Jotham Napat, Prime Minister of Vanuatu: Senator Honourable Penny Wong, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia. Esteemed members of your delegation, members of the press, ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to address you today following a highly constructive and meaningful bilateral meeting with Senator Honourable Penny Wong, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia. Our discussions today have reaffirmed the deep and enduring partnership between Vanuatu and Australia. A relationship built on mutual respect, shared interest and a steadfast commitment to advancing the prosperity and security of our region. Today, Senator Wong and I reaffirmed Australia's continued commitment to the Vanuatu Government's Earthquake Recovery Plan, a comprehensive initiative designed to rebuild critical infrastructures, restore livelihoods and enhance resilience against future disasters. Australia's ongoing financial and technical support reinforces the importance of regional solidarity in terms of adversity, and I extend my sincere appreciation for the friendship and the commitment demonstrated by the Australian government and to our people. We discussed the importance of ensuring the PACER Plus delivers equitable benefits for all signatory nations with a strong emphasis on funding mechanisms, trade facilitation and market access of Vanuatu's export to Australia.
The Vanuatu Australia Nakamal Partnership Agreement – a framework for development cooperation. Through this framework, Vanuatu and Australia will jointly address critical priorities including the economic and infrastructure development, ensuring that the projects yield tangible benefits for our communities, climate adaptation and resilience building, social development and governance collaboration, cultural preservation and mutual understanding. The Nakamal Partnership Agreement exemplifies a modern and pragmatic approach to the international cooperation, strengthening our ability to drive sustainable progress, uphold sovereignty and enhance regional stability. And we are hoping that we will sign this Nakamal Agreement this coming September, and I'm hoping that the Prime Minister of Australia will fly over so that we can sign this agreement.
Vanuatu and Australia will work closely through Climate Partnership programs and regional platforms to ensure the climate resilience and adaptation financing, and environmental sustainability. A shared vision for the future. This bilateral meaning has reaffirmed the unshakable foundations of cooperation between Vanuatu and Australia, yielding clear priorities and strategies that will guide our engagement moving forward. Together, our nations will continue advancing disaster recovery and resilience, building fair and equitable trade and investment under PACER Plus, development cooperation through the Nakamal Partnership Agreement, urgent climate action, addressing the essential challenges facing our region, regional security and stability, ensuring that the Pacific remains peaceful and united. Words alone will not save the future. We must act decisively. Vanuatu and Australia are committed to ensuring that this discussion translates into meaningful progress, lasting impact and strengthened regional leadership. I extend my deep appreciation to Senator Honourable Penny Wong for her leadership, steadfast support and commitment to strengthening our bilateral partnership. Vanuatu remains ready to work alongside Australia to forge a future of resilience, prosperity and stability for our nations and the Pacific as a whole. I thank you for your attention.
Penny Wong, Foreign Minister: Thank you for those very eloquent and very generous words, Prime Minister Napat. Thank you for your leadership of your country and also in this region. And I can also thank the people of Vanuatu, as well, for welcoming me and the Assistant Foreign Minister, Matt Thistlethwaite, so warmly. On behalf of Australia, I also pay my respects to Malvatumauri, the National Council of Chiefs. I was really honoured to meet this morning with the President Chief Paul Ravun at Nakamal, to be guided by him on the culture which he is so proud of, and also to reaffirm our support for the rebuilding of the Chief's Nakamal. We recognise it's not just a building, it's a symbol of unity and of the resilience of your people. And he spoke about walking together. The people of Vanuatu, the people of Australia, including our First Nations Australians, represented today by my Ambassador for First Nations, Justin Mohamed. And I think that idea of walking together is a very good one for our partnership. Sometimes we have hills to climb, difficult paths to walk, but we can do it together. And that is our partnership - it's a partnership defined partly by our geography, but also by who we are, by our shared values, by our sovereignty, our partnership and our resilience.
We're very deeply honoured to be Vanuatu's largest economic, development, security and humanitarian partner. We are honoured that we were able to respond in the Pacific way when the earthquake struck just before Christmas. And I thank the Prime Minister for his generous words. And I say again, the people of Vanuatu have our sympathy and our solidarity. We know this was a disaster that claimed lives, damaged homes and schools and undermined communities. And this is a people who are resilient in the face of cyclones and so many other natural disasters, so, we understand to some degree how challenging this has been. We sought to act quickly with you, mobilising support, deploying search and rescue, medical teams, working with your officials to help those most in need. And we did it because that's what family does. We show up for each other. And that is why I'm here. This is my 30th visit to a member of the Pacific family. And it's been an honour as Foreign Minister in my first term to do that. And it is my honour as Foreign Minister, in this, our second term, to come so soon after our election to Vanuatu.
Now I know there's more work to do when it comes to recovery from the earthquake. And I expressed to the Prime Minister today our additional assistance that we are announcing on this trip. An additional $5 million in assistance to help safely rebuild schools. Some 45 schools and over 100 classrooms have been damaged. We want to help rebuild them. We want to help protect Vanuatu's next generation, safeguard your culture and ensure all your children, can learn in safe and secure classrooms. We also will deliver an additional $1 million Australian dollars in engineering support to help rebuild more safely. Because that is part of the resilience in a time of great change. And that brings our total development assistance over the past year to in excess of $120 million Australian dollars.
We all know this is an uncertain world. The Prime Minister and I spoke about this. We've seen a lot of change. Well, what I would say to the leaders of Vanuatu, to the Prime Minister, to his Cabinet, to the Chiefs and to the people, is that we are a steadfast partner. You can count on us. You can count on us to act on climate change. You can count on us to help rebuild. You can count on us to work with you as we walk together. It's a very humbling thing to be here and to be greeted by the Prime Minister. And I thank him for his courtesy and for his hospitality. Thank you very much.
Journalist: Minister Wong, thank you for allowing the media to attend this press conference. Australia is a major regional power and also one of the major carbon emitters. And you and the Prime Minister spoke about addressing climate issues. How is Australia planning to support small island nations such as Vanuatu to address climate threats?
Foreign Minister: Thank you for that. Yes, of course, we spoke about climate, and we're not one of the world's largest emitters, but we are a country that has depended on fossil fuels. We have been a very emissions-intensive economy. We know that, and we have to turn that around. And that is why we have legislated ambitious targets to reduce our emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement. And we are gratified by the mandate the Australian people have given us to make that transition. We've travelled some of that road. We have much further to go. We have to get to 82 per cent of renewables by 2030. When we came to government, it was just over 20 per cent. So, that gives you some sense of how much we have to do. But my state of South Australia, we're already at 70 per cent. So, we know we can do this.
But what I also would say is that if we are to hold to Paris, which is so important for the people of the Pacific, because you live climate change every day, all emitters will have to do their part. Major emitters, whether it's China or all developed countries, all the countries of the world will have to do their part. We cannot hold to Paris unless we all do our part. And we're willing to do our part.
Journalist: Minister Wong, so what are some of the practical experiences, or practical examples that you can provide for Australia to help Vanuatu with its economic recovery and also bring tourists back to Vanuatu?
Foreign Minister: What was the last part, sorry?
Journalist: -- and also encourage tourists to come back to Vanuatu?
Foreign Minister: Well, we understand the responsibility we have as your economic partner. I looked at the PALM figures and the tourism figures, and depending on the year, it's over 30, up to over 40 per cent of your economy. So, we have to make sure that tourism continues. The Prime Minister and I talked about the flights, and certainly one of the things that we did as a government was engage with the private sector to ensure that the flights from Australia to Vanuatu continued. And I hope that one of the things we can do as we work through the Nakamal Partnership, that the Prime Minister spoke about, is that we can think through how it is we can encourage more of that. Very conscious that apart from it's wonderful for Australians because you have such a beautiful country, but it is so important to your economy and it's important at so many levels domestically. So, we're very conscious of that. That's certainly one of the development and economic partnership aspects, the Prime Minister emphasized with me.
Journalist: Minister Wong, recently, there have been reports of ni-Vanuatu workers being deported from Australia due to visa-related issues. Are there any plans to better protect or support our workers under the PALM scheme?
Foreign Minister: We want PALM workers to be protected and supported and to be properly paid and properly treated. And we are absolutely committed to that. And if there have been people who have been mistreated or not paid well, we will ensure that we enforce, we engage with enforcement authorities and make sure that compliance is imposed. PALM workers are entitled to the same conditions, legal conditions as Australian workers, and they should be treated as such. We also know how important it is to your country. You send more PALM workers than any country in the Pacific. That's important for your economy. It's important for our economy, and we want it to work for both countries. And we want workers to be respected and treated appropriately. And one of the things I've discussed with the Prime Minister is given the centrality of PALM, we want to see that as part of our Nakamal discussions because we think it's so central to our relationship, including the expectation that Vanuatu has - a completely reasonable one - that ni-Vanuatu inAustralia will be treated as they should be under law.
Journalist: What's Australia's view on the new parliamentary amendment that Vanuatu passed concerning the rights of male and female?
Foreign Minister: I think that is a matter for your domestic politics, just as those issues are matters for ours.
Journalist: Do you have any specific figures on how many ni-Vanuatu workers have disengaged from the PALM scheme in Australia today?
Foreign Minister: Well, actually, my very, very efficient Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration was actually telling me that we have reduced the number of workers disengaging. So, that is a good thing, and we'll continue to do that. We want to work with the supports in the community, with churches, with others to try and reduce disengagement, and I think you've seen over the last couple of years a real reduction in the disengagement of PALM workers from Vanuatu.
Thank you so much.