Mayor Ray Nagin is in Australia, where he’s scheduled to speak at the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University on the topic of ’sustainable globalisation.’ He took time for a radio interview with ABC Australia’s Mark Colvin on the state of New Orleans. A few highlights of what Hizzoner had to tell the Aussies about the city:

On economic development: There is a tremendous amount of growth, entrepreneurism moving to our city. New construction and engineering companies are opening up because of all the activity.

On Dr. Ed Blakely: Invaluable guy who came on the scene when we needed him the most. We had multiple plans in place; we were kind of floundering a little bit. He put clarity to that; helped us implement our initial implementation strategies, if you will, identified 17 key areas, and if you look at those areas today, for every $1 of public investment we get $88 of private investment. He has earned his money.

On crime and drugs: Well, you know, crime has always been a challenge for us in the city of New Orleans. It’s a historic thing that dates back, you know, 20, 30 years ago. Unfortunately we do have a port that brings in a lot of drugs into our community. We know have post-Katrina stress disorders that are starting to manifest themselves in many, many ways, where our citizens are self-medicating. In certain sections of the city we do have violent crime but the overall violent crime rate in New Orleans is down substantially.

To read the transcript, go here … or just listen to the show:

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