PRIME MINISTER:

Well thank you very much Geoff and Susil. It is great to be here with you and I just want to say that we’ve had really productive, warm, constructive, practical discussions with Prime Minister O’Neill and his colleagues.  It’s been a very effective visit.  When old friends get together, you have the usual courtesies but you don’t need to spend a lot of time on formality.  So we’ve had a very, very practical set of meetings and I just have to say, guided by our outstanding High Commissioner who is here today with us, we’ve been able to get to the heart of a lot of the issues that you raised Geoff, so I want to thank you for that, for outlining them.

Now yesterday as you know I visited Isurava on the Kokoda track and also the Bomana War Cemetery to pay my respects to the Australians and Papua New Guineans who made the supreme sacrifice to halt the advance of the Japanese in the Second World War.  That period in 1942 was truly, as Churchill described, the hinge of fate, so much depended on the courage, the endurance, the sacrifice, the mateship of those men and women who fought to stem the tide.  But they succeeded, they triumphed, victory was theirs and we are enjoying the freedoms of today because of the sacrifices that were made three quarters of a century ago.

Now we were fighting side by side then, but since then we have continued to work side by side during these extraordinary times.  A period of human history where the pace and scale of change is entirely without precedent.

Yesterday when I was with Lesieli Taviri from Origin Energy and a number of other outstanding Papua New Guinean entrepreneurs and innovators we saw how new technologies, the smart phone- ten years old – photovoltaic panels a bit older than that but nonetheless, it is only in relatively recent years that the cost of per watt has come down precipitously to the point that they are now, energy from solar is so affordable.  But what we’ve seen, those two technologies powered so much of the innovation, the ability to bring power, telecommunications, lighting to remote locations, to remote villages all made possible by technology.

And PNG coupled with the imagination and the enterprise of its people, working with friends and partners from Australia are able to use these new technologies to overleap the technology of the past, overleap the systems that we have had in developed countries like Australia for so many years and strike out into new fields and achieve the outcomes we need in terms of amenity, economic progress, education, improved health services so much more quickly.

But today, this morning I want to talk about trade and economics above all.  Now almost 5000 Australian businesses, companies, doing business here in PNG.  The two way trade relationship as you know is valued at $5.8 billion. Australia is a very welcoming market for two of PNG’s best agricultural products; coffee and cocoa.  And I look forward to Queen Emma’s chocolates making a big appearance in Australia before too long.

This morning we were glad to discover that there is still some fine coffee left in PNG despite the fact that you’ve exported the record volume of Niugini Arabica to the baristas and kitchens of Australia in 2016.

And as I know that we have a national addiction to chocolate so we’re helping the cocoa farmers in Papua New Guinea maximise the export value of their crop with programs to improve the quality and consistency of exported beans. Your cocoa is now being used by some of our best and most beloved chocolatiers and of course as I said, Queen Emma I’m sure will be making a suitably royal appearance in Australia before too long.

We’re also a very big investor in PNG.  Our investment in Papua New Guinea of more than $18 billion is more than Australia’s total investment in Indonesia for example. And that says a lot about the level of commitment to PNG.  It involves so many industries and sectors, particularly gold mining, oil and gas.  It contributes to PNG’s economic growth and employment, directly benefits the quality of life here.  A great example of this as I noted a moment ago is Origin Energy’s program to provide solar panels to homes through a lease-to-own program.  Origin is also looking to the future by using block chain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin, to allow communities to reliably share their off-grid solar power and further spread its benefits.

Airborne Logistics Operations Manager Doug Allgood never planned to make small villages in the Kokoda track region a part of his business but when bad weather forced him into a remote area on the track, he discovered true village hospitality.

The relationships he built through this has led Airborne Logistics to use spare helicopter capacity to help 39 villages in the fertile region bring five tonnes of fruit and vegetables to market in Port Moresby each week.  So the service helps unlock the economic potential of the region, bringing benefits to hundreds of families.

Our investments in infrastructure, health, education, promoting and empowering women and girls, law and justice, governance, through our development cooperation and partnerships with the private sector all are supporting the PNG Government to build strong foundations for economic growth.  And this year as you know we’ve opened the Consulate-General in PNG’s commercial capital, Lae, which reflects confidence in the opportunities now and into the future.

But despite great momentum over the past few years our merchandise trade with PNG has declined somewhat.  This is partly due to the downturn in the commodities market and partly due to do with difficulties faced by businesses in accessing the PNG market, and this is the points that Geoff was referring to earlier.

It works both ways.  PNG already has duty and quota-free access to the Australian market but more can be done to help your farmers meet biosecurity requirements and deliver high-quality products to Australian consumers.  So I’m pleased that ministers at the recent Ministerial Forum agreed to establish a trade investment and economic working group to address market access issues and foster further cooperation.

Now both of our governments recognise that there are many things we need to do to improve the business environment for companies wanting to invest here.  Globally significant corporations have been coming here for decades, attracted by PNG’s wealth of natural resources.  Large scale investments from companies such as ExxonMobil, Santos and Oil Search and I see Peter Botten is here with us this morning.

We’ve seen how transformative this has been.  Foreign investment has contributed to PNG’s infrastructure and skills development.  It’s also contributed to the doubling of employment in PNG’s private sector in the past ten years.  And the flow-on effects are significant too, opportunities for local suppliers, support for local communities and investments in education, health and the environment.  New mega projects are already in the pipeline, if you’ll excuse the pun, including expanding ExxonMobil’s $26 billion LNG project and developing new gas fields.

To make these a reality and to extend the benefits of investment to more Papua New Guineans we must continue to work together to ensure policy settings and practices attract, rather than deter investment.

Protectionism as we all know is the road to poverty.  There is no question that in our region and for both Australia and PNG, free trade, open markets have brought continuing growth, improvement of living standards, rise in prosperity.  As I’ve said before, but it’s a fair point, protectionism is not a ladder to get you out of the low growth trap. It is a great big shovel to dig deeper and deeper.  Open markets, free trade are keys to our prosperity in Australia, in PNG, in the region, around the world.

Now as critical as large projects are to the economy at the end of the resources construction building, and again, Geoff referred to this, diversification must be encouraged as part of a modern economy. And our resilience, our ability to avoid a hard landing following the wind down of the resources construction boom in Australia is a tribute to the enterprise and entrepreneurialism and the resilience and diversity, above all of the Australian economy.

Had it not been for the big free trade agreements that we secured and opening up access to what the full range of exports from Australia – the services, agricultural produce right across the board – had we not been able to do that we would not have had a successful a transition albeit with real difficulty and real pain in some parts of the country.  But we would have had a very hard landing in my judgement, as many predicted we would I might add, after the downturn of the construction boom.

So a diverse economy, a resilient economy, an open economy is absolutely critical to enable you to recover from that.  Now this means to do this, striving for and embracing science and technology and innovation is the key to solving some of the most difficult problems and again we saw so much evidence of that at the showcase yesterday.  Finding new ways to help both our agricultural industries prosper despite drought is just one example.

Now many of PNG’s entrepreneurs have come through challenging times to grow successful businesses which have in return helped strengthen your economy.  I met yesterday in additional to Lesieli and others, I met Shadrach Juangere who graduated from the Kumul Game Changers Program.  Shadrach is currently employed with Telekom PNG but in his spare time works on start-ups to link PNG companies, enabling them to lower costs, lower supply costs and overcome barriers including payment issues and delivery problems that prevent Papua New Guineans shopping online.

I met a Port Moresby woman, Florence Kuyei, who is starting her own mapping and spatial analysis company, Dinade Spatial Services, after participating in the WECREATE Challenge business accelerator program.

And I spoke with representatives of the Bank of Papua New Guinea who are working on using block chain for a range of financial applications related to identity and again this is a very interesting example of where with the technology, mobile phones, block chain, will be able to deliver unique digital identities for customers which will be of application to enable secure transactions not just at the bank but with government and other parties.  And the technology enables you being a developing country to go further than a developed country already has.  It is truly liberating.  This combination of this distributed nature of technology, whether it is energy generation, solar as we talked about, solar combined with batteries of course or the smart phone and hence the importance obviously of continuing to push out the frontier of wireless telecommunications.  The potential of that is limited only by your imagination and I know that the greatest natural resource of any nation is the imagination and the enterprise of its people and unlocking that and coupling that with these technologies has enormous potential.

Now the centre of growth in the global economy as we know has moved to our region and both our nations will benefit from that and I’m leaving today from PNG to go to India, another extraordinary transformation.  But of course also, part of another enormous opportunity for us in this part of the world.

PNG’s future trade growth will not come solely from an enduring relationship with Australia naturally but from being able to supply the rapidly growing middle-class in the markets of the Asia-Pacific.  When you consider that PNG has enormous untapped potential, or yet to be tapped potential in agriculture and fisheries, the markets demanding your products extend across all of the Pacific and Asia.

The bilateral relationship also has a strong role to play in enabling us both to take advantage of those opportunities.  Our collaboration can help drive further growth in key sectors, resources and energy we touched on, innovation and market reach.  The tourism sector is a good example. The Australian adventure eco-touring company Intrepid Travel has already booked out the majority of its trips around Rabaul, Matupit Island, Duke of York Island and Kokopo with include the ‘Rabaul Mask Festival and the Baining Fire Dance’.  Cruise tourism contributed $5.7 million to the PNG economy in 2015, of which 43 per cent benefits local people directly.  People like Maxine Nadile, whose business Egwalau Tours provides tailor made itineraries for cruise passengers.  Maxine has also grown her business by working with local people to offer tours of villages which previously had no exposure to tourism but now host up to 180 people per tour.  Now that’s a sector with enormous potential.

It’s not hard to picture a buzzing network of hotels and resorts in beautiful, accessible locations, staffed by Papua New Guineans, or cruise ships docked in harbours with visitors taking in the amazing scenery on guided tours.  We are ideal partners to help make this happen.

And of course next year PNG has a unique chance to showcase this magnificent country, it products and its businesses as you host APEC 2018.  I encourage all of you to engage in the APEC Business Advisory Council in the lead up to 2018 so you can capitalise on the opportunity.  It’s a chance to impress and influence not only the region but the world.  Hosting the forum demonstrates PNG’s commitment to the regional economic cooperation needed to grow our economy.

Now that I’ve met some exciting entrepreneurs and seen how technology is transforming how business is done here I am even more confident for the future of Papua New Guinea and its people.

Prime Minister O’Neill and I have agreed we need to speak with one voice on the imperative of defending free trade and open markets.  We both know as I’ve said, this is the road to prosperity.  With the energy and mineral markets we both export in high demand. From our large neighbours in Asia, big markets in the Asia-Pacific, we can’t let protectionism take hold.

Free trade means jobs, economic growth and sustainable economies.  We’ve proven this together.  So I want to thank you all for your commitment to supporting the growth of our contemporary economic partnership.  I want to thank you for your commitment to seeing business between Australia and PNG flourish.  We are proud to collaborate with you and be your strategic and economic partner.  I’m delighted to have been able to come here over this weekend and I thank you particularly for coming to breakfast here on Sunday morning, that’s a sign of your commitment to the enduring partnership between Australia and PNG and I know that what we are witnessing today is a new and prosperous chapter in the history of the relationship, the partnership between our two great nations.  Thank you very much.

[ends]

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Thank you very much for joining us here this afternoon.  And firstly let me extend our appreciation to the Prime of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, for his first official visit in his capacity as Prime Minister to Papua New Guinea on this occasion.  I hope you have a pleasant stay here and of course we look forward to many more discussions over the course of today and tomorrow.

But also let me take this opportunity to extend our sympathies to many of the victims of recent Cyclone Debbie in Australia especially our neighbours in Far North Queensland.  Papua New Guinea understands the suffering that they are going through. We have similar experiences here by many cyclones that we continue experience in our country.

Today, Prime Minister Turnbull and I discussed many issues that affect our two countries.  The bilateral relationship between our two countries is very strong and continues to strengthen each year.  We have discussed a number of issues including of course the Manus Resettlement Processing Centre, the ongoing work that is going on at that Centre in order for us to have a closer, in accordance with the Supreme Court decision that was handed down by the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea.

Work is progressing quite well, the processing of the refugees is going on quite well and we appreciate the continued support of the Australian Government in managing that facility.  Of course we spoke about ongoing trade and investment issues between our two countries.  Australia is by far the largest investor in Papua New Guinea and as such we understand the role that they play in continuing to strengthen the investment confidence that Papua New Guinea continues to enjoy.

Our economy has been doing quite well over the last 15 years except of course for the commodity prices affecting our revenues over the last couple of years.  Other than that the economy continues to grow well above global standards and I think that will continue to encourage more and more investment from Australia and businesses that are doing business in Papua New Guinea.

We also extend our appreciation to the Australian Government especially the DFAT support on many programs that they have in the country; in education, in health, supporting our defence, law and justice sector and many infrastructure that they continue to help us build in many of these sectors.

And again we spoke about APEC which Papua New Guinea will be hosting in 2018 and Australian Government’s support in providing security so that our leaders who are going to come and visit us on that occasion feel safe and comfortable.  Papua New Guinea is a safe destination and I know that all the leaders will enjoy their stay here with us.

A range of meetings relating to APEC has already taken place in our country.  Of course close to 200 meetings will be conducted in PNG before the Leaders’ meeting in November 2018.  Those policy discussions are going very well and again we appreciate the support of the 21 economies who are actively participating in these discussions.

Papua New Guinea is going to an elections in a few days time, a few weeks time, which will be on April 20th.  Australian Government is supporting us in the logistics and capacity building within the Electoral Commission.  They will be also participating as international observers in our election process throughout many parts of our country.  Our aim is to try and deliver a free and fair elections according the people’s will.  Secondly the support that has been extended to us by the Australian Government is going towards achieving that goal.

So once again Prime Minister, thank you very much for visiting Papua New Guinea on this occasion.  I hope you have a pleasant stay and we’ll look forward to seeing you again here in 2018.

PRIME MINISTER:

Thank you very much Prime Minister and thank you so much for the very warm welcome and the very, very generous hospitality that we’ve received. You started your remarks Prime Minister by expressing your sympathy for the victims of the cyclone and floods in Australia, in North Queensland and indeed right through Queensland and into northern New South Wales and I thank you for that.

The solidarity between the people of Australia and the people of Papua New Guinea was evident today at Isurava and Bomana. We see 75 years ago people of Papua New Guinea, Australians fought side by side to keep Australia free, to defend Australia from invasion, to defend Papua New Guinea from the invasion of the Japanese Imperial Army.  Those bonds that were built then are enduring and they have grown into a very deep relationship. We are fundamentally connected by the breadth of our common interests.  Our economic relationship which you spoke about Prime Minister brings huge benefits to both countries.  Our bilateral merchandise trade was worth $5.8 billion in last year, more than 5000 Australian companies do business in PNG.  We have more than $18 million Australian investment in PNG, this is indeed greater than, considerably greater than our investment in Indonesia.  So it gives an indication of the scale and the depth of the relationship with PNG and I look forward in the course of the day as we were discussing Prime Minister and tomorrow, meeting with and discussing the economic relationship with PNG business leaders, entrepreneurs, Australian business leaders working here in PNG. It’s a very, very powerful and growing economic partnership.  We also work very closely on security and ensuring stability in our region.  We talked about our extensive dispense and police cooperation on border security combatting the scourge of people smuggling.

We are both committed to free trade and open markets and of course PNG’s hosting of APEC in 2018 is going to be a very important opportunity to promote continuing regional economic integration for the benefit of the whole region.  We’ve discussed the cooperation that we are pursuing to ensure the success of the event. We’ve also talked about the importance of protecting the security of the maritime resources of PNG and we’re going to do more in that regard to cooperate and support PNG to protect its vitally important fisheries from illegal fishing.

I want to thank you Prime Minister for your Government’s continued cooperation in this vitally important fight against people smuggling and we will continue to work together to close the Regional Processing Centre by the end of the year and I want to thank you Prime Minister for Papua New Guinea’s significant progress on the resettlement of refugees from Manus.

So Mr Prime Minister we first met I recall at the NRL Grand Final in Sydney back in 2015 and I know that that game too, that code has a special place in the ties between our countries.  So I’m looking forward as I know you are to the Prime Minister’s XIII Game to be held in Port Moresby later this year.  Rugby League is another special bond between Australia and PNG.

So I want to thank you Prime Minister for your commitment to the strong and strengthening relationship between our two countries and I’m confident that building on the foundations of solidarity, solidarity in the face of overwhelming odds that we were reminded of this morning in those solemn places of memory and history. I’m certain that building on those our relationship will grow even stronger in the years ahead. Thank you Prime Minister for welcoming us to PNG.

JOURNALIST:

Mr O’Neill, could I ask your federal budget is under considerable pressure at the moment from the commodity crisis.  Is there more that Australia can do to help PNG with that?

And secondly, are you seeing any positive signs for the resettlement of refugees from Manus as a result of the United States’ agreement with Australia?

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

Well certainly your first question [inaudible] resource dependent economy all around the world.  We had our share of some challenges.  That meant a huge reduction in our revenue [inaudible] and of course we had to readjust our budget to ensure that we fit to the revenues of course that we were experienced in the last two years.  What is the Government that we picked our funding priority you still welcome; health, education, infrastructure, law and order, the budget was never, we simply cut only non-priority areas, projects that needed to be deferred has been deferred.

And your question about what are the Australian Government should continue to assist support budget.  Australian Government is already doing enough to the federal support that they give in that involvement in funding through DFAT.  And that is now supporting many of the priorities of Government as well; health, in health, education, law and order and justice, so I think we’re doing as much as we can.

We also have [inaudible] challenges that the Australian economy is facing and we will continue to work together to ensure that our economies continue to flow.

But despite those challenges that we [inaudible] again.  The Papua New Guinea economy continues to grow above global stimulus. Both [inaudible] that particular problem.

JOURNALIST:

On Manus? Manus Island?

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

On the issue of the resettlement of course we will be guided by Australia Government on their arrangements with the United States and we can resettle many of the refugees to a third country like United State in the future we welcome.

JOURNALIST:

Mr Turnbull, you said significant progress has been made on Manus.  Were you referring exclusively to the US deal because here as I understand only about 15 men from Manus have been resettled at Papua New Guinea.  There’s a big question coming from inside the Papua New Guinea Government about what’s going to happen to those men who don’t go to the US with resettlement here hasn’t seemed to work.

PRIME MINISTER:

Well it’s clearly worked with a number of cases.  The Prime Minister and I talked about that earlier, but we are as you know there is a program of resettlement, a process of assessment for the purpose of resettlement in the United States underway.  We look forward to the conclusion of that work by the United States authorities.

JOURNALIST:

How many cases have worked here Prime Minister? How many cases have worked in Papua New Guinea?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well the Prime Minister would be better able to nominate a number but we talked about the number of successful cases here.

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

There are some refugees already been resettled on PNG.  Many of our local businesses have already put up their hands to try and take on as many professionals who are able to work in PNG but as you know many of the refugees are not willing to settle in PNG.  We cannot force people in a resettlement exercise when they are not able to accept our offer.  But if a third country is willing to accept their resettlement we are quite happy to participate [inaudible].

JOURNALIST:

Can I just clarify you’ll only [inaudible] take by United States [inaudible]?

PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA:

We will continue to manage the joint [inaudible] over the course of close negotiations.

JOURNALIST:

When you announced the deal with the United States Mr Turnbull you said that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees would help administer the deal.  They have said quite emphatically that integration and resettlement for these people is not possible in Papua New Guinea despite [inaudible] attempts in that regard.  So what, your Department has said that you are negotiating with many other third countries.  So what is the plan for those who aren’t taken to the United States?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well let’s take it one step at a time.  We have succeeded and I thank the Prime Minister for his cooperation in doing this.  We have succeeded in stopping the scourge of people smuggling which as we all know, we all recall tragically under the Labor Government resulted in 50,000 boat arrivals, 1200 deaths at sea which we know.

Now we’ve succeeded in stopping those people smugglers and that has been a great humanitarian achievement.  We are working to solutions, endurable solutions of people who have been detained here and Nauru.  Working with third countries, most notably of course the United States to that regard.  We’ll take this process one step at a time.

JOURNALIST:

Is Nauru a possible destination for those who don’t go to the United States?

PRIME MINISTER:

We’ll take this process one step at a time.

JOURNALIST:

[inaudible]

PRIME MINISTER:

As the Prime Minister has acknowledged, Australia’s aid to New Guinea is very substantial.  PNG is the largest recipient of Australian aid –  very much so as you know – it’s a very substantial amount, over half a billion dollars a year.  It’s supporting health, education, empowerment of women and girls, infrastructure a whole series of programs throughout the country.  We talked about the new hospital under way, so we’ve worked very closely in partnership with the Government on PNG and the Prime Minister which enables us to ensure that we get the best outcomes for the aid for which the Prime Minister has acknowledged is substantial and understands the commitment of the Australian people to support the development of PNG, our closest neighbour.

[ends]