MUKONZA, Mr Evans, President, Australia Zimbabwe Business Council ZIMBA, Mr Denis, Secretary, Australia Zimbabwe Business Council [10:20] CHAIR: Welcome. Although the subcommittee does not require you to give evidence under oath, I should advise you that this hearing is a legal proceeding of the parliament. The giving of false or misleading evidence is a serious matter and may be regarded as a contempt of parliament. The evidence given today will be recorded by Hansard and attracts parliamentary privilege. I now invite you to make a brief opening statement before we proceed to discussion. Mr Mukonza : Thank you, Chair, and members of the committee, for this opportunity to appear today. We welcome this inquiry strongly and support its direction. Australia's engagement with Africa remains limited, fragmented and heavily concentrated in mining, despite clear and growing opportunities in agribusiness, workforce development and broader economic partnerships; our submission reflects this. However, we would make one key observation: the gap is no longer strategy; it's execution. Through the Australia Zimbabwe Business Council, we operate at the intersection of policy and implementation. In partnership with local stakeholders, we're currently involved in developing an integrated agribusiness and training platform at Shamva Agricultural College in Zimbabwe. This model combines commercial production, skills development and local value-chain integration. Importantly, this initiative is now entering its commercialisation phase, where systems are scaling and aligning with market demand. We're also preparing to replicate similar models in Uganda and Lesotho, demonstrating that these are scalable regional platforms rather than a one-off initiative. A key enabler in this is the African diaspora in Australia. Many professionals, across agriculture, mining and other sectors, have seen what works here and are actively working to replicate those systems in Africa. They understand both environments and help bridge the gap that often causes well-intentioned programs to struggle. In our experience, success comes from moving beyond concept into demonstration and then into transformation. Australia has already developed proven approaches to market entry, such as Austrade's landing pads. There's a clear opportunity to adapt these for Africa, particularly when combined with on-the-ground platforms and partnerships. To conclude, the three main areas of impact that we would want to discuss Australia being involved in are supporting pilot programs, improving mobility and workforce pathways, and leveraging diaspora business councils for delivery. As a business council, we have been fostering trade and investment for Australia and Zimbabwe since 2012, assisting Australian companies that want to have a footprint in Zimbabwe. That concludes our introduction. CHAIR: You were talking about labour mobility pilots. What does that look like? What priority sectors are we talking about? Mr Zimba : If we look at most of the students that are coming to Australia, especially over the last couple of years, most are professionals. They are in mining. Some of them are in the allied health sector. When you talk about labour mobility, it's putting policies and procedures in place that allow the free movement of those two counterparts. The other aspect is that there's one thing about having labour coming to Australia but there's also something about having something sustainable in Africa whereby, if you then train the local labour force, Australian companies would also be able to go there. One key aspect could be training where we have universities from Australia offering courses within Africa, and, as part of the work experience program, those people then come to Australia and do some work experience for the exposure. When they go back, it also becomes key networks and they almost become honorary diplomats for Australia because they've seen what works. They can replicate it back home. It also becomes easier for Australian business because then we talk the same language. We understand how they operate and also how things happen in Africa. CHAIR: What priority sectors are we talking about? Mr Zimba : At the moment, the key priority sector that I can think of is agriculture and agribusiness. The reason why we say agriculture is that it's a low-hanging fruit. When I came to Australia, I always liked to do agriculture. But, because you're coming from Zimbabwe, your parents—you usually have to be a professional. They prefer you to become a doctor or accountant. You come here and you do accounting. But, every time I travel with my kids to visit my in-laws all the way in Hervey Bay, in Toogoom, I make a point of passing through farms within Australia. As you enter through an area, whether it's Moree or Bundaberg, you see a town that's based on the industry. It's all agriculture. It could be sugar cane, but then you've got a whole industry that's supporting it. Through that industry, you're creating employment. You're creating opportunities. Those are some of the key things that we see where there's opportunity moving forward. CHAIR: Thank you. Mr Batt? Mr BATT: Are there any particular barriers to trade and investment in Zimbabwe that would be useful for us to understand? If there are, is there anything that the Australian Government can do to try and reduce those barriers? Mr Zimba : At the moment, I believe Zimbabwe has been trying to be open for business. One of the key barriers—unlike Europe, where Australian businesses can just go to Europe or even travel to Europe—is that there's always the perspective about Africa. Most people get comfortable in places that they know. So what we seem to see is that, although the Zimbabwean government is willing and opening up ventures and changing policies, getting people to actually go there becomes a challenge. One of the key things that we did for ourselves, as Evans said in his opening statement, is we identified some of those constraints, whereby trying to go to Zimbabwe is hard because you don't know anyone. We started off with a charity called Friends of Kahungwe. Friends of Kahungwe is a charity that was established by me and a friend of mine in a small rural village in Muzarabani. One day he went back, and he saw an old lady who used to take care of him and recognised him. He called me in Australia, and he said, 'What can we do?' And I said: 'It's simple. To build a house, it's less than $500.' That was about 2016. But from that thing, something bigger grew. We then talked to some Australians and started doing charity fundraising. We ended up building a library and have more than 50 children on boarding school scholarships. But the most impactful thing it does, when we take some Australians there that we fundraise with, is that they actually get to experience the culture and the people, and, through that, they also get to understand Zimbabwe. The other key thing that came out of it was more of—you've got kids that have got an opportunity cost, which actually happens in most of Africa, where parents are saying, 'Do I send my kid to school, or do I make my child work in the fields because they need to eat?' So one of the key things that we're now moving to is like a sustainable concept. It's sort of like a landing pad, which is the partnership with Shamva Agricultural College, where we are providing Australian skills, like those we learn here. As I said, I talk to farmers. I went to what I think is one of the largest freshwater fishery projects in New South Wales. I have also talked to some farmers within Canberra. You sort of learn how they do farming and how you can actually put those things into perspective. One of the key things that also happens is most researchers in Australia are also from Africa. You've got all these professional people from Africa, who we will then leverage to go in, as my colleague said about the landing pad. So, in order to remove that barrier to trade, I believe you start with a concept. From a concept, you go into a demonstration. Then, after a demonstration, it will then lead to a transformation. In that three-way structure, when people see things working on the ground, they would then be able to join in. CHAIR: Did you have a question? Mr GEORGANAS: In your submission, you speak about the strategic competition from China, the United States, EU, India, Turkiye and Gulf states. You say that poses an impediment to Australia's potential in terms of its trade and investment with African nations. To what extent—can you explain that to us a bit more? The way I understood it is that these nations are making inroads and investments. The way I read it was that the longer we delay taking any action in terms of generating trade and growing the relationship the more it will be an impediment to Australia. Mr Zimba : That is correct. What seems to happen with Europe is that the African diaspora has been in Europe for many more years than the African diaspora in Australia. So when you talk of Europe, Europe already has a comparative advantage because those relationships with Europe and obviously with the UK have always been there. Then, on the other aspects, when you then think of China, there is the risk appetite as well. In China, people are facilitating their business. Also, in terms of financing, if you look at most programs that happen within China, some of them are funded through grants by the Chinese government. It actually then makes it competitive, and it also reduces that risk appetite. In Australia, we are mostly looking at private companies. With the structure of private companies, the risk appetite tends to be significantly lower. So that then becomes the barrier to entry. That's basically where we say, more strategically, Australia is lagging behind. I'll give you the example of Prospect Resources. Prospect Resources is the one for which I did the explorative studies for Arcadia lithium mine. I believe that, last week, they did their first export of processed lithium. Prospect Resources was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. They went through the feasibility studies and then, two years later, they sold it to the Chinese. It was bought by the Chinese on the Australian stock market. Look at it now, when people talk about strategic minerals, and then look at the amount that was paid then. I believe it was just over $300 million. Now, if you look at the wealth of it, the resources that are there—one of the key things Australia does have is that most of them are actually junior miners. That's why I come back to risk appetite. Junior miners' risk appetite is higher, so they go to Africa, but, most of the time, they are limited in resources. Then they then end up going further afield to then look for funding to actually go into the production phase. Through them, you can see whether it's strategic minerals or agriculture. Then look at the picture and then have people in the same room. Where you've got the diaspora, you also have those exploration companies, and most of them are based in Perth. One key thing about those ones—if you look at Prospect Resources, Zimplats and Invictus. Most of them are actually from the Zimbabwean diaspora. That's where you start to see that most people that are actually investing in Africa are diasporans, because they understand the market and they understand how things operate. Mr Mukonza : To add to that notion, what we were trying to really say there is we can see that Australia does not really have a strong footprint, especially within the southern region of Africa, commercially on a large scale. Most programs that the government has been involved in are not really commercially visible. As I say, it's more on an individual-to-individual basis, whereas, when you look at other nations—India, China—you can see a lot of innovative programs in wind energy, in different sectors and agriculture technology. That's what we were really trying to explain in that part. CHAIR: Ms Jarrett. Ms JARRETT: I saw in your submission that you talked about the Australian-African business corridor model. I don't know if you heard the evidence provided by the chamber earlier, but they were talking about the fact that we should be considering the import-export entry in those markets where there are strong banking payments that are utilising the interest rates for trade. Can you elaborate a little bit more on what you see the Australia-Africa business corridor model looking like? Are there some critical corridors we should be focused on? That's the first one. Mr Zimba : The thing about Africa is that it's broad. It's not just one continent; it's 54 different countries. Each country has its own unique economic policies, government and also opportunities. When you look at Africa, I believe one of the key things to opening a corridor is a model similar to Austrade's landing pads. I believe that was from about 2016, when Austrade was launching landing pads in Korea and then Japan. The key thing that does is that, instead of reinventing the wheel, you actually then identify companies or the diasporans that are in Australia doing similar things in those countries. You then bring across government people policy, initiate stakeholder engagement and then leverage on those. That would then actually open the pathway for the trade between the two countries. I think, for most of the hearing, there's been a question about DFAT only having a few embassies within Africa, and about Australia at the moment—I believe they've shut down their office in South Africa and now they're based in Kenya. Obviously resources are limited. But there's more: what else can you use to leverage that as an entry point? CHAIR: We'll go to Ms Clutterham next. Ms CLUTTERHAM: We often hear about mining and agriculture as being the main sectors where there might be more opportunity for Australia to trade with the African continent. But I notice in your submission you also talked about fintech and world-leading digital innovation. What does that look like in Zimbabwe, for example? And what role do you see for Australia in contributing in that industry? Mr Mukonza : In Zimbabwe within the last couple of decades, and more so most recently, they have been putting a really big emphasis on ICT and appreciating data protection mechanisms more so than ever. I think it is more to do with transparency of business and to improve the ease of doing business to attract investors. Personally, at the business council, I've never seen the ICT ministry more active. And this has got a lot to do with a lot of international technology that's coming in from different nations, particularly China and India; we're getting a lot of expertise from those areas. Australia is extremely advanced in financial protection mechanisms, and we feel that, not just for Zimbabwe but for the SADC region—which is an enormous trading hub for Africa because of the ports that we've got down in Durban and in Walvis Bay, Namibia—trade can improve significantly if world-standard trading platforms are to be introduced. There are still some challenges in transactions that are done through reserve banks within Zimbabwe, with delays in payments. When we use Osko here, transactions are quite instant in most cases. But we see quite a lot of delays in certain payments. And I think that's where Australia could probably come in and help with some of those policies in terms of anti-money-laundering schemes. Is there anything else you can add on there? Mr Zimba : ICT also then plays a major part, whether it's in mining, agriculture, banking or finance. The reason why is more like ICT in agriculture. Australian biosecurity and agriculture standards are some of the best and highest in the world. The technology that Australia has can also then assist with that early planning, whether you're talking of [inaudible]—so it's actually that technology, from people now using drones to some of the things which they use now for protection, in early pest intervention and being able to monitor plants and diseases. If you look at Australia, there's so much funding through the Department of Agriculture that goes into research bodies. That's one of the key things that's also missing in Africa, because in Africa it's mostly people just showing their own initiative, so there's not that control. But being able to tap into those skill sets and that knowledge could make a tremendous difference. It could be the difference between a communal farmer having two tonnes a hectare of maize or wheat to more than five tonnes, just by introducing one piece of technology that allows them to be able to identify or test diseases in a timely manner. Ms CLUTTERHAM: It's twofold, really. There are two limbs to it: Australian expertise—in cyber, ICT and AML, for example—and then harnessing that expertise to create an environment which is easier and safer and more secure to do business in, thus encouraging more investment from Australian companies. Thank you for that answer. CHAIR: Ms Jarrett. Ms JARRETT: I want to follow up on the response that you gave in relation to the business corridor model. Does the current free trade agreement MOU et cetera work for what you're talking about, or is that something we'd need to look at amending to facilitate that sort of business corridor model approach? Mr Zimba : Could you please repeat that? Ms JARRETT: To facilitate the business corridor model that you were referring to in responding to my earlier question, does the current free trade agreement MOU work for that, or do we need to look at those arrangements to better support that business corridor model that you referred to? Mr Zimba : In regard to the business model, I haven't actually gone into detail, to be honest, on the MOU, but, from prior experience, what usually happens with them is like most things in Africa—we're good at formulating policy and writing stuff on paper, but then it's the implementation where most things actually fail. We can have a good MOU, but then at implementation, if it's not structured properly, that corridor would not actually work. That's why, as part of our opening statement, one of the key aspects that we spoke of is that having an MOU is a box to tick, because it's more like a concept. The next thing to do is the demonstration, because, when you demonstrate something, people will be able to see it. Seeing is believing. So, when they see that, they then have an understanding of what exactly it means to be an Australian product. It's similar things to people, usually, just in Africa. Most people use brand names. They see a Toyota; they associate it with strength. They see a computer—HP. But then most of the products in Australia are not that easily accessible in Africa or available in Africa. So then how do you introduce a product when people on the ground haven't seen it or don't understand how it works? One of the key things about the MOU free trade agreement is that, yes, it's a good box to tick, but then the next thing is also being able to supplement it through trade missions. When you speak of trade missions, it's not a trade mission where you've got people that come to Melbourne or Sydney. It's a trade mission where people go to the local regional areas because they see things in practice, because you can actually associate a small town with a rural or regional setting in Africa, where you see the transformation that's happening through a certain industry and how you then bring in the value chains. I know there's a company that grows jujube in Africa. It's similar to what we call masau. From memory, I think it's usually 60 tonnes that they produce per year, but then they usually are all sold out. But then you go to Africa—in Muzarabani, where we have Friends of Kahungwe—you see all those crops actually go to rot because people don't understand packaging. They don't understand shipping. They also don't understand how to actually preserve some of those things. So I always then come back to the three concepts. You've got a concept. Now we need a platform to be able to demonstrate it. From that demonstration, that will then lead to the transformation of opening up all those corridors. Mr BATT: Just on that, you're talking about the trade missions. Sector-specific trade missions, I think, is what we talked about in your submission, through DFAT or Austrade. Are there any specific sectors, off the top of your head, that you think would be more appropriate to start with to try to do these trade missions? Mr Zimba : One of the easy wins would actually be agriculture. In Africa, the population is growing. With climate change, resilience and yields are dropping. And then there are so many other people to feed. So agriculture would be an easy win, followed by mining. But then, with mining, it's more of being able to take people to the mining areas so they can appreciate how mining actually works. One of the things that we also notice is that sometimes when you get the trade missions, if they're too broad, you end up with people who are not experts in that field coming along. So we end up with people who are more like policy people. But then what you're trying to do is, if you're talking about agriculture, have agriculture researchers or people that are on the ground or universities. If you're talking about mining, let's have those geologists and engineers. So it has to be sector specific, and it has to be actually targeted—doing something where you actually have your outcomes laid out first, before you go into it. CHAIR: Thank you for your time today. If you have been asked to provide any additional information, please forward it to the secretariat by Wednesday 27 May 2026. Please note that responses to questions on notice will be published on the website as submissions to the inquiry. You will be sent a copy of the transcript of your evidence to assist you with answering any questions taken on notice today, and you will have an opportunity to request corrections to any transcription errors. Proceedings suspended from 10:50 to 11:11 .