Press conference - Tonga

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: This has been an extremely successful Pacific Island Forum meeting up to this point. Obviously, today we have the Leaders' Retreat, and I'm really looking forward to engaging. We had a wonderful informal evening last night, listening particularly to the wonderful singing. And we had a jazz band, they had the full bit of entertainment, and it was an opportunity to mix informally with Pacific leaders, following up from the number of bilateral meetings that I held yesterday. There are three achievements I think will come out of this Pacific Island Forum as far as Australia is concerned. Firstly, here for our host, Tonga, we have increased support, including support with New Zealand for the construction of a new parliament as well as undersea cables that we know are so important. The earthquake that occurred here in the last week has reminded us as well of how vulnerable communications is here, which is why having undersea cables, a second cable to ensure that there's stability of communications here in Tonga as well. And I do want to take the opportunity to thank the Kingdom of Tonga for hosting us here in such a wonderful way and showing us such wonderful Pacific hospitality. Secondly, of course, yesterday, the Falepili agreement between Australia and Tuvalu came into force as a result of both of our parliaments giving recognition to this important treaty. This is a world first agreement, and it will make an enormous difference going forward. It is cooperation on climate change, particularly with allowing for up to 280 people from Tuvalu to be able to come to Australia each year, as well as a series of infrastructure investments and support for Tuvalu as a nation, as well as security arrangements which ensure that Australia certainly remains the security partner of choice. The third initiative is the Pacific Policing Initiative - has three parts to it that are all really important. This is about the Pacific family looking after our own security. The police leaders, commissioners from around the Pacific have been meeting on this for a year, and the Australian Police Commissioner contacted me yesterday to express his great gratitude that this proposal has been adopted. This is something that's come from the Pacific itself. It won't replace the number of bilaterals that we have between our respective police forces in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and in the Solomon Islands. But what it will do is make sure that there's better coordination, that there's interoperability. This is really a common sense proposal which will lift up security throughout the Pacific, given that so much of security of policing issues in today's modern world is transnational. Be it everything from cyber-crime to drug importation, even the human trafficking that tragically still continues to occur around the world. This will make an enormous difference. The first element is, of course, the training facility there, which will be based in Brisbane. The second is the four centres of excellence, one of which will be in Papua New Guinea, and up to three more, that countries will examine whether they wish to pursue that as an option. And the third is creating a multinational police engagement so that when an incident occurs, or when there's a big event coming up, such as the Pacific Games, CHOGM, elections, where you have seen in the past, one off decisions to have police presence there to assist with security, that that will be a standing force, if you like, with the members of different countries participating in it. Of course, this doesn't overrule the national sovereignty of national police forces that continue to operate. What it does though is make sure that it gets better coordination, and that is why it was welcomed so warmly during the plenary session yesterday and confirmed it in the draft communique which will be considered by leaders, that endorsement is confirmed.

JOURNALIST: PM, will Kurt Campbell go you halvies on that policing plan?

PRIME MINISTER: No, he won't, because this has come from the Pacific. And I'm aware of the video of a private conversation. Kurt Campbell's a mate of mine, it's us having a chat.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on New Caledonia. Obviously, that will be a real focus of discussions today, and the Pacific's made it clear it's a real priority. Some Pacific leaders have been frustrated that France has been so resistant to the idea of them coming in or the Pacific coming in to mediate on this matter. Does Australia have a view on this? Can the Pacific play a useful role to mediate on this crisis?

PRIME MINISTER: Of course, the Pacific can play a role, and is playing a role. And I met with the President Mapou yesterday, it was one of the bilateral meetings that I had. It was a really constructive meeting. He wants to see peace in New Caledonia. He was obviously like others, but particularly the President, of course, like other people in New Caledonia, would have been distressed by the violence that we saw, the disruption that we saw in recent months. And he spoke really positively about calm returning. There will be the delegation of four people from the PIF, from the Pacific Islands Forum to New Caledonia, and I'd certainly hope that it can play a constructive role. We all want to see peace in the region.

JOURNALIST: Yves Lafoy, the envoy from New Caledonia to Australia has asked that Australia maybe help with reconstruction after the riots from the Pacific Infrastructure Financing Facility. Was that discussed with President Mapou and what help can Australia provide New Caledonia to rebuild?

PRIME MINISTER: No, that wasn't a topic of discussion yesterday. But Australia, of course, always will consider proposals to provide assistance to our Pacific neighbours.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, there have been a number of moves by Australia to grant new visas and different visa classes. Is Australia moving closer to visa free travel? I mean traveling through the Pacific, you just hear so many tales of hardship of families that are separated of people who want to be able to move in and out of Australia more easily.

PRIME MINISTER: Look, that hasn't been a source of discussion. With many of the bilaterals that I've had, with Tonga, with Vanuatu, with a range of countries here, Fiji, the issue of PALM ,the Labour Mobility Scheme, is something that plays an important role in ensuring that there's economic support given back to families in their countries of origin. So that has been discussed, but people haven't raised visa arrangements, and we don't have any plans to change the existing arrangements.

JOURNALIST: What would you say to people in Australia who would be questioning why the government's spending hundreds of millions of dollars here when they're being told there's a finite budget in Australia? Why is it important?

PRIME MINISTER This is our home. We're part of the Pacific. We have an interest in a peaceful, stable and secure Pacific, which is prosperous, and we very much have an interest in that. You can either be proactive and engaged as part of the Pacific family, or you can sit back and be disengaged. And if you do that, in the end, the consequences for finance can be much greater if you are not engaged, if we do not remain the security partner of choice in the Pacific, if we're not engaged in economic development here and so many Australians as well, of course, have direct links to the Pacific, have families here or have come from here to Australia. We are good neighbours. Australia has an important role to play as a medium power in the world, but in the Pacific we have a particularly important role to play as an advanced economy in a region that does require economic development. That is in everyone's interest for that to occur.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, last week you said that the PNG NRL team would be announced shortly. Can you take us through what steps need to happen before that team is announced? And when will it enter the competition?

PRIME MINISTER Well, we need to finalise arrangements with Papua New Guinea with the Australian Rugby League, but those discussions have been really constructive. I've made it clear that my view for some time has been that Papua New Guinea could play a role by having a team in the National Rugby League. And I've also made it clear as well that isn't just about kicking a footy up and down an oval in what happens on the field of an elite NRL team. What that can do is provide a real focus for economic development for Papua New Guinea. Provide a focus as well for junior Rugby League, for education. The role that sport can play in lifting up people in Papua New Guinea is extraordinary. I don't know if there is certainly no country in the world that is more obsessed by Rugby League than Papua New Guinea. It makes, every, you think about Caxton Street on State of Origin night, well the whole of PNG is one big Caxton Street, without the beers on Origin night, three times a year. It is something that struck me when I walked Kokoda with Prime Minister Marape in April, in the lead up and including Anzac Day. When you're going through, and Mr. Knott, he's still exercising and stretching from that walk, he can confirm that when you walk into a plane having gone through the densest bush that you can imagine. You have little kids wearing footy jumpers, it's extraordinary. And we need to engage with Papua New Guinea, and there's no better way of doing it than through that. So, I'm hopeful that in the coming period we'll be able to make a constructive announcement.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, when would they enter the competition?

PRIME MINISTER Well, that will be part of the announcement. That's one of the things that's been discussed, because it's about making sure that it is a success as well. So, you don't make an announcement and then go in straightaway. So new Rugby League teams, the Dolphins had a couple of years to prepare. PNG have considered it at the highest level, their Cabinet level as well, about how they would create incentives for elite players to go and be a part of any inaugural team, which is there.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, any concerns about a potential attempt today to push Taiwan out of PIF discussions?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, that hasn't been discussed at all. We support all the existing arrangements.

JOURNALIST: On climate change, PM. Tuvalu's Minister for Climate Change will be at an event again today with other representatives from First Nations communities in the Pacific. He is saying that, quote, fossil fuels are killing us, and opening, subsidising, and exporting fossil fuels is immoral and unacceptable. This is a member of the Tuvaluan government. I know you talk a lot about how Australia's renewable energy targets have brought us some credit from the region, but don't you risk eroding that good will, and the environmental gains by continuing to support new gas projects?

PRIME MINISTER: Well, you heard from the Tuvalu Prime Minister yesterday, and he made clear his position, and we've just signed the most significant agreement between an Australian government and a Pacific country ever. One of the things that I continue to say is that the key to the door of getting into, in a credible way, engagement in the Pacific and indeed, around the world is taking action on climate change. My government is. My government, and people still talk about the PIF meeting that was held in Tuvalu prior to my government coming to office. And quite frankly, the leaders meeting there went till after 10 o'clock at night, and Australia, at that time, was certainly in the corner at those meetings, we're now front and centre. I expect that by 10 o'clock tonight, you'll be hopefully ready to land back in Australia having heard about the very successful leaders meeting that I expect to happen today.

JOURNALIST: Has there been talks or progress about when the Pacific inaudible can actually enter New Caledonia and embark on that fact finding mission?

PRIME MINISTER: I'm not a member of the delegation. It's expected, though to be, I think, the expectation is that that will occur in September, the end of next month. So, it's imminent the delegation to go. It might be, I don't think they've finalised exactly the date, but it is certainly within the next couple of months.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, in that video Kurt Campbell referred to conversations with Kevin, presumably Kevin Rudd, and that Australia had asked the US not to pursue a particular initiative. Can you give us any more insight about what we told the US not to do in order to give us the lane to do this Pacific Policing Initiative?

PRIME MINISTER: No, the video is what it is. Someone, you know, it's up to them, to whoever did that, to think about their own ethics when it comes to journalism. It was a private conversation. It was a jovial conversation, and a friendly one - you know, it is what it is. People try and read something into it, you must be pretty bored, frankly.

JOURNALIST: It was on the plenary floor, it was open to media.

PRIME MINISTER: You must be pretty bored. Journalists tend to identify themselves, are professionals. I hope that you do.

JOURNALIST: It was major announcement, though. This was a major, key point of why you were here, as you said, one of the top three points. So we're not bored, we're very interested.

PRIME MINISTER: Well you ask questions, I make myself available to every question yesterday, I've made myself available to every question today. If people are coming up behind, trying to trying to tape conversations that's up to people to argue themselves that that's ethical. I myself, were I a journalist, would not do that, and I know that most of you wouldn't either.

JOURNALIST: PM, there's a sense you sort of said the quiet bit out loud. Do you think that this -

PRIME MINISTER: No we didn't -

JOURNALIST: Do you think that this detracts from the point that this -

PRIME MINISTER: Not at all. What was the quiet bit? It's a cracker of an announcement. That's what I said. That's what I stand by. It was -

JOURNALIST: But in the sense that there are concerns raised by PIF members that this is solely about carving China out of the region -

PRIME MINISTER: No one's raised that yesterday. Not a single person at the plenary, raised that yesterday. This is Pacific led, and it's a cracker of an announcement.

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, it's not an unreasonable question from Dan, if the Secretary, Deputy Secretary of State, is saying there was an initiative that the US decided to pull out from because Australia -

PRIME MINISTER: He didn't say that, he didn't say that. He did not say that.

JOURNALIST: It sounded a lot like it

JOURNALIST: It sounded very much to us like he did.

PRIME MINISTER: No, he didn't say that.

JOURNALIST: What's your interpretation of what he said?

PRIME MINISTER: Is what he said, he said he had a discussion with Kevin about it.

JOURNALIST: And he asked him to hold off on something so that Australia -

PRIME MINISTER: No -

JOURNALIST: That's what he said, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: I wasn't a part of this. It is Pacific led, this has been led by police ministers have been meeting about this for a year.

JOURNALIST: Will you be having a word with Kevin Rudd about this?

PRIME MINISTER: No. Chill out people.

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