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PNG Association of Australia Christmas Luncheon, Sydney, 7 December 2008

Australia and PNG: New Beginnings

Introduction

Avinun tru. Gutpela long lukim ol yupela wontok bilong mi.

And thank you, Keith, for your kind words of introduction.

I’d like to recognise the presence today of a number of people who have been important to PNG- Australia relations:

It is a pleasure to be here among so many old friends, to share this occasion with you and to reflect briefly on what has been a wonderful year in PNG-Australian relations.

It’s been some time since we could say that.

Significantly, there has been a sea-change in the way we Australians relate to each other, to our region, and to the world. 

I’d invite you to think back over these past 12 months and reflect on the way we in this country welcomed – and the way the world opinion welcomed – our signature of the Kyoto Protocol; the Apology to Indigenous Australians; our re-engagement with multilateral diplomacy; and, close to my own heart, our remaking of Australia’s Pacific diplomacy.

Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea is, by any measure, one of our deepest and most enduring.   PNG is an important friend and neighbour to Australia, and we connect on many different levels--but especially through people-to-people links formed over many decades through family ties, business, education, and on the sporting field.

Through its extensive networks in Australia, the PNG Association of Australia has been integral in maintaining these people-to-people links.

This Association also plays a key role in educating Australians about our vital relationship with PNG, particularly through preserving for future generations important connections and historical materials relating to PNG.

Pacific Partnerships for Development

Appropriately enough, it was in Port Moresby, in March, that Prime Minister Rudd chose to announce a new program that symbolises the shared sense of commitment that binds Australia and its Pacific neighbours.

And encapsulates Australia’s new approach to the region.

The Pacific Partnership for Development program which the PM  outlined is based on the simple premise that we should work collaboratively with our Pacific neighbours, to promote our shared economic and social aspirations.

As the Prime Minister made clear, these Partnerships are to be comprehensive in their scope, but individual in their application. 

By crafting each agreement to suit the agreed needs of our individual partners, we will be able to work together to help them make better progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals by, for example,

The Partnerships will provide an overarching framework for our continuing programs of development assistance, but they are intended to deliver more than development assistance can achieve on its own. 

They will embody a whole-of-Government approach to cooperation and to the development assistance we provide. 

And they will engage the business community, so vital to generating sustainable economic growth.

Since the Prime Minister made his Port Moresby Declaration, Papua New Guinea and Samoa have become the first Pacific neighbours to conclude Partnerships with Australia.

We are hopeful of seeing equally good outcomes in our talks with other neighbours, including Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Nauru and Tonga.

The 18th Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum

Many of you here will know that, before the 18th Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum held in Madang, on 23 April this year, there had been no Ministerial Forum since December 2005.

That was deeply regrettable, given our longstanding friendship, and the importance of Papua New Guinea as a partner in developing common approaches to this region’s challenges.

As it happened, though, this was an excellent meeting; its tenor very much reflected the renewed relationship between our two countries. 

I had the good fortune to join six Australian Ministers and two of my fellow Parliamentary Secretaries in Madang, the largest delegation that Australia has ever sent to PNG.  

In turn, Foreign Minister Sam Abal led the PNG delegation of 17 Ministers.

It was also good to see so many representatives from the bilateral business councils at the Forum.

Our agenda reflected the range of challenges we jointly confront, including climate change and sustainable economic development.

I think it’s worth emphasising, as we did in Madang, that Papua New Guinea plays an important leadership role in this region, and as such is well-placed to assist its Pacific neighbours. 

We all appreciate, for example, its continuing contribution of very capable military, police and civilian personnel to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI).

If you set aside Australia and New Zealand, Papua New Guinea has the largest regional economy and its population represents almost three-quarters of the population of the Pacific Island states.

During the Ministerial Forum in Madang, Australia and PNG signed agreements on preserving the Kokoda Track, on cooperation in law enforcement and tourism, and on the establishment of an Australian Tsunami Warning System.

We also agreed to rejuvenate and rename the Enhanced Cooperation Program.  It is now the ‘Strongim Gavman Program’ and, I’m pleased to say, it has a separate section in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Under this Program, whose focus is on broadly strengthening governance, senior Australian Government officials will continue to help build capacity in key PNG Government agencies.

For example, we’re working to help PNG to build up immigration staff numbers and skills, and to reduce visa processing times and other delays.  

Amongst other things, Australian officials are working with their PNG counterparts to strengthen financial management and budget controls, to help strengthen the administration of justice, and to improve aviation security.

Separately to the Strongim Gavman Program, we were very pleased to have agreed with PNG on the placement of Australian Federal Police advisers with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.  Eleven are now in place.

This is the first such re-engagement with policing assistance since the ‘Wenge decision’ led to the withdrawal of Australian in-line police in 2005.

Furthermore, our discussions on climate change took as their departure point the Australia-PNG Forest Carbon Partnership signed by Prime Ministers Rudd and Somare in March this year. 

This document embodies our shared recognition of the need to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation as a key element in global action against climate change.

Papua New Guinea’s vast tracts of rainforest make it a crucial focus for turning the tide against emissions growth from deforestation and degradation, which globally represents the second-largest source of emissions after stationary energy. 

The Forest Carbon Partnership envisages not only cooperation on building PNG’s capacity to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and improve the lives of forest‑dependent communities, but also on practical approaches to the problem of measuring carbon in forests.

I was also delighted that in Madang we signed a Joint Understanding on the Kokoda Track and Owen Stanley Ranges. 

We’re now committed to assisting the PNG Government in its efforts to improve the livelihoods of local communities along the Track and to establish effective management arrangements so that the Track is protected and delivers increasing benefits to local people.

We will also shortly be funding staff to help the new Kokoda Track Authority to start its professional operation and develop the Track as a world class trekking experience.

You’ll recall that the Prime Minister's Special Envoy, Sandy Hollway, opened a health centre at Efogi village, about halfway along the track only a few weeks ago. This will have important positive impacts on basic health services for local communities.

On the subject of public health, I ‘d also like to mention the threat of HIV/AIDS. 

Only through an energetic campaign of education, prevention and management can we help PNG drastically reduce the chances of a sharp increase in the number of HIV/AIDS sufferers.

As I told members of the business community earlier this year, unless more is done to address the spread of HIV/AIDS in PNG, the country’s workforce may decline by 12.5% by 2025 and significantly reduce the size of PNG’s economy.

The Australian Government is the lead donor supporting Papua New Guinea's national HIV response. We are providing $178 million over five years, including

We remain strongly committed to supporting the HIV response in PNG.

Development through trade

Papua New Guinea is a country of enormous potential, as over 4,000 Australian businesses who trade with PNG know full well. 

Last year, our bilateral merchandise trade was worth over $4 billion, with the balance of trade in PNG’s favour.

At the Ministerial Forum, we committed Australia and PNG to a stronger bilateral business relationship, and agreed there should be regular meetings between business representatives and senior PNG and Australian government officials.  

The first of these meetings took place in Port Moresby in September.  It complemented two other very welcome initiatives earlier that month: the resurrection of the PNG Government’s Working Group on Impediments to Doing Business; and the first of AusAID’s quarterly consultations with the business community.

It has been encouraging to see the PNG Government’s recent strong economic management record. 

Sir Michael Somare’s government has reduced government debt levels, and kept both the budget and the current account in surplus. 

Maintaining these settings will of course be a major challenge in the tougher economic climate we all face with, crucially for PNG, significantly lower resource prices.

To meet these and other challenges, Sir Michael’s Government will need to continue to push forward with much-needed economic reform — which, as we ourselves know only too well, is a major commitment and requires sustained effort. 

In Australia’s view, there is a sure way of improving the prospects of stable and long-term economic growth in the Pacific region. 

And that is to more effectively integrate the nations of the Pacific with the wider global community, and to free up the flow of goods, services and investments within the region. 

We believe a comprehensive trade pact in the Pacific will enable countries in our region to share more fully in the benefits of increased trade and economic growth. 

At the recent Pacific Island Forum in Niue, Sir Michael Somare joined PM Kevin Rudd and other Leaders in discussing the vision of a “trade-plus” agreement and Australia’s proposed package of trade development assistance. 

We were very pleased to see Leaders lend their support to this vision by agreeing to formulate a detailed road map on what is known as ‘PACER Plus’, with a view to starting negotiations next year.

From our own experience of reform under the Hawke and Keating Governments, we know that the long-term benefits of economic reform exceed the costs.

But there’s no denying these costs: our neighbours will face problems in grappling with the necessary domestic reforms, and we must draw on our expertise to assist them through it.

That’s why my colleague Simon Crean, the Minister for Trade, has made it clear that our development assistance will be tailored towards improving the infrastructure and capacity necessary to take advantage of trade opportunities.

This includes developing the skills, and the regulatory and investment policies to support sustainable growth. 

Each Pacific nation’s individual negotiating position should be informed by national studies that identify the impacts, benefits and opportunities in a PACER Plus deal.

Australia has pledged to fund independent national studies for each partner country in 2008-09, to support their preparations for PACER Plus negotiations.

About a fortnight ago, I had the pleasure of signing, on behalf the Government, three MOUs relating to Australia’s Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme, with representatives of Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu.

We’re currently engaged in talks with the PNG Government on an MOU to facilitate participation in the scheme by Papua New Guineans.

I think this Scheme is an important demonstration of our strengthened Pacific engagement.  Certainly, it’s been as warmly welcomed by Pacific island governments—including at the Niue Forum meeting—as by communities in Australia.

The Scheme is not, and doesn’t pretend to be, a simple solution to the challenge of unemployment in the Pacific.  It’s a scheme that is demand driven by the Australian horticultural sector but also a part of an overall development response we’re working out together with Pacific nations.

But to the extent that it ultimately enables Pacific island workers to contribute to their countries’ economic development—through employment experience, remittances, and on-the-job training—and addresses skills shortages in Australia, we think it can make a useful contribution.

Conclusion

The bilateral relationship which this Association embodies, and which we’re celebrating today, is one of remarkable vitality.

Our respective societies are bound together by ties that far transcend the government-to-government contacts that I’m now engaged in.

As neighbours, we enjoy not only a tremendously strong sense of shared history, but, dare I say, an equally strong sense of a shared future.

That future will depend on people like you.

People who, as students, academics, business people and tourists, spend extended periods of time in one another’s countries.

People whose untiring commercial efforts are reflected in the rising value of bilateral trade and investment.

And whose common passion for sport raucously fills the bars in both countries during State of Origin matches. 

As I’ve tried to explain today, from the perspective of someone fortunate enough to have been appointed Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, it’s this idea of two Pacific neighbours facing a common destiny that underpins the Australian Government’s new approach to Papua New Guinea.

We can agree to disagree, as do all mature partners from time to time.  But we face a common future in this region.

Our Government has made it clear from the outset--in word and deed--that we are committed to a new era of cooperation with the Pacific. 

We think that cooperation is embodied in our relations with the government and people of Papua New Guinea.

May it go from strength to strength.

Meri Krismas. Tenk yu tru.

Media inquiries: Mr Kerr's office - 02 6277 4991

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