 What's that? Senator, Honourable Benny Wong, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Australia, Honourable Pat Conroy, Minister for International Development of Australia, Australian side of Ministers and members of your delegation, media representative, ladies and gentlemen. I am pleased to present this brief statement on the occasion of this high level bipartisan visit to Botfila, Banuatu, by an esteemed delegation of the Australian Government and I wish to hereby acknowledge Honourable Benny Wong and Honourable Pat Conroy and their shadow counterparts for taking time out of their busy schedules to grace us with their presence. In addition to the establishment of Rapport, we also touched base on issues of common interest, noting that the last such visits to play six years ago in December of 2016 by a delegation comprising the 10 Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Julie Bishop, MP, the 10 Ministers for International Development and the Pacific. With former Senator Honourable Concyta Ferrafan de Wells and the shadow counterparts, which include the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Honourable Benny Wong. As Vanuatu and Australia celebrated 42 years of diplomatic relations in 2022, we acknowledge the courtier, strong and enduring bilateral relationship based on shared values and interests in a prosperous and stable region. This is a relationship that is made stronger by a very broad range of links at government, business and community levels, which is captured under the Pacific standard. Perhaps made more so as more than Vanuatu participated in Australia's labour mobility programs over the years, allowing hard-end remittances to trickle down to and improve livelihoods in rural Vanuatu, while supporting crucial sectors in Australia such as agriculture and horticulture. I also took the opportunity to acknowledge Australia's role as Vanuatu's primary humanitarian partner. Due to its close proximity and through its commitment to support Vanuatu, build its disaster resilience, response and recovery capabilities, Australia provided $11 million to support Vanuatu's immediate response to tropical cyclone Harrow, a category 5 cyclone that hit Vanuatu in April 2020. As indeed more recently with Vanuatu's proprietary and recovery during COVID-19, this is in addition to being a close security partner of Vanuatu and the region. On the issue of regional security, we acknowledge the existential threat of climate change, identified by the bold declaration as the single greatest threat, especially to Pacific small island developing states. At first, effects which include global warming and sea level rise increase in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones, accelerated ocean acidification and coral bleaching, Vanuatu welcomes Australia's recommitment to Paris Agreement. Furthermore, I acknowledge Australia's policy on climate change and support through the Pacific Islands Forum on the Regional ICJ Advisory Opinion Initiative, which is due for a full at the UNGA in early 2023. On the important matter of trade and socioeconomic relations, having ratified Pesa Blas, Vanuatu looks forward to benefiting from its active implementation in the earlier its recovery support as well as its budget support components. Further to this, Vanuatu's active participation in Australia's labour mobility while not without its fair share of issues has been an important flagship of our enduring economic partnership. We look forward to working closely with Australia on new labour mobility arrangements under the BAM scheme, doubted as a low hanging fruit of our relationship, as indeed it has been post Covid Vanuatu looks forward to working closely with Australia on finalising our labour mobility agreement under the Pacific Australia labour mobility scheme. But in order to move forward, both countries must work hand in hand to identify our strengths and weaknesses for the upcoming scheme and ensure that they are reflected in the new agreement. A good basis that will support negotiations would be to undertake a potential study in Australia to identify Vanuatu's economy, economy contributions of Australian economy in the agriculture sector as well as in the other sectors. It is important that we both understand the values that we bring into our long and lasting partnership in labour mobility. While labour mobility is a win-win for both of our economy, it has not come without its own course of challenges, especially in welfare and pastoral care. As a partner, I strongly believe that we can work together to define the best model of care that will benefit us all. I believe that the time is now. Related to this and in the interest of strengthening people to people exchanges and seeing that most new Vanuatu currently travelling to Australia, those involved in Australia's labour mobility schemes, Vanuatu wishes to seek your understanding to ensure streamlined visa processes and affordable rates for Nivanuatu. Like labour mobility, the export of cover into Australia market is one that directly impacts the lives of our rural Nivanuatu, which comprises approximately 70% of national population. To that end, Vanuatu welcomes the increase in personal allowable quarter to 4 kilo since December 2019 and looks forward to positive results of the proposed commercial importation pilot 2021 to 2022 for non-medical purposes in addition to the medical and therapy purposes currently allowed under the permit. Vanuatu is looking forward to increase its export target to the Australian, especially that Vanuatu is re-owned the best in the region, if not in the world. In the education sector, Vanuatu thanks to Australia for all the support provided in training current and future workforce of the country. Australia is re-owned to have one of the best education system in the world. Like other countries, Vanuatu would like to tap into your education system and would greatly appreciate if Australia could open up its technical and digital education by allowing us to study in Australia while the local fees, just like our other members of the Pacific family, like Kukailans, New Zealand, Newway, or Tokalau. Vanuatu is now at a crossroad where it must beef up its technical capacity with world-class education qualification. Finally, Vanuatu welcomes Australian infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific, AI, FFP, and looks forward to tapping into the fund into the not too distant future. It is our future, it is our further hope that this funding opportunity be utilized prudently. It is our further hope that this funding opportunity be utilized prudently to finance a vital infrastructure project. Be it social infrastructure that contributes to the betterment of the lives of every new Vanuatu and directly contribute to Vanuatu's socio-economic development. Perhaps something that can be best realized collectively. By the same token, Vanuatu also welcomes Australia's new policy directives on international development or aid the target and stand to benefit the Pacific in closing. Let me once again convey our acknowledgments to Senator Honourable Benny Wong and Honourable Pat Conroy and the Sato Ministers for this timely visit which takes the Australia-Vanuatu relationship to another level and to look forward to a future opportunity even as early as in 2023 for the Vanuatu site to visit Australia. I wish to in the meantime wish all delegates and most please stay in both filler and many happy returns for the festive season and New Year 2023. Thank you Thomas. Thank you very much Foreign Minister Napaatman. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us and talk through a number of the issues you've raised. Can I say how wonderful it is to be here in Vanuatu with my parliamentary colleagues? Obviously Pat Conroy, Minister in the portfolio with special responsibility for the Pacific but also Simon Birmingham the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Michael McCormack the Shadow Minister with responsibility for the Pacific and as I said to the Foreign Minister the fact of a high-level bipartisan delegation is a statement. It's a statement about the enduring nature of our partnership with Pacific Island Nations. It's a statement about the importance we attach to our relationship with you with Vanuatu and with all other members of the Pacific Island Forum and I was privileged. It is a long time ago now but I was privileged to be here in a bipartisan delegation with Julie Bishop. I was in Simon's shoes then. I like this better but it was I think a really good initiative which I'm very pleased that we are making a commitment to. Our relationship with Vanuatu is one of mutual respect and I emphasise that with the Foreign Minister. It's a partnership of equals and we have a lot to learn and we have a lot to share and we have a lot to do together and I'm hopeful that our discussions here today and our ongoing discussions will enable us to share and do more in in the future. The Foreign Minister spoke about the bow declaration. It's an incredibly powerful document actually and it reminded me when I read it years ago was about the the weight with which Pacific Island Nations speak when it comes to climate because Vanuatu and Tuvalu and Kiribati and all of the members of the Pacific Island communities they speak about climate with the authenticity and weight of lived experience and we you know part of Australia's obligation is not only to respect that but to elevate those voices in the international forum. That's certainly when I was climate minister one of the things I sought to do a decade ago or more than a decade ago and we will continue to do it in the way we approach the UN negotiations about about climate. The bow declaration talks about climate change being the single biggest threat to the livelihoods, the security and the well-being of the peoples of the Pacific. It's the single biggest threat so when we come here as Australians we come here recognising that that is a truth with which this country and its people and the region in which it resides has been dealing with for a very very long time. We spoke at length about the Labor Movement programs and obviously at the Council of Chiefs as well that was an issue of discussion. New Vanuatu are the largest component of our Pacific Labor movement schemes makes an important contribution to the economy here but as the minister correctly points out it makes an important contribution to our economy because we need those workers. We're really conscious of the benefit but also some of the ways in which we can improve the program and I'm really pleased to have Pat here to listen first hand to many of the issues he's very aware of but to listen first hand to the minister and to the chiefs and to the community about the ways in which we might have that program work in a way that is even better for those who participate and those who receive the remittances. The minister also spoke about infrastructure this is central to the economic challenge that Vanuatu faces. Vanuatu rightly seeks to develop fully all of its economic aspirations and infrastructure matters today and obviously Australia is putting additional money into financing facility as well as additional money at funds and resources into our development assistance program because we see our responsibility as partner as a member of the Pacific family to work with Vanuatu on its priorities. The minister also spoke about education I'm always reminded and I say this quite often from Minister Napart and I hope you don't mind if I repeat it when I was a child in Malaysia and my father was telling me I had to study hard it's unusual he always used to say they can take everything away from you but they cannot take your education because for him and for so many people in Malaysia and in developing countries around the world education was you know that personal resource so I really understand what you have spoken to us about today the importance of us doing more together on education so I've asked my officials to work with yours to see what more can be done what more can be done when it comes to that so I really am deeply appreciative of you spending time with us and talking with us about the government's priorities I'm very appreciative of the generous welcome in your statement today and of the opportunity to engage with you and with members of your staff and your department and we look forward to many more discussions in the days weeks and months ahead firstly thank you very much foreign ministers foreign minister Napart thank you for hosting all of us today and for the welcome that you have provided along with the president the council of chiefs and community leaders to Vanuatu and we look forward very much to building upon that in engaging with local small businesses traders prime minister and other leaders and seeing the outcome of our partnership in a number of ways tomorrow and thank you foreign minister Wong and minister Conroy for inviting Michael McCormack and myself to join you on this bipartisan mission to Vanuatu and to Pacific Island nations Australia is at its strongest when we speak with one voice and by being here in a bipartisan delegation we are making clear that Australia's support for Vanuatu and for all Pacific Island nations is a partnership that is valued across politics in Australia it is one of the highest priorities for all parties of government and one in which we are committed to working closely with one another cooperatively to ensure that the partnership of respect the friendship and the engagement between our countries is as successful and fruitful as possible foreign foreign minister Napart I appreciate very much the acknowledgement that you have provided to initiatives such as the Australian infrastructure financing facility for the Pacific the work in response to COVID the step up in relation to the Pacific mobility Labor scheme efforts that we have undertaken over recent years to strengthen our ties and relationships I acknowledge the work the new government is providing to build on to extend and enhance that and welcome their initiatives and policies we face real and significant challenges in our region and across the globe working in ways to ensure the peace stability and prosperity of our region to ensure that the sovereignty of all nations is respected and secured through effective respectful partnerships to ensure that we respond to the challenges of climate change so clearly enunciated in the bow declaration and in the statements and advocacy of your nation and others in powerful ways through international fora to work to continue to enhance the cooperation in areas of health education labor exchange and to build on the opportunities created through trade agreements that we discussed such as the Pacer Plus agreement that can and should provide enhanced opportunities for Vanuatu businesses to access Australia's market and to provide Australians with access to high quality premium Vanuatu produce and goods in the future that I'm sure will be enjoyed by many in Australia and create many more business and economic development opportunities here in Vanuatu so thank you once again for the opportunity to be with you we are here to send the clear message of bipartisan support of shared commitment to our partnership and we are here to listen and to learn and to ensure that from that listening we are able to ensure we have the most cohesive and unified set of policies in the future to continue to take our partnership from strength to strength Foreign Minister Napa, could I ask you a question please? You mentioned Australia was the Vanuatu's closest humanitarian partner I'm wondering if you would say Australia is also Vanuatu's closest security partner and what are some of the items or things that Australia could do to assist in that spice? A good one is go down to the wharf and look at the new what you call the boat yes and the Australian government is also yeah they have assisted in building the new barracks it's the whole renovation and new buildings that have newly constructed and that's really a new facility for our for not a mobile force our police force that's a classical example in terms of the providing the national security to the assistance is that does that put us in the top tier of the Vanuatu's security relationships and if I may ask Minister Wong also you're opening the Mala Wharf tomorrow what is the significance of that in terms of the security partnership? Well I'll probably talk to you about that tomorrow then the only thing when we actually do the opening but I mean I think it's an example of cooperation around Vanuatu's priorities and that's the way I think it's very important for us to make sure that's how we conceptualize the engagement and the partnership. We have an interest in a Pacific which is stronger economically you know in which sovereign choices can be made in which you know health and prosperity can be improved Australia has an ethical interest in that and we have a regional interest in that as a member of the Pacific family so I think the Prime Minister was very generous and thanked us for support but I made the point to him this is a partnership and we benefit as well because we benefit from a stronger region as foreign minister. Which one? I thought that there's only one question I've got to rush to the report the Prime Minister I'm acting the Prime Minister so I need to rush to the report. And if he's live for him we're going to blame you. Please. I wanted about the cyber attack which your country has suffered have most of the services been restored how is Australia Do you know who is responsible? No no but I understand that the our technicians they have probably recover about 75 percent of the operations. We were I've been told that you know we'll not say anything that matter restlessly entirely on our technicians but I have to also commend the Australian government by providing technical expertise in expediting the process and addressing the issue. Matt can I just add to that one thing which is every country in the world is battling this issue whether it's Vanuatu or the United States or Australia from this you need to go you have to go Last one. China is obviously interested in the Pacific as well what sort of partner is China for you on the security and economic front? We have not established any any security agreement we have not even discussed any matter in relation to security. So today we've heard that the my sincere apology I've got to go. Sorry. Well I'll just make some overarching comments then I'm going to throw to Pat because this is Pat is doing an enormous amount of work on on trying to improve how this labor scheme operates it is a very important economic opportunity for both countries for the reasons I talked about before it's an obviously a contribution to our economy because we are able to you know deal with a whole range of labor shortages in key sectors but it's also a benefit to Ney Vanuatu who are able to provide remittances home having said that it is our obligation to make it as supportive as possible and as decent as possible so we don't want exploitation we had some real concerns about how some of these matters were dealt with in the past so when Labor came to government we said we were going to make sure we reformed it we made it less likely to be want to make it less likely to be exploited we want better worker safeguards and then there's the broader issue of how you manage you know the issues with family and culture that you described but I'll throw the panel. Thanks Penny and you're absolutely right that this is a scheme that we have to get right and we should be getting it right just to give you some context about the significance of this scheme there are about 31 and a half thousand Pacific Islanders working in the palm in Australia at the moment that's up from 24,000 as of the May election so significant growth and we've budgeted for growth to 35,000 by the end of this financial year and to give you an idea of the scale of the remittances flowing back to the Pacific while filling our Labor shortages the average worker sends back 15,000 Australian dollars a year so of that 31,000 almost 10,000 are near Vanuatu workers so this scheme through remittances is sending back nearly 150 million dollars a year to the Vanuatu economy and that's the context where our total ODA to Vanuatu in the same time is about 83 million so people should understand the scale of this scheme to lift individuals families out of poverty as well as skilling them giving them skills and for example I was in Solomon Islands a couple months back and I met with two return workers Joseph and Jared and they'd come back from working in meatworks and now setting up a construction business and a cocoa business on the back of the skills and income they don't say this is a scheme if we get it right can be transformational for families but it has to be what I call a win-win-win-win has to win for the worker has to win for their family has to be a win for the country sending them it has to be a win for Australia by filling the Labor shortages so as Foreign Minister Wong has talked about we've made a number of improvements to the scheme first off there is a national hotline so that people can report abuse we are working on the ability for workers to have portability so that if there is an unfortunate case of abuse they can then move to another worker rather than losing their visa importantly we're trialling for the long-term visas a trial of 200 where 200 can bring their families into the country to alleviate the separation issue that is an issue that we have to deal with we're also working on tackling the deductions issue which is an issue that people have significance with so the message that we've been hearing from the government of Vanuatu is that the scheme is very important to them economically it's very important for them in terms of upskilling and we're expanding it into the care sector age care hospitality tourism but we have to get it right for their workers and I met with one of the senior leaders of the Vanuatu trade union movement only four weeks ago to discuss how we can support greater worker rights and obviously the chiefs raised it today so we've made reforms we'll keep working on it in consultation with Pacific governments to make it work as effectively as possible but we should be very clear that this scheme is critical to the Australian economy it's critical to the Pacific economy and ultimately it's critical to lifting out of poverty tens of thousands of Pacific Islanders and their families was there a local climate minister once said about supporting Australia to host the meeting saying that Australia should stop investing in fuel development in order for Pacific to support that look I understand completely where ministering Vanuatu is coming from and I understand the desire from your country and many others in the Pacific for there to be swift action on climate what I would say is this we have a very emissions intensive economy we have an economy which has benefited from coal exports to other countries we have an economy which has had a lot of coal-fired power fossil fuel energy we are seeking to make a very big change and we are seeking in the space of less than a decade to go to an excessive 80 renewable energy in our economy that's a big shift so what I would say is we are committed to ambitious reductions not just by 2050 but in the near term no Australian government has been as ambitious as the one that is represented here today so whilst I would just ask that respectfully that be considered the scale of what we are seeking to do and the desire to hold the conference of the parties can I tell you where that comes from it goes back to what I was saying at the beginning you speak special weight and authenticity the people of the and have been living it for a long time so what I want to post is a very powerful statement and gives powerful momentum to the UN process I was at Copenhagen when Copenhagen failed let me tell you momentum matters so that's why we want to host the conference of the parties because we believe that conference with the voices of Nevanuato and all the peoples of the Pacific gives momentum when momentum is needed anything further thank you very much I'm sorry I don't miss you and you're from the High Commission I'm here you've done so I always try to do a local person