 Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Rod Brazier. I'm Deputy Secretary of Development, Multilateral and Europe Group at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Thank you for joining us today as ministers launch our new international development policy with its accompanying performance and delivery framework and the development finance review. I start by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people as traditional custodians of the land we are meeting on and pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and I recognise any other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT and our region. I also acknowledge and welcome other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people attending today's event. I'd like to welcome the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Penny Wong, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Pat Conroy MP, members of Parliament and Senators, and the Secretary of DFAT, Jan Adams. I also welcome members of the Diplomatic Corps, the Development Policy's External Advisory Group, those of you who are part of the development sector in Australia and all other visitors today. With that, I will now hand over to the Secretary of DFAT for her remarks, followed by the Foreign Minister and the Minister for International Development and the Pacific. Well, good afternoon. Thank you, Rod. I too begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging. Ministers, members of Parliament, Senators, members of the Diplomatic Corps, guests. Please indulge me by allowing me to start by thanking the DFAT staff, including those senior leaders who are here in the room today, who have contributed to the development of this impressive body of work. I also would like to thank the people across the sector, across Australia, internationally, all the partners who have engaged with us on this work, and many of you are also here today, which is great to see. This truly has been a systematic whole of department, a whole of government endeavour. Almost every part of the department, DFAT's work, trade, multilateral, climate, cyber, security, crisis management, intersects with development. This work has spanned more than 30 divisions in DFAT and over 60 posts. Our development budget is growing to record levels and our development tools are becoming more complex. We operate in tough environments where the risks to our staff, our partners and our programs can be high, but it's through vigilance and professionalism that we manage these challenges and achieve the best results. That's why we're strengthening DFAT's development capability to deliver the government's new commitments. Our most important stakeholders are of course our partner countries in our region, and I'm delighted to see so many friends from the diplomatic corps here today. It's only through working closely with your governments that we can achieve the ambitious goals this new suite of policy and tools promises. I now, with great pleasure, welcome the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Honourable Penny Wong to the stage to speak to the government's international development policy. Thank you. To the two members of the media who are trying to get in, feel free to join us. Thank you very much, Secretary Adams. Thanks very much to Deputy Secretary Brasio. Thank you for the acknowledgement of country. Can I also acknowledge the traditional owners of this land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal and Nambri peoples and pay my respect to elders past and present. First Nations people were our first diplomats and our first traders. We still have much to learn from their experience, their practices, their culture. And as you know, we will soon have the opportunity to vote in a referendum to represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our constitution. A vote for recognition for listening and for better outcomes. And listening has been integral to the development of this policy. But before I go on to that, can I just make some acknowledgments here? Can I acknowledge my ministerial colleagues? To Pat and to Tim, thank you so much for the work you do with me and with the Department in this portfolio. Can I acknowledge my counterparts? I'm not sure. I think Simon's probably caught in the Chamber judging by the bills. But to Mick Mack, it's good to see you here. And to other parliamentary colleagues who are here, I appreciate you being here and demonstrating your support for development assistance. To members of the Diplomatic Corps, it's lovely to see so many of you here. And I'm always pleased to see all of you. However, I hope you don't mind if you indulge me in just a little bit of particularising, which is first, can I acknowledge those who heads of mission from the Pacific Islands Forum? Obviously a very important development partner. And on this ASEAN day, acknowledge all of my ASEAN colleagues and friends. And one of the proudest things about being an Australian Foreign Minister is to talk about the fact we were ASEAN's first dialogue partner. Anyway, I digress. Returning to the practice of listening, it's an important practice. And it's certainly informed the way Pat and Tim and I have sought to approach foreign policy in the time since we've been elected. Listening and working closely with our partners in the region. Many of them represented here today. And this policy we launched is a result of that listening and it commits our future direction to being guided by listening to the priorities of our partners. So Pat will outline some of the key aspects of the policy and any difficult questions will go to him. Instead, I want to make some observations about the context in which we release it. It's been almost a decade since an Australian government released a development policy. I welcome Simon. I said you were probably caught in the chamber. It's been almost 10 years since the Australian government released a development policy. And our world and our region have changed in that time. We face the most challenging strategic circumstances in many generations. And these challenges include encroachments on the ability of countries to exercise agency. On sustainable lending, coercive trade measures, the reshaping of international rules, standards and norms that have benefited smaller countries from trade to human rights. And also we see this in Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine with terrible impacts for the people of Ukraine, but also on the whole world's food and energy security. The challenges we now face include the ongoing efforts to eradicate poverty, to accelerate development and equality, efforts set back by the pandemic. And these challenges include the greatest threat, climate change, the biggest threat faced by our region. You've probably heard me say a number of times in these past months that in the context of these challenges, our nation has to deploy all of our national power, all tools of statecraft to help shape the region we want, a region that reflects our national interests and the shared interests of the region. So when we came to government, we had a very clear purpose in relation to development policy. And that was revitalisation, revitalisation of direction, shape as well as funding. And over the first two budgets, we have rebuilt the ODA program and I think my colleagues for that. We committed an additional 1.4 billion over four years exceeding our election commitment to provide an additional billion dollars in ODA. And we continue to increase the budget in a sustainable way, including by providing for ongoing growth over the longer term. And now with the rebuilding of funding, we release the settings, the policy settings for development policy. The settings we are releasing will affect the circumstances in which we find ourselves. And more importantly, the challenges we all face together. If we are to live in a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous in which our sovereignty is respected. And this last point, respect for sovereignty is vitally important to us as Australians, regardless of which political party we hail from. It is central to who we are. It is central to the UN Charter. It is central to our world view that each country must be able to determine its own fate and make choices for itself. It's why we don't engage in unsustainable lending that diminishes sovereignty. It's why our relationships are based on partnership and respect. It's why we seek to contribute to a region where all of us, all our peoples can cooperate and thrive. Where all countries can reach their potential because all peoples can reach their potential, regardless of gender, disability or other attribute. Where we all remain dedicated to implementing the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. They are the only internationally agreed blueprint for sustainable development for all people. And we must ensure the coherent delivery of these goals, of the SDGs. Because we know if we don't, what would take their place? Proposals that might lead to unsustainable development and disregard important matters like gender equality, environmental protection and human rights. It's long been humanity's shared project to pursue economic and social development. And the credibility of the international system from which we all benefit depends on that project being truly advanced. So that is why we are committed in the Australian Government to doing our part to deliver the full 2030 Agenda and all 17 Sustainable Development Goals. We will deliver an effective, transparent and accountable development program. We want to make a positive difference. A positive difference to countries, to lives, to lives in our region and beyond. We want a program that is fit for the challenges and the opportunities of our time. And we want to deliver a program, a development program that reflects what I hope is our shared purpose. Shared purpose across our region. A development program that reflects shared purpose across our political system. A development program that reflects shared purpose between government and civil society. And like knowledge representatives of the development sector in attendance today. So my sincere hope is that the presence of all of you here reflects that shared purpose of a development policy that advances the interests of our nation, our region and all its peoples. Thank you very much. Good afternoon and thank you Penny, Jan and Rod for your remarks. And I too acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather today and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. I also acknowledge the many members of the diplomatic corps here, parliamentary colleagues, especially Penny, my counterparts, Simon and Michael, and the rest of the federal representatives, many who have been such staunch advocates for a just and progressive international development policy. Can I also thank the representatives from the development sector who play such an important role in development efforts around the world? You truly are ambassadors for Australia. As the foreign minister has said, Australia's development program is a vital tool for advancing a peaceful, stable and prosperous region. The world and our region have never been more connected. Our region's resilience and success are in all our interests. That is why we are so committed to working with our neighbours to alleviate poverty, strengthen their resilience and help achieve their development aspirations. As Penny has said, we have committed an additional $1.7 billion in new development assistance since the Albanese government was elected just over one year ago, as well as a sustainable year-on-year growth over the longer term. Australia knows we're not the only player in international development, but the way we go about development assistance is unique. And I'd like to describe our approach to development assistance in five ways. It's based on the priorities of our partners. We are transparent. It is not transactional. It does not come with strings attached. And we use every opportunity to drive local employment procurement and skills development. And finally, it is a high quality offering. All of this is central to the implementation of our new international development policy which we launched today. Through this policy and its accompanying performance and delivery framework, the Albanese government will improve the quality and effectiveness of our development investments. And central to this strengthening and central to this is our strengthening of in-house development capability, the knowledge, skills and tools to address the wide-ranging needs of our region. This is truly an opportunity to reinvest in the capability within DFAT to do development. As well as strengthening partnerships with governments and communities, with NGOs, experts, the private sector and multilateral organisations to increase our impact. And we also recognise the importance and the potential of the government's development program to catalyse other sources of funding for positive impact around the region. So I'm also delighted to share today the results of the development finance review that was one of our election commitments. We will implement the development finance review's recommendations adding to our development financing toolkit. This comes with the responsibility to deliver financing that delivers high-quality development impact and doesn't burden our neighbours with unmanageable debt. As recommended by the review, we are significantly increasing the blended finance capability of the development program by establishing Australian development investments. This will be a new vehicle providing up to $250 million as a catalyst for private impact investment in the Indo-Pacific. That's a division for the House of Reps members. I have leave. Unfortunately, my whips told me the rest do not. ADI will build on the emerging market impact investment fund pilot program. This proves the enormous potential of blending government finance with the private sector to generate social and environmental impact alongside financial returns. The pilot program was leveraging for every $1 of public investment, $5 of private sector impact investment was activated. So I have high hopes for the $250 million fund. Multilateral development banks supported by Australia also have a vital role to play. We are focused on supporting reforms so that banks can deliver innovative forms of finance and high-quality climate-resilient infrastructure that maximises the use of local content and employment with long-term maintenance guarantees. I cannot emphasise this point enough. The development banks need to be partners in the journey. Australia is a very significant contributor to many of them and we expect them to maximise local content and employment as well as give due consideration to maintenance requirements. Importantly, the new policy, the development finance review in our performance framework, all recognise the need to look beyond government to achieve the development aspirations of the region. We will do this on several fronts. First, civil society is a critical focus in our policy. That is why we will design a new civil society partnerships fund alongside the long-standing Australian NGO cooperation program, which we increased resources to significantly after the last election. Secondly, by releasing the development finance review today alongside our policy, we are ready to invest alongside others and amplify our development impact together. That is why we will establish a dedicated unit within DFAT to work more closely with philanthropic organisations and impact investors. Finally, we want this policy in the development finance review to serve as a signpost to Australian institutions and entities operating in the region to guide engagement that supports positive development impact. So in recognising just how much our future is tied to the region around us, this should be a whole-of-nation effort. We are on a journey to rebuild our development program into one that works better, to improve the lives in our developing country partners, advance our mutual interest in a peaceful and prosperous region, and embody Australia's values and reflect who we are proudly. A journey that is marked today with the launch of the new policy. Thank you and I encourage you all to have a read. Thank you, Ministers and Secretary. That brings to an end formal proceedings. I encourage those of you who can remain to enjoy some refreshments. We do have the opportunity of photographs and we will start with ASEAN Ambassadors and High Commissioners with the Ministers and then we will move to Pacific Ambassadors and High Commissioners. We will have to be very efficient though so I encourage ASEAN Head's admission to come forward now.