14 August 2009, Townsville

International Unity in Diversity Conference

Thank you for that introduction.

I would like to acknowledge the wulgurukaba and bindal people, the traditional owners of the land on which we stand today, and to pay respects to their elders, past and present.

I am delighted to be here in Townsville to speak at this the second International Unity in Diversity Conference.

Over the past two days this conference has addressed important themes and related them to the challenges that unite us all, regardless of our race, politics, or our religion.

Australia is, proudly, one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. It is one of our strengths as a nation.

Nearly one in four Australians were born overseas. Close to half of us were either born overseas or had at least one parent who was. We identify more than 250 different ancestries.

We speak more than 400 languages, including an estimated 200 indigenous languages.

Reflecting trends in the birthplaces of overseas born Australians, the number of Mandarin and Hindi speakers in Australia has doubled between 1996 and 2006. We are part of a region which in one country alone (PNG) one can find one-fifth of the world's known languages.

Today, diversity is written into the very fabric of our society. It is part of our present, and our future.

That's not to say that this has always been the case. Our treatment of the original inhabitants of Australia, alongside almost seventy years of the isolationist 'white-Australia' policy from the inception of our federation are testaments to this history.

In February last year Prime Minister Rudd made a formal apology on behalf of the Government and the Parliament for the mistreatment of indigenous Australians, particularly the Stolen Generation. Earlier this year we issued a statement supporting the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous peoples.

In my own portfolio the history of Pacific labourers working in the sugar industry here in Queensland in the 19th century and their subsequent removal under the first act of the white-Australia policy is another part of our nation's history that we need to reconcile.

The history of Pacific labour in Australia remains greatly debated and there no doubt that the British colonial authorities put considerable effort into trying to ensure Pacific Islanders were not misused - and there is equally no doubt that many voluntarily sought out an opportunity to improve their economic outcomes in exchange for working in Northern Australia. However it is equally clear that a significant number who came here originally from Solomon Islands and Vanuatu in particular did not come by choice. 'Blackbirding' as it was known at the time was a coercive labour program - removed only by degree from the dark days of slavery in other parts of the world. Few who came by that route escaped some form of physical or mental violence. Then, after the introduction of a White Australia policy, most were deported.

Fortunately for Australia, some remained and over time our country has benefited enormously from their contribution.
As many of you are aware we have a pilot underway in which Pacific Islanders are again coming to Australia to undertake seasonal work -of course I'm pleased to say, under radically altered circumstances. In what is I believe a win-win for Australia and the region, desperate labour shortages initially in rural Australia will be lessened, while providing real opportunities for greater remittances to flow from Australia (and New Zealand who have established a more permanent Recognised Seasonal Employment program) to families in our region whom otherwise would have little opportunity for formal employment, training and skills development.

This pilot program is one aspect of what this morning I want to take the opportunity to speak about. Namely - our Government's new approach to the Pacific.

It's an approach that celebrates the rich diversity of the Pacific and its people, focuses on our common interests, and unites us in our quest for a more prosperous, peaceful and sustainable region.

Since coming to office, our Government has worked hard within the Pacific region to reinvigorate relationships and renew a sense of a shared future.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's Port Moresby Declaration in March last year set the tone for our Pacific engagement.

Since then, we have brought an ambitious and co-operative new approach to our Pacific relationships and it has been my privilege, as Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, to be closely involved in the framing and delivery of that approach.

We believe it is vital that our engagement is based on principles of mutual respect, mutual responsibility and mutual commitment to build a better future.

Further, our engagement reflects the cultural diversity of modern Pacific societies and our appreciation of the cultural and societal sophistication inherent in all Pacific cultures.

We understand that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work and that our policies must encompass an appreciation of, and respect for, each unique Pacific society - their history, their culture as well as their historic and contemporary relationships with each other.

This approach was brought home last week in Cairns last week, when Australia hosted the Pacific Island Forum Leaders' Meeting.

We saw the diversity of Pacific peoples, we experienced the diversity of their cultures and music, we heard of the diversity of their history and experience.

But we also saw the united way in which Pacific Leaders are determined to address the challenges of climate change, economic development and of good governance.

Our development partners from across the world, who joined us in Cairns, saw that too. The message was certainly, we are diverse peoples, but united in our shared environment and our common future. The communiqué and declaration of this year's forum of which we will chair for the next year - reflected this thinking and these ideals.

Australia is engaging with Pacific island countries through a series of bilateral Pacific Partnerships for Development, which commit Australia to provide new bilateral assistance over time.

The Partnerships also embrace commitments from our Pacific partners to improve governance, increase investment in economic infrastructure and achieve better outcomes in health and education.

Each Partnership is individually developed and agreed, in close consultation with our Pacific neighbours, reflecting our a joint determination to tailor our assistance in the Pacific to the individual needs of Island countries.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd signed Pacific Partnerships with the leaders of Papua New Guinea and Samoa in August 2008, with the leaders of Kiribati and Solomon Islands in January this year and with the Prime Minister of Vanuatu in May.

Separate partnership agreements with Tonga, Nauru and Tuvalu were signed at last week's Pacific Island Forum meeting in Cairns.

The steps we have taken so far are important but there can be no denying the challenges the region faces.

The Pacific environment and its societies, cultures and economies are all affected by the same global challenges that we face in Australia.

Indeed, in some cases, the effects of global forces can be felt far more severely in the Pacific than here in Australia.

Pacific countries are, for example, especially vulnerable to the current global economic turmoil due to their small size, lack of economic diversity and distance from major trade and commercial sectors.

Many Pacific islands have narrowly based economies, largely dependent on one or two commodities or services such as agriculture, fishing or tourism.

Adverse impacts of the global downturn on just one of these sectors can rapidly spiral into a major economic challenge for a Pacific Island country.

Overall, economic growth and growth per capita in the Pacific has been generally low, or negative, and people in a number of countries are now worse off than a decade ago.

In the past 18 months, Pacific island nations have faced lower prices and reduced demand for commodity exports, pressure on tourism, falls in remittances and in the value of offshore national trust funds.

Lower cash incomes for families can mean less money for food, for school fees and for essential health services, worsening health outcomes and children, particularly young girls being withdrawn from school.

Reduced government support for infrastructure is likely to constrain economic growth and employment and slow recovery.

Australia is, therefore, working to assist Pacific Island countries to respond to the global recession, protect core services and vulnerable groups and to establish more resilient and sustainable economies that can better withstand global fluctuations.

Development assistance is only one part of the solution to improving the long-term economic outlook for Pacific Island countries.

For this reason we have given a high priority to greater trade and economic cooperation and integration with our Pacific partners. It is also the reason why we unabashedly privilege the idea of greater private sector development in our region.

Last week, in Cairns, leaders of Pacific Island Forum countries agreed to commence negotiations on a new regional trade agreement.

This represents an enormous opportunity for Pacific nations.

The agreement, called PACER-Plus, is a key plank in the Forum's strategy to create a more prosperous, sustainable Pacific.

It will open up crucial opportunities for Pacific nations to trade with each other, with Australia and beyond.

As well as building greater economic resilience in our region, Pacific Island Forum leaders last week discussed how we can strengthen development coordination and effectiveness.

Pacific Island leaders agreed to a new "Cairns Compact on Strengthening Development Coordination in the Pacific," which identifies the principles of country leadership, mutual accountability and mutual respect as fundamental to successful development outcomes.

Climate change is one of the most complex and pressing challenges we face, both here in Australia, and elsewhere.

I'm acutely aware that Pacific island countries have contributed little to the causes of climate change, but are among those most affected.

Climate change threatens to undermine the prosperity, ecological diversity and, in some cases the viability, of Pacific island countries.

Storms, flooding and erosion threaten coastal settlements and the transportation, water and sanitation infrastructure that supports them.

Climate change may also exacerbate existing threats to human health, such as limited access to clean water.

Governments across the region have recognised that managing the effects of climate change is central to achieving our other goals of poverty reduction, economic growth and sustainable development.

For these reasons, the Australian Government is working with Pacific Island countries to develop adaptation strategies.

We have provided practical assistance to help communities increase water storage capacities, diversify crops for food security and replant mangroves to stabilise coastlines.

At last week's Forum the Government announced A$50 million for measures under the International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative to help meet high priority adaptation needs of the vulnerable countries in the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on the Pacific Islands and East Timor.

We want to avoid the worst case long-term scenario where the impacts of climate change would force some Pacific countries to consider permanent migration, with all the impacts this would have on their unique economic, social and cultural interests.

At the same time as we're working on the challenges presented by the global recession and climate change, the Government understands that poverty reduction remains the most pressing challenge in our Pacific neighbourhood.

For this reason we are working hard with our Pacific partners to improve progress against the Millennium Development Goals.

The MDGs are agreed targets set by the world's nations to reduce poverty by 2015.

For the Pacific, they include halving extreme poverty, ensuring all children can enrol and complete primary schooling, closing the gap on gender inequality, reducing the incidence and spread of communicable disease and protecting the environment.

Some countries in the Pacific have made good progress and have achieved some of the MDG targets, but the Pacific as a whole is significantly off track to meet the MDGs by 2015.

The scale of the challenge is enormous.

About 2.7 million people in the Pacific region are living in poverty and do not have the income to satisfy their basic human needs.

About 400,000 children in the region are not enrolled in primary school, about 64 out of every 1000 children die before the aged of five.

Pacific women continue to suffer extremely high rates of maternal mortality.

According to the PNG Demographic Health Survey, there were 733 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births in PNG during 2006, with the majority of babies not delivered by a trained health professional.

This compares with Australia's maternal death rate of just 4 in every 100,000.

At least 80,000 adults have HIV and the rate of infection is growing by more than 40 per cent a year.

Through the Pacific Partnerships we will provide support to our Pacific neighbours to tackle these problems and improve their lives and those of their children.

Ladies and gentlemen.

We all need to do more to recognise and appreciate the diversity of our neighbouring Pacific communities and cultures.

But while recognising that diversity, it is a fact of geography that the shores of the vast Pacific Ocean unite the nations in our Pacific neighbourhood.

And it's just of one of many things we have in common.

We also share a democratic heritage and, in many cases, a common language. We certainly share a wealth of knowledge and traditions that are the inheritance of our pre-colonial heritage.

Our past- but more importantly our futures - are intertwined.

And as we look to the future we know we must work together to face some difficult challenges, including dealing with the consequences of climate change, health threats such as HIV/AIDs and finding our place in the global economy of the 21st century.

Whether it be climate change, economic integration, fisheries cooperation, efforts to enhance regional stability or the range of development priorities, our Government's agenda in the Pacific is broad, our Government's commitment is strong, and our ambition is great. The focus and energy that this Government has brought to our engagement in the Pacific reflects our firm belief that we have a greater shared future with our regional neighbours.

Thank you.

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