I begin by acknowledging the owners of the land on which we gather tonight. I pay my respects to the Motu Koitabu people.
Prime Minister Marape and Mrs Marape, Ministers and distinguished guests.
Gutpela nait long yupela olgeta.
[Good evening to you all].
Thank you, Prime Minister, for your warm welcome and for this wonderful reception. It is an honour and delight to be in Papua New Guinea again.
During my last visit, I had the honour of becoming the first foreign Head of Government to address your National Parliament.
It was a great pleasure to reciprocate that honour in February, when Prime Minister Marape became the first ever Pacific island nation leader to address Australia’s Parliament.
Both our nations share a desire to shape the future, rather than let it shape us.
We are united in a vision of what we want to achieve together: a region that is prosperous, unified and secure.
It is also a vision of what we can achieve together as partners, neighbours and friends.
We are already achieving real economic benefits for the people of both our countries – together.
Our infrastructure partnership will help deliver major capital projects, including upgrading six key ports across PNG – making it easier for the region and the world to enjoy the famously high quality of your coffee, cocoa and seafood.
It is also connecting up to 40,000 households, schools and health clinics to grid power for the first time and better connecting remote villages to services, and farmers and producers to city markets, with over 1800 kilometres of roads.
The act of connecting takes so many forms.
More than 2000 Papua New Guinean workers deploy to Australia under our Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme each year.
That contributes to sustainable skills development and creates income streams for PNG communities. It also fills critical labour gaps in rural and regional Australia. PNG workers are very welcome in Australia.
We are also working on long-term environmental and energy security. That includes construction of Papua New Guinea’s first two solar farms and a new partnership with the Rai Coast District Development Authority that will deliver solar power to 12,000 homes, 22 community buildings and 750 streetlights.
Together, we are literally creating a brighter future.
Of course, so much of what we do has its beginning in education.
It is both crucial and heartening that Papua New Guineans and Australians are teaching together in PNG schools, and studying together at Australian universities and TAFEs.
Our longstanding security cooperation – which we strengthened in December with our Bilateral Security Agreement – is also delivering tangible benefits.
Through our defence partnership, we are boosting our shared maritime and aviation security capabilities.
We are building lasting institutional and personal links with joint training and secondments.
And we are improving critical facilities, including through Australia’s support for the continuing redevelopment of Lombrum Naval base.
The trusted cooperation between our Defence Forces has also allowed us to quickly respond to crises.
Our humanitarian partnerships meant Australia could amplify PNG’s response to the recent earthquakes in East Sepik and landslides in Chimbu, and to the Mt Bagana and Mt Uluwan volcanic eruptions.
We keep building on our proud history of working together.
We are delivering on the commitment made by Pacific leaders to ensure an effective, Pacific family-led approach to regional security.
It was wonderful to see the Royal PNG Constabulary and Australian Defence and Police personnel side by side supporting Solomon Islands’ successful delivery of its historic joint elections.
The Australian Federal Police’s partnership with the RPNGC is their largest bilateral partnership.
It includes investing in a Police Recruit and Investigations Training Centre of Excellence at Bomana Police Training College and investing in police barracks and housing to improve living conditions so that RPNGC recruits and officers can deploy across the country
Indeed, we’ll be breaking ground on new barracks in Port Moresby within weeks, and in Kokopo and Mt Hagen later in the year.
And two weeks ago we launched the new Australia-Papua New Guinea Law and Justice program which Prime Minister Marape and I announced in February.
As regional leaders, together we can play a role in helping shape a region that is stable and at peace, where all Pacific nations are free to pursue their own destiny and secure their own future.
Crucially, what gives us greater confidence in that better future is that we build on the strong foundations of our shared past.
It is a truth perfectly captured on a small monument outside Parliament House in Canberra. Dedicated to all who have served in war, it says: "Look around you – these are the things they believed in."
The legacy of those who fought for Papua New Guinea and Australia eight decades ago surrounds us, and warms us in its embrace.
Our free societies. Our democracies. The very fact that we can gather here at peace and in friendship.
Tomorrow, I have the privilege of walking in their footsteps along the Kokoda Track with Prime Minister Marape. Together, we will attend the Anzac Day Dawn Service at Isurava on Thursday.
The Kokoda Campaign and Kokoda Track are part of our national story and our shared history.
So, too, are the battles fought right across your country – in Gona, in Buna, in Sanananda, and at Milne Bay.
Our two people – fighting alongside each other for the same thing: home.
From that great crucible of courage, suffering, resilience and mateship, what emerged was the powerful bond between the people of our two great lands.
From the darkness of war to the joyous dawn of your independence and through the decades since, it is a bond that has only grown stronger.
As the 50th anniversary of Papua New Guinea’s independence approaches, we reflect on what is not just a bond between equals but between friends.
In Prime Minister Marape’s words, “We are joined at the hip.”
Through storm and sunshine alike, we have stood tall together.
We always will.
Tenk yu tru olgeta na, lukim yu bihain.
[Thank you very much everyone, see you again].