Scott Morrison Keynote Speaker

The Hon. Scott Morrison AC served as Australia’s 30th Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022.

As Prime Minister, Scott Morrison successfully led Australia through the global COVID-19 pandemic, achieving one of the world’s most effective public health and economic responses — saving more than 30,000 lives, over 1 million jobs and 700,000 businesses.

At the end of his term, Australia had the third lowest COVID fatality rate in the OECD and had outperformed all G7 and almost all OECD nations in both employment and economic growth.

As Prime Minister, Mr Morrison was architect and founder of the AUKUS trilateral defence agreement between Australia, the UK and the USA. He was a founding member of the Quad Leaders’ Dialogue with fellow heads of Government from the USA, India and Japan. Mr Morrison also completed numerous international agreements, including the first post-Brexit free trade agreement with the UK, the first bilateral defence forces reciprocal access agreement with Japan and the first comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with ASEAN.

Domestically, Mr Morrison stewarded the Australian economy to its lowest unemployment rate in almost 50 years, balancing the federal budget before the pandemic hit and returning it to a structural surplus. He ensured Australia remained one of only nine countries in the world to maintain an AAA credit rating from all major international credit rating agencies.

Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Mr Morrison served as a Cabinet Minister for five years, including three years as Federal Treasurer (2015-18), Minister for Social Services (2014-15) and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (2013-14), where he designed and implemented Australia’s highly successful border protection policy. Mr Morrison also served for eight years respectively on the Australian Government’s National Security Committee and Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee. Mr Morrison was a Liberal Member of the Australian Commonwealth Parliament House of Representatives from 2007 to 2024.

Mr Morrison has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Chief Commander of the United States Legion of Merit by President Trump, the Jerusalem Prize by the World Zionist Council and the inaugural Grotius Prize for International Relations by UK Policy Exchange.

Mr Morrison now works in the private sector where he provides strategic advice in the defence, space, finance, infrastructure and resource sectors. This includes roles as non-executive Vice Chairman of US geo-political advisory firm, American Global Strategies and Chair of the Advisory Board for Space Centre Australia. He also serves as Executive Vice Chairman of the International Democracy Union, as well as on the advisory boards for the Center for a New American Security and the Hudson Institute China Center.

Mr Morrison holds a Bachelor of Applied Science with an Honours in Applied Science (Economic Geography) from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney.

He is married to Jenny, they have two teenage daughters and live in Sydney, Australia.