirming the rules-based regional and international trade order. We understand what the TPP means to the United States. A high quality agreement with an open accession clause has the potential to take the initiative on trade rules and become the primary overarching trade agreement for the region. It will give expression to an economic grouping that will drive regional trade. And the United States competitors are not standing still. The United States has been losing ground on trade market share in Asia. And the TPP is certainly not the only game in town. A range of other trade initiatives are gaining momentum in the region. So this is a big and ambitious undertaking. Finalizing an agreement will require some tough decisions by all parties. But the bottom line is simple. The United States, just as it plays a fundamental role in regional stability, also needs to be in the game on regional trade. And only the TPP includes the United States. To any skeptics, I simply state that the region cannot afford to the United States not to be part of regional trade arrangements. And this opportunity cannot be missed by the United States because it will determine the capacity of this nation to profit from the consumption and investment boom that we will see in Asia. Without this, I suggest it will be a struggle. But the TPP is only one aspect of how the future of the Indo-Pacific region will be defined as the region becomes more confident, as cooperation becomes more pressing, as transnational issues emerge, structures will develop to stop conflict and to agree on rules and cooperative patterns of behavior. The Indo-Pacific region is far from a European Union. A federal type arrangement will not emerge, given the divergent interests and values, histories and cultures. But what is emerging is a loose web of overlapping institutions that's encouraging habits of cooperation and dialogue across the region on issues ranging from trade and economic cooperation, environment and climate change and other transnational challenges. We will need to develop bodies that facilitate cooperation when times are good, but also solve problems when times are tough. We must encourage the development of a genuine and comprehensive sense of community whose habitual operating principle is cooperation. The danger in not acting is that we run the risk of succumbing to the perception that future conflict within our region is somehow inevitable. And in this endeavor, we value our close cooperation with the United States. In the 18-member East Asia Summit, we both see a grouping that has the potential to emerge as the region's premier leaders forum, one that can help foster a stable strategic environment, support the rules-based order and economic growth. With the United States included, the East Asia Summit has the right membership and the right mandate to address region-wide political, strategic and economic issues. And the Howard government rightly considered gaining membership to the EAS back in 2005 as a big foreign policy win. Our cooperation in the EAS builds on our long cooperation through APEC, of which we're both founding members. Where our priorities align, we work closely with the United States, an active and influential member in reinvigorating APEC's agenda. And like the United States, Australia places high priority on APEC's free and open trade and investment agenda, including moves to cut red tape and regulation. We're both very active in the ASEAN regional forum, a grouping that Secretary Kerry says is going to have a key role in preventative diplomacy. And in the recently renamed Indian Ocean Rim Association, or IAORA, the United States has joined as a dialogue partner. Australia will chair IAORA for the next two years and we're committed to making IAORA an essential piece of Indian Ocean regional architecture with its focus on maritime security, trade, investment, fisheries management, disaster relief, scientific and research collaboration. Beyond the region, the United States and Australia, based on our shared interests and values, work together in the full range of international institutions. We continue to work closely on United Nations Security Council issues, including North Korea, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Africa. We welcomed United States' strong support for Australia's September Security Council presidency, including our resolution on the illicit trade and misuse of small arms and light weapons. We look forward to working with the United States during our G20 host year in 2014 to produce practical outcomes which will generate investment and create jobs and develop vital global infrastructure. Jeffrey Bleich was an outstanding ambassador for the United States in our country and his farewell speech last September summed up rather neatly the nature of our ties. He said, in hard times, we bet on each other. We met our challenges head on, we came out stronger. We continue to bet on each other and the bets are significant. The United States is, by far and away, the greatest foreign investor in Australia, amounting to about $630 billion in our country. That's six times the US investment in China. Your investment is developing the critical infrastructure for our gas fields, building our agricultural sector and enhancing our financial integration into global markets. And the United States is the most important destination for Australian investment, amounting to $430 billion, 20 times our investment in China. Almost 10,000 Australian companies are doing business in the United States and we do it because the market is secure and the legal protection worlds best practice. So in terms of both trade and investment, the United States is our most significant economic partner. The United States, the nation that has produced over 300 Nobel laureates, is the go-to place if you have a new idea or a new product and we have lots of both. Earlier this year, I attended the Australian-American Leadership Dialogue at Stanford and we had a presentation from five of the best and brightest young people working in Silicon Valley as software engineers and invention capitals in startups and the like. And after hearing of this success, we were asked to guess what they had in common, apart from being precociously young and successful. They all had a degree from an Australian university. Our best and brightest continue to collaborate with US counterparts. The United States remains Australia's number one international partner in terms of joint publications in areas as diverse as astronomy, molecular biology and particle physics. Australia was the United States' eighth ranked international partner. Our educational links are strong, flowing naturally I would suggest from Australia having the largest number of top 100 universities in the world after the United States and the United Kingdom. One of my most memorable experiences was in 1996 when I attended Harvard Business School completing an advanced management program. And that whole experience of studying overseas and in the United States inspired my thinking in introducing a policy for a scholarship program to start next year for Australian students to study at universities in our region and undertake internships with businesses operating in the host country. It's been dubbed Australia's new Colombo Plan and we hope it will be a signature policy of the new government demonstrating our commitment and engagement in the region. But with more than 800 formal agreements in place between our universities, our education and research ties are on a solid platform. The visa arrangements provided by the Australia US Free Trade Agreement which we signed in 2005 means that you'll only see more Australians visiting and working in the United States, more Aussies. From music and the arts to science and business through to sport and popular culture, our extensive people to people links across the range of human endeavors will draw us even closer together in the years ahead. The transformation of the Indo-Pacific region over the recent decades has been a watershed in the evolution of Australian foreign policy. Our economic interests are inextricably tied with the region. Our businesses, our institutions, our people will need to place great effort into understanding and responding to the significant shift that is occurring. We must comprehend how the rise of the middle class in the Indo-Pacific region will transform the relationships between the region and the rest of the world. Expanded forms of economic regionalism and sub-regionalism among Indo-Pacific countries is building and is set to continue. Australia will need to meet the regional challenges of the future with the flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, but with pride in our history and in our values. So in that context, so Percy Spender's insights from 1950 still ring true 63 years on. As he told the House of Representatives of the Australian Parliament in March of 1950, I have emphasised how essential it is for Australia to maintain the closest links with the United States of America for vital security reasons. I am confident that on the great issues affecting the maintenance of peace and security in this area, Australia and the United States can act in concert to our mutual advantage and the advantage of other countries concerned. So as we grasp the changes in our neighbourhood and rise to meet the regional challenges, we need a United States that is active and engaged, a United States that works with partners and does what it says it will do. There is no substitute for the United States. Australia looks forward to working with you as you continue to provide the pivotal support for regional peace and security that has underpinned our region's growing prosperity over 70 years. Ladies and gentlemen, I firmly believe that the best days of the Australia-United States relationship lie ahead of us. Thank you. Well, Madam Minister, Julie, thank you so much for those warm remarks. I'm just struck by the feeling in this room of warmth between our countries and towards you and Australia. And I have to note that it's remarkable that when you think about it, Julie and her counterpart, Minister Johnston, are both new ministers. They've met with two new secretaries on our behalf, Secretary Kerry and Secretary Hagel. And yet it feels like we haven't missed a step. And so it's just wonderful to have you here at CSIS in Washington. And thank you for those great remarks. I'd like to open the floor with a question and then open the floor to others' questions. I appreciate you taking a couple of them. Dr. Hamry mentioned when he introduced you that we rely on our best friends to remind us of what we need to focus on. And you play that role as Australia's foreign minister. You mentioned that you spent some time with Susan Rice, who made her first Asia speech today. I mean, sorry, this week. But could you share with us sort of some of the short strokes of what your advice is to the United States? What do we need to do to keep on track in the framework that you so articulately laid out for us in your speech? Far be it for me to instruct the United States on how it should handle its foreign policy. What we can do and what we do is share our experience and our observations. And the conversations I had with secretaries Kerry and Hagel and with National Security Advisor Rice was based on our observations of how the United States is perceived in the region, what the Australian people think is the United States role in the region. And there was a recognition on both sides. In fact, a very, a lot of common ground, might I say. In terms of what we think is required. There's no question that your presence in the region is much desired, physical presence, trade and investment presence. And we emphasise time and time again how important the rebalance is, not just for Australia, but for countries in the region. And we encourage the United States to remain committed to the rebalance. I understand that Vice President Biden will be visiting North Asia shortly. I understand that Secretary Kerry in his very busy schedule will be back there again before the end of the year. And that is deeply appreciated and much welcome. And I know that when President Obama is able to visit the region, he will be warmly welcomed and embraced by the people of the region. So relationships need nurturing, they need attention, and the Indo-Pacific region is no different. So that's our observations, they're our insights, but we know that the United States is perfectly capable of handling its own foreign policy. We just there to help along the way. Help is appreciated. Let me open the floor to questions, Dan, right here in the back row. Dan. Thank you, I'm Dan Bob, Susica Peace Foundation USA. Wondering if you might give your thoughts on China's increasing economic and diplomatic role in the Pacific Island countries, what that means for Australia and the United States. And also, just since Susan Rice actually mentioned Fiji in her address a couple days ago, if you could give your comments on Commodore Bainu Marama's most recent actions, the constitution pending elections, thanks. Thanks, Dan, thanks for the question. There is no doubt that as China grows in economic strength and influence, we are seeing its presence in the region, not only in Africa, in the Indian Ocean region, but also in the Pacific. It has moved on from a time when it was the dollar diplomacy contest between Taiwan and China. China now invests significantly in the region in terms of development assistance. And we welcome that. I mean, there's plenty of room for more development assistance and foreign aid in the Pacific. What we seek to do is work cooperatively with China to ensure that their development assistance often in the form of soft loans is consistent with the kind of development outcomes that we believe the Pacific needs. And I hope that we'll be successful in that regard. There have been examples of China working in joint ventures, particularly with New Zealand for a water sanitation project in Cook Islands. We would like to see more of that, more joint ventures, more cooperation in the aid area. In relation to Fiji, as you know, back in 2006, there was a military coup led by Commodore Baini Marama. Australia and other nations imposed sanctions at the time in the hope that the sanctions would bring about an election and that Fiji would return to democratic rule. Well, a number of years on, we haven't seen that occur, although Commodore Baini Marama assures us that there will be an election held in September of 2014. Of course, we were disturbed by the treatment of the independently drafted constitution, but they now have a constitution. It might not be pretty, but it's a constitution. They are on track, we hope, to holding an election in September of 2014. Our concern is to ensure that we are there as a natural partner for Fiji, should the election be held, and on the assumption that it will be free and fair, or as close to free and fair as we can expect. And on that basis, we are looking to engage with Fiji. In specific terms, I informed Banky Moon when we were in New York for Unger Leaders Week that we would not object to Fiji taking more substantial role in UN peacekeeping efforts. They are very good at it, and the UN needs them. And so we're working over time to increase our engagement, but bearing in mind that the sanctions will have to remain under review for we are not dealing with a democratically elected leader. Australia and Fiji are close friends. The Australian people still travel to Fiji for their holidays in large numbers, and we want to normalise relations as soon as possible. And given our commitment to economic growth in the region, it's hard to envisage a free trade agreement or a regional agreement on economic and investment issues without an economy the size of Fiji's. So we believe it's in their interests, in our interests, in the interests of the Pacific, for an election to be held as soon as possible, for there to be an outcome we can all accept and for Fiji to be welcomed back into the arms of its friends and allies. Mr. Barfield. Claude Barfield, the American Enterprise Institute. No, I'm happy to stand. You sit. Claude Barfield, the American Enterprise Institute. I'd like to follow up on another question on Australian-Chinese relations. I think the Prime Minister has given us a top priority, a free trade agreement with the Chinese. And what has been the impact on that decision, of the decision also to exclude Huawei, the telecom's giant Chinese company from the broadband after there were some glowing remarks about the company as the new administration was coming in? Has the Chinese signal they would back away or are they raising questions about that? The incoming government has a commitment to building a network of free trade agreements, bilateral and regional free trade agreements, in conjunction with the TPP because we believe that the more trade liberalisation we have, the more likely we are to get global momentum for the WTO and the multilateral side of things. So we've got an ambitious agenda to complete a free trade agreement with South Korea, with Japan and with China, hopefully within 12 months, probably in that order. And in relation to China, we have been negotiating free trade agreements since 2005. Our friends and family in New Zealand commenced negotiating free trade agreement with China in 2005. They concluded one in 2008. And the trade between the two countries has grown enormously. Now, China's already our largest merchandise trading partner, but we want to see a much more diversified trading relationship beyond commodities, resources and energy. So it is a priority for us. In relation to Huawei, the previous government on intelligence and security grounds refused a tender for Huawei, a Chinese company, to take part in the building of the Australian National Broadband Network. The opposition was critical at the time of the way it was handled. We were not critical of the intelligence advice. And since we've been in government, we have confirmed that the previous government's position stands. Yes, of course, the Chinese are not happy about an ongoing discussion in Australia about one of its global telecommunications companies. However, we hope that we'll be able to negotiate an ambitious but pragmatic free trade agreement with them, notwithstanding that decision. Madam Minister, Sanjin Choi and Langham partners, thank you so much for your lucid and succinct remarks. Can I follow G20 agenda? And Australia will take over G20 next year. And would you able to share what are the vibrant ideas for your government? Especially, I was interested in your views on regard to the A, infrastructure, and B, and regulatory issues. You mentioned the India. Five out of 20, member of G20 is a common words, including India. And the government in India required one trillion investment infrastructure next five years out of interesting reviews. And second with regard to regulatory issues, I mentioned quotient to search in real estate market in Australia, especially as Sydney and Melbourne and Brisbane, where your G20 summit will take place. I have interesting new reviews. Thank you very much. I'm sorry, what was the last one? What's the question on Australian reviews? Nothing, the question on the review. The G20 agenda for Brisbane is about that, yeah. Especially, you're making progress here in B, regulatory issues, especially related to real estate. Oh, you mean foreign investment in real estate. Okay, thank you. The G20 agenda, we hope will be focused and will be sufficiently exciting and interesting that it will maintain the focus of the leaders. We want the G20 to remain the premier global organization that brings the major economies and the advanced and emerging economies together. We want to ensure that leaders are there, that they will be able to deliver on outcomes and that it will remain relevant. So we think an agenda that focuses on three or four themes. The overarching theme is economic growth and creating jobs on a global level. But specifically, we want to focus on infrastructure, particularly productive infrastructure and how we harness or unleash the private sector to support infrastructure globally. We want to look at issues such as trade and trade liberalization, not to repeat the WTO or the APEC agenda, but look at behind the borders issues that can help liberalize trade. We want to look at tax reform. The developing countries of the world, I think, would be very keen to see some outcomes on tax issues and tax systems generally. Developing countries tell us that they lose more in tax evasion than they receive in foreign aid. And we also want to look at regulatory issues to make it easier to do business, not harder. In relation to real estate in Australia, foreign investment is determined by the treasurer of the country with advice from a foreign investment review board. And we have certain thresholds in place which trigger monetary thresholds, which trigger foreign investment review. So in real estate, if it's residential, then it's triggered at zero. If it's commercial, it's 50 million. There are different thresholds for triggering foreign investment review. We want to ensure that Australia welcomes foreign investment, but that our process is transparent and easily understood by potential investors. Australia's economy has been built on foreign investment and that will continue to be the case, a country of 22 million people to have the standard of living that we do requires foreign investment in the major projects that we have. So we certainly welcome foreign investment subject to the national interest test. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you'll join me in thanking Foreign Minister Bishop for speaking to us today. Thank you. Thank you.


to grow your business, to build your audience, you need to get people's attention, right? And how do people usually try to get your attention? They usually try to be maybe louder or more obvious on social media, or they try to be better looking or more clever, more brilliant, a better copywriter, a better video maker, whatever it may be, to try to get your attention. And marketing is so much about trying to get people's attention. Have you noticed that when you're learning marketing, it's how to get people's attention, how to grab their attention? I've always, it's always not quite set right with me. And I think the couple reasons for that one is grabbing people's attention, getting their attention is essentially a bit of a kind of aggressive move. It's an aggressive thing to do. But secondly, it's a, it's a very, well, you could say it's coming from ego or coming from insecurity. That is how most marketing is done. And that's how most of the marketing that you might be learning from elsewhere, most marketing teaching is not very hard, not truly hard-based, even the ones who might call themselves conscious, hard-based, spiritual, authentic, right? Even me, I'm always continuing to come back to my heart, come back to true spirituality, true being a light and love in the world. But marketing is, the mainstream way of doing it is very insecure, it's very ego-driven. It's all about what I'm gonna make you do for me. I'm gonna make you, the customer, buy my thing. I'm gonna make you, the viewer, subscribe. I'm gonna make you share, make you like it, make you comment on it, et cetera. And it doesn't have to be that way. I hope that I can demonstrate a different way of doing it that might make more sense to some of you, a way that might make it feel much better for some of you. And that way is instead of trying to get attention and grab attention to care more. In a few words, that's it. You can stop watching this video now. To get more attention authentically, care more than others in your industry are willing to do. Now, there's a lot different ways of caring, and let me talk about this. One way of caring, which is how I started, when a couple years ago, I started to be, well, a couple ways of caring. One way is to be in one-to-one interaction with your audience. How many of you think about this, or think about you? Do you have any kind of audience? Do you have an email list? Even if it's, how many email list subscribers do you have? You don't have to put that in the chat unless you want to. Maybe you have 10, maybe you have 100, maybe some of you have 1,000 or more. But even if you just have 10 email subscribers, when was the last time you reached out to those 10 people one-on-one? Really, like email each of the 10 people, maybe look them up on Facebook a little bit, see what their public profile is or website, and email them one-on-one, say, hey, I just want to thank you for being part of my email subscriber community. My email list is still small, so everyone that's there is meaningful and important to me. And if you are up for it, I would be so grateful to be able to talk with you, even if you have only 15 minutes, but if you have 30 to 60 minutes for me to kind of get to know you better, what are you looking for in my field? What have you tried already that has worked well for you or hasn't worked? When was the last time you did that? Reached out to your email subscribers one-on-one, even if you have 10 email subscribers. Now, if you have 1,000 email subscribers, you don't have to reach out to 1,000 one-on-one, or even 100, that's probably too much, but reach out to 10 of them. The last 10 people who opened one of your emails, reach out to them. And out of 10 that you reach out to, maybe one of them will be willing to talk with you, maybe two or three if you're lucky, maybe five if you're super lucky, but reach out to 10, and even if you just talk to one of them, find out whatever your field is, and please chat below, comment below if you want to share what your field is, what is your expertise, what you help your email subscribers with. Let's say you help them with relationships, say, hey, you've been reading about relationships on my email newsletter, and I'd love to get to know you better and kind of what you're wanting to learn more about, and what you're wanting to get better about in terms of your own relationships. What have you tried elsewhere? Or have you read any books have been helpful? Have you taken any courses or done any kind of counseling or coaching, that kind of thing, or what are you looking for that would be helpful? And then maybe towards the latter quarter of the conversation, the final quarter of the conversation you can say, and I'm thinking about creating the service or I'm creating this program or I'm creating this product, and I'd love to get your feedback on it, is that, and of course you share your thing based on the conversation thus far and see if it's appropriate, right? So that's one way to really show your audience that you care is to reach out one to one. If you don't have an email list subscriber list yet, then you can do this through Facebook. How many of you have a, do you have a Facebook fan page? Do you have 10 fans on your Facebook fan page? Reach out to those 10 fans individually.  So you don't have like I do, I have so many Facebook comments on my posts now that to be honest, I have neglected this area of caring and I apologize. I apologize to all of you because I haven't been keeping up with, I certainly haven't replied to any comments for weeks now and I barely even have a chance to like or love your comments but know that I am seeing them. Every single comment I see and right here on the Facebook live, thank you Diane and Miriam and Stacey and Captain and who else is joining me here live? Sonia, Michelle, so thank you all. So I see all the Facebook comments, I see all your YouTube comments. It's just that I literally haven't, maybe I should say I haven't cared enough. I'm sorry, I haven't cared enough to reply to them for weeks now, almost two, three months but let me tell you a different way of care. So there's different ways of caring and you need to care more than other people in your industry are willing to care and you could do any of these different ways. So for somebody like me who has a somewhat, a decent sized audience, a large enough audience doing the one-to-one can be overwhelming because I'm already so busy with my own clients and with my own core students and my group coaching program, et cetera that kind of tapped out in terms of one-on-one interactions. That's why I haven't been replying to comments but if you're just starting out, if you're not yet like me where you have lots of comments for your posts, if you just have two or three comments for each repost and it's on your Facebook fan page, you can message your commenters right from your Facebook fan page. So the private message that comes through to them is from your fan page, not from your personal profile. Check it out, go to your fan page, go to your Facebook business page, look at the last post I had a comment and as long as it's within six months you were able to click message next to that comment and start a conversation there. So that's a really great way of caring when you're first starting out is to do it one-to-one. And honestly, to be honest, if I needed more business, if I needed more clients or more, I would be doing more one-on-one outreach and caring in that way. So okay, so that's one way of caring, especially when you're first starting out or when you need some business, you've got to do the one-to-one man.  Now, once you grow your business, grow your audience a bit more and you're kind of getting closer and closer to having a decent sized audience, then well, I should say all along the way, even when you're first starting out, another way of caring that will be forever is you care through your content. And you really show that you care through your content. So one thing that I don't really agree with is when people have other people write their content. I understand, especially some people who are really bad writers and they don't want to get good at writing, which doesn't make sense to me. I think if you want it, I think skill, once bought one group of skills that all of us should be continuing to improve on, no matter who we are and what work we do is communication skills. Writing, speaking, listening is a big part of communication skills. Yeah, well, writing and listening. Writing, listening, speaking is essentially the core ones. You know, outsourcing your writing, I mean, it makes sense for maybe larger companies, but for solopreneurs like us, why are you outsourcing your writing? Like if you really wanna care for your audience, you do your own writing because your heart and your personality can come through in that writing a lot more. And you know, and of course, if you care about your audience through your content, then you're gonna be really curious what kind of content will be helpful to them. And so what you'll do is you'll start to research your audience and look at their social media profiles and see what kind of content they're sharing so that you can then share better content too. You can create better content based on what they're sharing.  Another way to care through your content is, well, let's talk about writing. The way to care through your writing is to really put your heart and soul and personality in your writing. Don't just give tips or, you know, here are three things you can do to improve your life, blah, blah, blah, that's great. But are you putting your heart and soul, are you telling stories that matter to you? Are you telling stories from your own life? Are you sharing things that may be controversial? Because if it's controversial, you might be criticized, but if you really care about an issue and you take a controversial stance on it, and if you care enough, then you should be sharing that controversy. You see me doing this all the time. I share controversial stances on issues all the time because I care about it, right? Rather than staying away and saying, well, I'm gonna try to not get any criticism from it. Ironically, when you share something that's controversial, if you really passionately believe in it and if you can give your reasons why and if you can share your story why you believe in it, you usually get a lot more praise than you get criticism. You might still get some criticism, but you usually get more praise and that's one way to show that you care. So showing that you care through content is primarily through getting to know your audience by looking at what they share, talking with them one to one if possible, creating more of what they share, creating more of what they want, essentially, and then caring enough to put your heart and soul and your stories into your content, your personality into it, and not being afraid to make mistakes in your content because if you care, if I care about you, I don't care as much about my mistakes and looking polished and looking pretty and looking handsome and being brilliant in how I speak and being, no, I'm showing up with my heart. That's how I show you that I care, you see? And through videos is, in fact, even more transparent in terms of someone's heart than writing, right?  Which is, you know, and maybe you do care, but through video, my God, you have to put your heart into it and people can tell unless you just are an extraordinary actor. And, you know, learning acting is good too, but if you can be willing to be vulnerable, make mistakes, make a bad video, I've made about a thousand, I've made more than a thousand videos actually in my last 10 years. I count webinars as part of that count of videos, but even on my YouTube channel, I haven't published everything, but I am just about at 1,000 videos on my one YouTube channel. I have another YouTube channel that's called Our Highest Work, which has another, I think, 70 videos. So with that, those added together just on YouTube, I have over a thousand videos now. But I have probably made, I don't know, 800 bad videos out of a thousand videos. I've made 800 bad ones. Oh, okay, maybe not bad. Okay, but to me, I have a pretty high self, I have a pretty high standard for quality of content. You might not believe that.  What are you talking about? Good videos. I have a really high standard. I know that most of my videos are bad, but I don't care about my quality. I care about showing up with heart and I care about am I, and you might say, well, George, quality is caring about the audience. The problem with quality being caring about the audience, here I'm having a conversation with myself here. The quality about, the problem with quality, you're saying, well, caring for the audience means creating quality content. The problem is that most of the time, people, when they think of quality content, they're actually caring about their own self image. It's not about the audience. It's about what they think about themselves. That's what they care about the most. They don't want to disappoint themselves. And they're caring about the authority figure, their mom in their head, or their teacher in their head, or their coach in their head, saying, no, that's not good enough. That's who they're caring about. They're not caring about their audience. They're caring about the judgments in their head. That's how quality content, people think, no. So true quality of content is when you get to know your audience so well, and when you care about them so much that you're willing to show them vulnerably and relevantly. And that is quality content. And yes, eventually you'll want to, if you want to build a massive audience, I don't consider myself, I don't have a massive audience. I have a decent, small, medium-sized audience. 5,000 Facebook fans, 3,000 YouTube subscribers. That's a small, really, online, that's considered a small audience. You might say, well, then you have a tiny, miniscule audience. I have a small audience. If you want to build a big audience, eventually you do need to learn video editing or outsource that and make yourself look really polished or at least edit a lot of things out. But if you just want to build a small audience, which, by the way, is a six-figure business, I know some of you don't care about six or seven figures, but you can have a million-dollar business with the same audience that I have now. It doesn't take more than a few thousand Facebook fans and a few thousand YouTube subscribers to have a million-dollar business if you want that. So it's not about a bigger audience. It's about a truer audience. I've talked about that before, too. So just, honestly, with audience building, aim to have the same number that I have. And if you have the same number that I have, you could make several million dollars a year if you wanted to. At that point, if you're not making million dollars a year with my number of fans and you want to, then the problem is not that you don't have a big enough audience. The problem is that you don't either have a true enough audience or your business model is wrong. Not wrong, meaning your business model is not matched to your goals. I don't want to make a million dollars, but I make plenty of money right now. I totally make enough. So back to caring. To get more attention, to get truer attention that turns into money, if you care about that, turns into impact, if you care about that, it's about caring more than your competitors, than your niche mates, than the people in your industry do, than your friends do, than your colleagues do. It's caring more for your audience than they do. How? I've already talked about one-to-one conversations. That's how you start out, but you also do content, and I'm still doing content. I'm still caring through content. I think that's probably enough for today. This is actually, this video is part of chapter five in my book, Authentic Selling. So, and I mentioned that because as of today, the paperback version of Authentic Selling, the book is out. So if you're interested in getting a paperback version of it, of course, I appreciate your support. Every sale does make a difference on Amazon in terms of the rankings and how people find, whether people are able to find it. So thank you so much. And let me just thank those of you who are here and if you have any questions, please go ahead and comment or chat below. Thank you, Matt, for your comment there. Thanks, Captain. Thanks, Ludovic and Stacy. Yeah, and Diane, Miriam, and let's see, Caroline, Bryce, Hannah, Selena, Sonya, Michelle. Thank you all so much for joining me live. And Stacy says, well, George, you are now serving on a one-to-many scale. Yeah, I guess so. It's just that I wish I, I keep saying, I keep wanting to say I wish I had time to care one-to-one, but I should say I wish I had the energy to care more for those of you who are in my audience because, yeah, I wish I had the energy to really do that because right now I do have, my energy's really tapped out with my group coaching program of 40, 45 members. I have my client roster's full. My courses are happening on a monthly basis so there's a lot going on. And I don't have any assistance. That's a purposeful thing too because I'm learning to, this year is my year to learn a streamlined business and build it before I hire another assistant. So anyway, blessings to you and thank you for being part of my audience. I'm so grateful. And if there's anything I can do to care for you more, especially in a one-to-many way, please do let me know if I can offer a better service to you, if I can, what kind of service would be most useful to you that you would say, yeah, that would be great, George. I'd love for you to offer that service. If I can offer a better course for you, let me know, I'd be grateful to know. So thank you everyone and I will see you in the next video. Take care.


You guys never get those really really long support tickets and I'm talking about the tickets where the user seems to think that you need all the details and I'm talking about the the entire back story like how events in their childhood led to The career path that they ultimately took and how they one day quit their job and started this website Which had technical problems and that's not the website. They're emailing you about today We'll get to that one in about eight paragraphs You know those kind of tickets where you feel like you need to put a bookmark in it halfway through you guys never get any of Those we get our fair share of tickets like that. Sometimes we also get tickets like this though Which I Like this ticket. There's a lot It's pretty cool. I love the polite high at the beginning not wasting any time or bites on punctuation And but my favorite thing is how weird our language is and how it allows me to imagine that The user's problem is actually without bringing their comfortable clothing But jokes about their phrasing aside What their real message was this and I think that's something that we can all relate to Because usability is about Expectations our users are not blank slates when they encounter our creations They do have expectations in their measure of our usability is the degree to which those expectations come true If our thing does what they expect it to do in the way they expect it to do it They will consider it easy to use the problem though is that User expectations change. They're not constant. They are constantly changing and They're always changing in the same direction Users will continuously expect easier and easier Experiences and this is because their X their expectations are ultimately shaped by their cumulative life experiences and thus Usability experiences an inflation like effect You guys know about Inflation it's it's that thing where you've got some money you put it in a box And you leave it for a few years and you take it out of that box And somehow it's it's worth less than when you put it in the same money, you know Just worth a little less well usability is a little bit like that in that if you create Say an interface and then leave it untouched for extended period of time It will then receive lower grade on usability tests than it did when you initially created Here's a an illustration of this phenomenon which fascinates me where you take something which is functionally unchanged and Forgive the alignment issues It's something which is functionally unchanged and just measure customer satisfaction over time This is this is something that is essentially the same the only difference is the expectations of the user Which is why in 2008 I see no cell phone service and I think to myself bummer I can't make a phone call right now, but in 2018 if I see that I'm going ballistic because that's totally unacceptable I'm threatening to switch providers There's actually An academic model for this and it's known as the Kano model and it describes how Aspects of any offering which initially delight customers will inevitably inevitably eventually become basic expectations Maybe the famous five-minute install anybody that is You know a part of WordPress which at one time was like an exciting competitive feature And now not quite so much So according to the Kano model anything anything like that a feature which is at one time exciting and competitive Eventually becomes commonplace and essentially required Here's a quick example Using our own plug-in. This is data meticulously gathered from our annual user surveys Which asks users why they chose and continue to use our plug-in these are write-in answers not multiple choice And this is the percentage of users who Wrote ease of use or simplicity as all or part of their answer in response to these questions Now in this time period The interface has changed very little in fact I would argue that has become marginally easier to use in this time period And still users do not cite ease of use as frequently as they did This illustrates that inflation effect that I was talking about where if you don't touch it It does in fact get a little harder But a frustrating problem that we have is our our tendency to make these experiences even more difficult through our own Increased complexity through the ill-advised iterations that we go through and the feature bloat that we just can't resist implementing and if we were to Compare it again to If we were to compare it again to monetary inflation we could say That taking all of your money, I mean no, they're creating in an interface and Leaving it untouched is kind of like taking all of our money and putting it into a piggy bank and Similarly, if we were to say that we create an interface and we make it Increasingly complex over time That's a lot like taking all of our money and investing it into the XFL The pressure though is really on us Tony Tony horror wrote a great piece called the Emperor's old clothes and I recommend reading it and in it he wrote this fitting quote about the usability of Software relative to the natural world Which I think is worth a little reflection on But really as I said we have a lot of pressure on us as software creators Our users are surrounded daily by incredible technological innovations, and I'm talking about amazing Technology like the Garmin You know like GPS navigation devices there. They're the greatest Right. They usually get you where you need to go without that many wrong turns along the way except GPS navigation devices are so 10 years ago Kind of This is a punchline kind of like a Lot of what we do in WordPress And and this is something I'm serious about actually I think we have a long way to go folks We're selling garments in an age of iPhones And just look how quickly users can disappear This is one an example of one technology which watches relevance and user base rapidly decline when more convenient and simpler alternatives appeared Sometimes I Think that in WordPress we feel as though users should be grateful to us because we're not making them manually configure my sequel tables but The truth is like we've still got a long ways to go and we can do a lot better every time We ask users to manually update and to copy and paste their Their license keys is to learn our pseudo code syntax and and to edit PHP files and and download zip files and FTP Anything and to create another account We're falling short And on that last point and just how many username password combos does it take to run an online operation? I don't know. It's a lot. It's too many I can say with confidence that it's way more than any first-time WordPress These will ever expect and I don't understand why I can navigate my life in the physical world with a modest keychain Consisting of only two or three keys at most but to run even the most basic online operation I need dozens it frustrates me and rant. Let's go back to our products and reflect on our product roadmaps a little bit. So the question for you is Where exactly is usability on your product roadmap? usability must Be a priority for every single release. We cannot afford to ever stop actively Making our experiences easier and more intuitive It's not something that you can achieve one time and then you're good to go This is a question that I never get tired of asking It it drives me and it also drives our team This is this is our biggest challenge, but I think the one most worth our time and energy And so as you do your own reflection on the experiences that you create Whatever you're responsible for your themes your plug-ins your software even the websites that you are in charge of Think about how you can make these experiences a little bit more intuitive and The fact that it is necessary for all of us to actively do this without see-facing until the end of time and Maybe here's some brainstorming ideas Let's just throw out a few ideas Examples of what we could do potentially to improve our experiences and make them a little bit easier Are there ask yourself are there things in our our UI which are Uncommonly used and we could remove from most prominent views Do we really need our users to Register for an account or create a brand-new one? Do we really need to make them download the files to their computer? Do they have to manually copy and paste these keys? Do they really have to manually upload those files? Is there any tasks that they perform regularly which we could potentially automate for them? Is there anything we could pre-configure for them? Is there anything that we're asking them to learn when we could instead rely on knowledge They already have I've got these in a lot of other questions On the next slide my slides will be easy to find you can use these just like brainstorming ideas But for now really all I want is for all of us to get out there and start making things easier Altogether do you have any questions? Well he asked Have a question over here hang on a second. Hi Kyle Can you go back one slide please because that's what so there's a question on there That says is there anything we are making users learn which could rely on knowledge They already have can you give us an example of that because that sounds like a really interesting question Hmm, okay on the spot for an example Angie. That's always fun. I've seen You know Product creators and WordPress like we argue about this sort of thing a lot and Sometimes like rail on other product creators who do things like make an interface and an admin interface that doesn't match WordPress and one could argue that that's kind of like breaking the mold a little bit and You know suddenly there's different types of menus and different color schemes and different language use and The experience is a little bit different than what the user is kind of Used to but that's I'm more looking for like Functional tasks the user must perform for example You know like if there's an editor based experience and in order to productively use it the user needs to understand a unique Set of technology like for example short codes, you know That's something that is only in WordPress and the syntax for it is WordPress specific and sometimes you know We might make an experience that requires a user to learn how to use Specific dynamic tags and they might need to reference our documentation to understand the syntax that we require to make these things work And I think that there's a lot of room for us to lean a little bit more heavily on the knowledge The user already has and use like existing paradigms as a and so to lessen the burden on the user Instead of like just creating something new that might be more elegant and sophisticated But still is just an additional thing for the user to learn in the same context I think there's just room for us to improve does that kind of help Angie? Do I have time for another question? Okay Last one. We're gonna Keep moving here. Thanks. My question has to do with which user you're talking about because some of us here may be Agencies and we build sites for clients who are also users So when you're speaking about the user experience and having to copy license keys and things like that Which might be second nature to those of us who have been doing it for a long time Are you talking about taking this to the level of say what Gutenberg is trying to do which is making it this more Accessible to clients that we serve Yes, absolutely. I'm talking about the the general user trying to just get something done on their own for their own Individual purposes that's absolutely what I'm talking about and while the the the tone in the theme really is around like product creators We could we could argue that like all of us are creating Experiences in some way if we're just creating websites if we're building them for our employer or for our clients or for building websites That other people do interact with we are creating Experiences that users interact with users maybe have a job to do have a mission to accomplish have something that they want And they are interacting with the creation of ours in order to come to accomplish that and the burden is on us to make it as Intuitive and simple as possible and the point of this discussion is the fact that we need to actively continue to Improve the usability over time because the bar gets The bar is a it moves. Anyway, you got it. All right. Thank you Kyle


When I came here, I spoke only French. I took English classes, learned to get my citizenship. I want to be a nurse assistant. I want to be a missionary and to help people in another country. But I need to pass my GED first. That is why I am taking adult education classes. Our government makes the decision every year to keep our school or to cut it out of the budget. If we don't have money, we don't have teachers. Last year, we got the news that they wanted to cut the money from our school. We need to prepare each year to not let this happen again. We need to choose the right leader. How do we choose them? We need to vote.


Vice President Jaffee President Director Lather here Director le hue I am here and President Christensen I'm not hearing anything Sorry, sorry about that. There we go So Ward members opportunity to remove items from the consent agenda nothing from me can I just there was a One of the items on the consent was four point one point zero I don't want to remove it unless it's necessary, but in the motion It's missing a zero on the amount for the allocation from OCR for security upgrades It's 25 comma zero zero. That's just missing a zero And if the board would like when you approve the consent as is we could do it as amended If you of course if you prefer we also can pull four four ten. Thank you. It's all whatever works I just wanted to make sure that was correct I don't I don't see any reason to remove it. We'll just approve as amended I'll make the motion. Oh Wait, we have to Yeah, thank you, okay steinberger I I want to point out a few things on the contended gender that I found of interest on page 15 the water consumption is wonderfully low and Those district customers are doing a great job. I Do note that it's nine point eight five percent below what you budgeted to bring in his money So I'm sure that we'll be seeing some rating cases coming along the way But it's hard for customers to swallow that when they've been conserving too hard on page 23 item four point six I wonder what the the change order number four with black each was and how much the dollar amount was Um page forty four item four point one zero the after security I want to tell you that is a member of the public the security Upgrade is rather uncomfortable for the public visiting the office I was there recently and I had to stand in the doorway holding the door open and That's it's not comfortable for the customers and it's not very energy efficient for winter time or some Cooling so I I don't know if it's been changed. It's been about six weeks ago. I guess I was there and It's not very comfortable for the public on page 47 item four point one two the extension of the contract with Montgomery, I think a five-year contract is too long and I think it should be put out to get and and to Invite full contractors that's Santa Cruz City works with Okay, any comments from Then it's a promotion I'll move approval as amended Second it's all in favor, right? I know we have to do with Tom. Yeah, I'll call it so vice president Jaffee Yes, director Lather. Yes, director Lee Hugh Yes, and president Christiansen. Yes We're a number item 5.0 oral and written communications. This is an opportunity for Members of the public and board members to comment an item make comment on items that are not Addressed in the agenda. Thank you. Becky Steinbauer. I was happy to see Director Daniels's letter of resignation included in correspondence and I appreciated that was included for transparency and again, I wish him well. I really do I Want to provide to your board. I'm going to hand a copy to Miss Western here And ask that she copy and make it available to all of you These are documents that I think your board needs to review I'm reviewing a lot of documentation around the pure water SoCal project and all of its modifications and all of the public comment that has come in over the time since the EIR was first certified in 2018 and There are two documents that I've come across that I really really made gave me pause And I think you should review them as well the first one is a Technical report from Haley and Aldrich This was the hydrology company that Cabrillo College asked to do a independent analysis of the possible impacts of the Injection well which ended up going into Twin Lakes Church, but at the time it was a possibility it could go on Cabrillo College property and Cabrillo was worried about how it might affect their private wells This is a very good report and It's a good in my opinion for a lot of reasons because it questions the placement of injection wells all of them and It compares the effects of that placement with what has been done in Orange County and Questions the effectiveness of The project's goal, I'd like you to review this The second document is Comment that was submitted on the EIR from dr. Jude Todd She is a retired now UCSC Professor she researched and read the EIR very thoroughly and She provided your board with a lot of very well-informed educated comment On issues that I think merit review again So I'd like to give both of these documents to Ms. Western when I finish my comment and ask that it be given to each of the board members and be made part of the public correspondent The second the next thing I'd like to ask is I I see no Or let me go to the different topic that the new director search needs to have financial Expertise you all are great water scientists, but you know what you're asked to do is About money and I really think it would be hoove the board to Focus on finding someone with good financial expertise that can look at these figures and help you all and Then the last thing I'll say to wrap up is I'm curious about the quail running tank when will it ever happen? Thank you, please be respectful of the time. Oh, yes. I always am thank you When when you distribute the comments from the UCSC professor, can you please? also distribute how those are responded to by ESA in The EIR sure and also I'll just note. We are very well aware of those documents. They're You know old really and they've been reviewed very thoroughly and all all things have been taken into consideration We'll take those your comments under consideration, but I remember them from years ago Just so you know, we're not completely unaware of them already I'm Olga summons, and I just wanted to introduce myself I'm gonna hopefully apply for the director position and I recognize everybody here because I'm on the water cost Yeah, water cost Commit committee. Yeah and just want to introduce myself and I've been to a very few other meetings, but the meeting to see how it goes I Look forward to talking to you guys at a future date Thanks Just so you know, this is a pretty light meeting scheduled very light. Don't get don't get the wrong impression It's just we've got got a project and it's We're pushing to get it done on deadline as close to the deadline as possible it that for ourselves There's not a whole lot of other decisions All right And we're moving on to 7.1 request Approval of it isn't there a district council over. Oh, yes. Oh, is there a oh, sorry But that's okay president Christian said I think you read my mind I actually don't have a report this evening, but I'm happy to answer any questions that the board may have. Thank you Was it on the agenda on the agenda, but not Okay, sorry about that. I get yeah losing through What is the new and how many questions dr. Liu? No, I just I just saw it on the agenda just Which is a project for an unconditional will serve that requires board approval because of the size of the meter That's right So this came to the board already back in 2022 and This is an all affordable housing project on Park Avenue close to the freeway highway one and they are moving very fastly through the county's process and They are ready for an unconditional will serve letter This project doesn't necessarily require any district infrastructure to serve They will front Park Avenue and they will just have service lines coming off to it. It'll have one master meter and a fire service and a fire hydrant But all those can be administered at the staff level So if there's any questions, I'm more than happy. They're 36 very small I think they're less than 500 square feet each 400. Yeah I think that's how they it's a it's a it's a home key project Thank you, okay Steinbrenner I remember when this first came to your board and President Christensen that was your comment They seem very small and they are units are very small and It's an interesting project because it's a modular built apartment complex There will be really no landscaping at all But because it is a project home key funded Project as director Jaffee said I wonder if it's possible for your district to Request that there be additional water saving Devices built into the units double plumbing Anything at all because now there is no water demand offset fee is being charged this project and so Conservation still needs to be happening but Without the water demand offset fees to fund your district doing them I Think it is an incumbent on the builders to incorporate those Water conservation measures into the building design So I respectfully request that your district Make the builder aware of this. They are really moving quickly But the county is does have a conditional What's it called? Conditional permit or something where the county is involved and I know you have a good relationship with the county And so I respectfully request that you try to get Some sort of conservation measures in terms of building Conserve water conservation because there really is no Landscaping at all that would offer conservation measures But some type of groundwater recharge would be helpful. Thank you Sure, I'll comment on that. Thank you I Think that's a great idea and if you look at our water use efficiency requirements that the board has continually led the charge on that Indoor and outdoor requirements You can see that we already have built in ahead of what the state we've always been leaders the district has And conservation measures and those are baked into our requirements Again indoor and outdoor and the fact that they not have an outdoor is just more evidence of what I would call water Savings and I think the proofs in the pudding just look at our per capita water use So not only a new development, which is even more efficient, but the existing development through, you know, our Water demand offset program that kind of reached the end of its its life. So That's to sure though. It'll be efficient water use and that that complex. That's what I would have expected I'll brand new extra comments from the board Just one on on the space I went back to February 15th at 2022 when this came up and it does talk about there's a Community center. So there is some shared space 400 feet Square feet seems small and Carla when you speak could you speak a little closer to your microphone? Trouble is the seats too high for me to I Was gentle Yeah, oh, I see it. There's some shorter people on the city council No, no, just less tall people Okay, well This is a long overdue project. So I'm ready. I think we're ready for a vote I'll make the motion to approve Vice president Jaffee, yes Director Lather. Yes, director Lee Hugh Yes, and President Christiansen. Yes Well, that was very quick, but we're moving into I think it's item eight closed session and Members of the public are permitted to comment on the closed session if they wish Thank you, Becky Steinbrenner Again, I want to say I don't like having to take the legal action that I have and am taking but it is the only option open to anyone who wants to challenge an environmental action and Again, I really feel that the changes to the Pure Water SoCal project have been many and significant and I really feel that there should have been subsequent EIRs put out for public review with a certain noticed amount of time and a scheduled public hearing they got none of that and It gives the impression to the public that Well, certainly, we know you're Streamlining things because of the deadline related to funding But it also gives the impression to the public which I don't think you want that you're hiding things or that you don't care about the public's comment or That You're just trying to cut corners for the sake of getting the thing done and pushed out the door none of which I think is true but by not doing this subsequent EIR and Notice public hearings it has in effect done all of that in The public side and I'm I'm speaking for many so what I ask is that you You just know that that the action I've taken is on behalf of many. I'm taking it for public benefit and I Would like you to go down to the Laurel Street Bridge and watch for the swallows Like I said last time they're not there And I would like you to take a good hard look at the connection of the conveyance pipe at that bridge How it has disturbed the levee and what will happen in another large flood? Thank you. Okay. We're in adjournment here public meeting