The future direction of plant pathology in Australasia

Australasia, 'Australia and surrounding islands', refers to a vast and dive rse geographic region including Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea . The geographic diversity, spanning wet tropical to sub-Antarctic biomes a nd everything in between, means that the problems confronting Australasian plant pathologists are equally diverse. Rapid changes to our physical, econ omic and geopolitical environment, and the biological irrelevance of nation al borders, promise interesting times ahead for plant pathologists. In this paper I want to address the following: Who will the future plant pa thologists be? What will they work on? Who will they work for? Will biotech nology ever become useful? An ethical future?.