 Friends of Australia, friends of Papua New Guinea, friends and family. As Chancellor of the Australian National University, I am so honoured to welcome to our campus my friend, colleague, brother James Marape and Madam Marape and his most distinguished delegation from Papua New Guinea. Australia's closest neighbour and dearest friend. May I commence proceedings by acknowledging and celebrating the Nambri Ngunnawal people, the traditional owners on whose lands we meet this evening and pay respects to elders past and present. Prime Minister Marape, among the very special guests here this evening who have gathered to hear you speak, we have our Minister, Pat Conroy, our High Commissioners from Australia and P&G, your very distinguished delegation which includes ministers and provincial governors and statesmen and other people from P&G who are so deeply connected with Australia. We have our new Vice Chancellor, Distinguished Professor Genevieve Bell, whom you've just met, and at least 11 members of the ANU Council who are here this evening. We have staff and students and I particularly wanted to mention that in the audience this evening are a number of students from Papua New Guinea, some who are attending the ANU, UPNG summer school and others who are studying at the Crawford School. But that is to give you a sense of the ongoing deep ties between the Australian National University and the University of P&G, your alma mater. And I'm always delighted by this fun fact that ANU was the first university in the world, beyond UPNG, to teach Trock Pissen as part of our language school. In fact, when my niece spent 12 months living in P&G and she worked for Book Belong, Bikinini, I was always so delighted to hear her speak Trock Pissen throughout our family gatherings. Prime Minister, you have given a number of speeches since your arrival here in Australia and the Vice Chancellor and I were privileged to hear you speak last evening and I know you gave a brilliant speech to the Australian Parliament today and you are in fact the first leader from Papua New Guinea to deliver an address to the Australian Parliament. And our shared history and our shared future is to be treasured. Prime Minister, we very much look forward to your words this evening. Please come and deliver your special address. Prime Minister, James Marape. Well, thank you, Chancellor of the Australian National University, the Honourable Jolly Bissoff. She speaks so eloquent and sometimes I wish I could have a little bit of that skills. But in any case, I must proceed. Let me acknowledge the head of the Crawford School of Development Studies. Vice Chancellor, sorry I missed you in the order of acknowledgement. Thank you very much. It was kind to meet me outside and I was presented a book that was the last that it came out in the sunlight was 1984. And I signed on that book as a very treasure of the university had distinguished sicknesses inside. 1984 I was doing grade seven up in the mountains of Papua New Guinea. I hardly could connect to English lines. There's a punchline in 1984. So thank you Vice Chancellor for bringing this book out. I want to acknowledge the scholars here at ANU. Thank you very much and the students for coming by the people of Australia. The diaspora, P&G diaspora here in Australia. All distinguished guests, my delegation, ministers of state who are here. And from both sides, I include Senator Pat as my delegation because I don't think he's always here at the university. So he had to tag along when we came by. But the entire team from the Parliament at Canberra, we're happy to be here this afternoon to at least speak a little bit deeper than what we had had conversed last night and also at the Parliament House today. And so thank you Chancellor, my friend Julie, for ensuring that this moment of conversation is made for me to speak deep in some issues that I feel the National University here must hear and see from the context of where we are in as far as P&G Australia relationship is concerned, but more importantly from the context of P&G leadership. It would be unfair of me not to acknowledge the none of all and the number of people. Thank you very much for the continued hospitality to all of us. The past, present and future, we acknowledge the continued support in spirit to ensure all of us are gathered here. Australian National University has a proud and long history and that history is closely associated with Papua New Guinea. I'm an alma mater of the University of Papua New Guinea and we in our own school know very much the role the Australian National University has continued to play and provide. And I want to say as a former UPNG student and possibly a student again in the not a distant future. I want to say thank you very much for the role ANU has played in partnering the Premier University of Papua New Guinea. Thank you ANU. The partnership between ANU and UPNG existed prior to independence and has continued up till this point in time. Various formal and informal arrangements has been made between various faculties as well as schools and countless academic studies and exchanges has been going on. And this has run successfully year in and year out for the last six decades. Recently ANU and UPNG entered into formal arrangements between the ANU Crawford School and today I gather the Crawford School is hosting this event with the UPNG School of Business and Public Policy and the exchange that continues to run between ANU Department of Pacific Affairs and UPNG School of Humanities and Social Sciences through the Pacific Research Program. And I want to appreciate not just today's program but the depth of data history and everything that you have collated since we you started program with UPNG six decades ago. These arrangements will ensure that practical collaboration between our two schools both eminent ANU very eminent in not just Australia but the entire Pacific and the region as well as your own global reputation. And also your continued help to our University of Papua New Guinea. And I want to say thank you again your annual economics surveys for instance your election database for instance if you think we don't read your data and statistics as a politician I have deep interest in additional credible statistics from outside who have no interest in local politics but more importantly facts that are coming through. So thank you very much for all those all those data that come through your budget assessments your research on the Pacific portal research portal and every other programs that ANU has collaborated with local researchers UPNG our NRI and our own various government departments. I just want to appreciate the collaboration that has been going on for some time. You perhaps in your research ability know about Papua New Guinea better than myself. But in any case let me give you some refresher. Nation today possibly is a nation of 10 million people. My note says I would assume it's 12 million later this year we're doing full in-depth census. I have ministers assisting me. Minister Treasury Minister planning in the House Minister Foreign Affairs. They will not let me to retire our long outstanding census this year. We will establish exactly what our population is but key statistics nonetheless remain the same. Our nation is the most diverse nation on planet Earth. Stephanie you know that very diverse nation over 800 languages. All of them have their own tribal cultural setup and structure their own local governance structures their own cultural expectations and worldview. And so to fuse them into a modern modern nation has never been an easy task. But we've managed to hold forth as a robust democracy 49 years on. In that diversity we also have apart from ethnolinguistic diversity we have biodiversity. Both our terrestrial ecosystem as well as marine ecosystem is second to none. We believe we have 7 percent of all known biodiversity. So you would assume our per capita biodiversity is second to none on the face of planet Earth. So to to the ethno cultural diversity as well as biodiversity. Senator Conroy second to none you investing in the right place. We invest in the right place. And so sit on top of this one we are straddling between exciting part of planet Earth. It is peaceful right now and we'd like to maintain peace forever. When you look in the context of global conversations they can be no better place to live than our Pacific Pacific habitat. But PNG straddles in between Indonesia as well as the Pacific. And we find ourselves in this place and we take our place seriously and we take the opportunities that come with it also seriously. And so I'd like to say in the context of where we place where we are straddled we take our responsibility as a democracy. Very seriously to ensure we remain active buffer in the presence of the confluence of many interests. Confluence of commerce, confluence of trade, confluence of a world that is increasingly socializing on the platform of social media. And now the emergence of artificial intelligence gives us more concern as well as opportunities for us to harness and capitalize on. But a backdrop to where PNGs today has never been easy. I spoke at the parliament and last night I also spoke lightly that we started off from a very awkward place. In 1975 our economy was under five billion and I run the risk of being appraised by your academics. You do your research, I may be wrong. You do your research and I speak in total confidence that you will be researching my statistics. And so in 1975 we were economy under five billion kina. At today's value US dollar or Australian dollar for that matter easily we were still under one billion dollar. And so that is the place we started off from. Our landmass I spoke at parliament today bigger than UK, bigger than Japan, bigger than New Zealand to give you some context. In that big landmass we know that's flat as what you have in UK for those who visit UK. We have high mountains, tropical mountains as well as sub-alpine snow-capped mountain in the highest peak in Mount William. We have swamps, we have valleys, we have big rivers. We have islands and we have atolls. Islands and atolls number over 600 of them, much bigger than the entire Pacific Island group of nations put together. 20 of my islands if not 30 of them are bigger than the islands of Pacific Island nations so to speak. So we're not a small island state, we are a big island country. The challenges in P&G has always been big from a five billion kina economic base consistently in the last 44 years before we took office. It has grown somewhat at a small snail pace up to 79 billion, 80 billion kina thereabouts. I want to say thank you very much at this juncture to the help we have continued to receive from all the Australian governments and administrations since 1975. Australia has never side away or stayed away despite some of the down times we've had and they've always been with us every step away. Every Papua New Guinea students and ministers visiting Papua New Guinea in the house, step back with me and clap to all the Australians please. And so since then we've come and when we took office, my compatriot, the Honourable Ian Linkstaki knows the statistics better than I do. We were under 80 billion kina in 2019. We were officially in recession in 2018. We had a negative 3% recessed economy in 2018 when we took office. We went about restructuring and we were in the business of getting the economy up and running. But COVID-19 descended on not just us but every one of us that had a global economy contract contracts in the two places. But thankfully we had good friends Australia included that assisted our economy and we went into a deliberate deficit budget plan to make sure sufficient liquidity is flowing into economy using government budget to stimulate growth and an expensive focus we embarked upon. Four years on that pathway is proving some success. We were not reckless. We brought in IMF into the fray. You know, not everyone are friends of IMF but we have no choice but to ensure that what we're doing is transparent and independent referee must be in the room. And so we deliberately brought into the picture IMF that stood with us every step of the way to give credibility to the numbers that Ian was posting every now and then. And since then we have, when I look back in 2024, as of last year when we went to prepare for 2024 fiscal year, our threshold pronounced 111 billion kina economy. That effectively means in the last four hard years, at least at the macroeconomy level, we were able to post over 30 billion kina growth in our macroeconomy space. That's something we've done and I want to again say thank you to Australia who have been an important part of us in our financing of a deficit budget space. You're able to come in and we've been able to sustain right through. Today I want to indicate to you as Australian taxpayers, we're not reckless. IMF still remains in our economy and in our treasury. We're working on a fiscal consolidation pathway. Last year we slashed our deficit by one billion kina. We're in a deficit slashed continually. We hope to come back to a balanced budget if not earlier than by 2027 and there on going forward. Tres Rastaki has announced a 13-year fiscal plan that is working towards debt elimination. If he's around, he will be aggressive. If I'm not around, I will not be quite as aggressive. I will be plying back to ensure we go into our infrastructure focus that we've been engaged upon. But in any case, we have a clear fiscal pathway that runs into 2030s. In between now and then we're working our major resource projects. We have Papua LNG that is almost there. We have Pasca LNG. We have Pinyang LNG. And for those who are anti-LNGs, I just want to tell you Papua Negan is carbon negative. Our 462,840 square kilometers of land, 70% is forest cover. And so our sufficient forest cover ensures we are carbon negative. Currently we emit only 10 million metric tons of CO2. Our absorption capacity is over 100 million metric tons of CO2. We have carbon negatives for those of you companies in Australia. If Australia is giving hard time, bring your investment dollar into PNG. You will be given an express lane with a green label, a green identity. But in any case, with this super project lined up for us, by 2024 to 2038, we will have LNG construction industry running that will add to the construction dollar loan over 30 billion dollar worth of construction activities in the LNG space. We will throw in on top a Wafi Gold mine project and something close to my heart, the new Pogra. Many skeptics thought that the major investor, the second biggest mining company in the world, would set its gate on PNG and run away. But thank goodness Barrick Gold Corporation, the Barrick Gold Limited, decided to hang around under 49% equity arrangements to them and a 51% equity arrangements to the PNG party. And for investors here, we will not chase you away. We know your return on investment. We will benchmark against global benchmarks and a competitive benchmark you operate inside. You make a return on your side of investment. We will make a return on our side of investment. Pogra, the second biggest gold mining company in the world, Barrick has shown that we can negotiate for a better outcome. They sit on a minority seholding. We sit on a majority seholding. We've learned from Bougainville to not to look after loneliness and to not to look after the local authorities is quite disastrous. So I think the investors in PNG have seen that they can do better deals with us and we're moving into this space. This will ensure that we secure the economic fundamentals of our country. Our resource base is sufficient and I want to give certainty to those of you through your tax dollars that support our budget. Hopefully this time ten years from today, we don't come knocking on you asking for money to support our budget. But we're able to have enough resources so that you and me together contribute to keeping our part of the planet that's safe, secure, from all menace of intrusion in as far as our democracy and our peace and serendipity is concerned. Is it okay? Is it okay? PNG is strong economically, we assist you. If we're not strong, well you keep on doing the support role in the entire region and it will be eventually stressful on yourself. And so it is in your shared interest that PNG grows to be economically strong. And are we getting there? Last year for instance, despite all these projects I mentioned not coming on board through increasing systematic efficiency within ourselves, we were able to collect or we are focusing to collect over 23.4 billion kina in revenue this year. That is the highest ever level of revenue collections in our country. The last time I was finance minister, the revenue base was 13 billion kina. And it was not too far off. I was finance minister in 2018. The revenue base was 13 billion kina, 14 billion kina. Today the revenue base this year will exceed 23 billion kina in our terms. It is the highest ever. And that will be part of our 27 billion kina money plan for this year that Atresra handed down last year. In that we have the highest ever parcel of investment to public infrastructure. Public infrastructure has been a focus simply because with key enabling infrastructures we carry a modern economy and service delivery is much, much easier. So we have of that 27 billion kina, 10 billion kina parcel for our infrastructure plan in our country to ensure that government support to not just social sector but more importantly economic and key enabling infrastructures receive support and add to bolster our economy. I want to also indicate for those of you because I speak to you as taxpayers, Papua New Guinea taxpayers and also in taxpayers. And I am obliged to give you how we are spending our 27 billion kina budget if it is worth your attention. P&G is investing record amounts in education sector, allocating 6.6 billion in 2024, 8.3% increase. On top of this one we are investing in additional health workers, 840 of them, to go into our health workforce. We also bring more teachers into the picture. We want to educate every child in P&G in the direct education pathway as well as the alternate flexible pathway we are establishing every child in P&G from now on mass matriculate to year 12 so that they have an equal opportunity of 12 years of education to place themselves in a place of self empowerment going forward. We aspire to have health services one hour within reach, whether it is by foot, by boat, by plane or by car and we are working in this place. We are fixing Port Mosby General Hospital for the first time for chronic issues. Last week Sunday I visited our cancer facility that is being built. This time next year no more will P&G export medical patients elsewhere. We will have state-of-the-art cancer facility, state-of-the-art health facility, state-of-the-art kidney facility. This time next year we envisage. I am being very bold, hold me to my word. This time next year we envisage to do kidney transplant in Port Mosby General Hospital. I made a pledge when I took office that by 2025 we don't want to export medical patients. Today I want to announce that we are receiving patients from Solomon Islands and other Pacific Island nations. They are coming to Port Mosby for heart and deep angiogram testings. It costs Papua Nicanians over 100,000 kidney to go to Philippines, Singapore. Some come here. Today it just costs them 2,000 kidney to get a full angiogram tested in Port Mosby. We are receiving patients from Solomon Islands and Fiji. It's a wonderful, wonderful facility coming up. And again, we all contribute to this one, Australian taxpayers and P&G taxpayers. I just want to say thank you for this. We are investing heavily in the law and justice sector. 9.5% of our money plan for 2024 goes to the law and justice sector. Today before coming here I visited a wonderful facility and I saw the highly skilled capacity of the Australian Federal Police in responding to really dangerous situations. I jokingly made a passing remark. What I saw doesn't equate to my presentation in Parliament. I was happy I saw the police strength of the Australian Federal Police. We will be importing that. And as part of the agreement we have with the Australian Government in as far as BCA is concerned, we intend to import. Law enforcement capacity are built and uplift back to Port Mosby. But locally on our own 9.5% of our budget is geared towards law and justice sector support. Police receives greater support. We want to build a police to a 10,000 police force by 2032. When we took office we had police of only 4,000 serving men in a nation of over 12 million people. That statistics and ratio is very imbalanced and we want to rectify this one. We've given assistance to the economy. We've lifted the non-tax paying threshold to 20,000. Pango Party has almost left this government. We're all about helping our people. And so possibly quite similar to the Australian Labour Government. So we're trying our very best to lighten the burden of the ordinary. And we're looking at continuing that space, but to our investors. We're also modelling on the best tax model that we could give so that our investors are not discouraged. But they have a certainty of also sharing the workload and carrying the burden in a lighter manner. Minister Starkey and the team at Treasury has been asked to look at our tax section regime going forward. I want to speak a little bit on, as far as something very close to my heart. I committed to Papua New Guinea in my inaugural speech on 30 May 2019 that we will deliver independent commission against corruption. In 2020 December or November 11th I almost lost government. November 10th we passed the independent commission against corruption bill. Today three years on we have two assistant commissioners. One from New Zealand, one from Australia and a commissioner from Australia. Highly competent legal people who are running our ICAC. This is set up to ensure that we fight corruption. And for me corruption is seen from the context of economic preservation and gain. That is no point me growing the economy if the basket remains with so much sinkholes or holes what it matter. And so ICAC is being set up, it's functional. We also have created an increasing space for additional judiceries. Up till 2023 the cap of our judicery remained at 60 in a nation of over 12 million litigious people. You just can't have 40 or 60 judges. We've now lifted the ceiling to 200 and I spoke with your prime minister earlier today. I don't mind the entire money meant to support us in the law and justice sector. Just pay your judges, pay your police, pay your magistrates, pay your anti-corruption commissioners. Get them up there and fill in my law and justice sector space. We need that independence, we need that robustness. We need capacity inbuilt into our law enforcement structure. The full law and justice sector intervention needs our help. And I'm happy to report to all of you in this presentation work in the law and justice sector is going on. It is not yet there. It will outlive me, the work will outlive me, but I just wish that going forward governments after me do not abandon the cost of strengthening the law and justice sector space, including the support to the anti-corruption agencies that we have set up. I quickly, I know my time is running. I could see my friend Julie trying to stop me in that in my speech. She's got some questions so I can respond to some of the questions, but I want to, it will be, I know something close to your heart. You want to know where is PNG's place in the world. I spoke earlier on the fact that we straddle in the middle of the Pacific and the Indo-Asia region. We do not take our place lightly. Our democracy is entrenched and we will continue to entrench our democracy. We choose our partnership despite the overriding foreign policy that my own party birthed in 1974. The French to all enemies to none foreign policy that we maintain, but we have specific aspects of each nation we relate with. And those are principle-based. Some we have economic relations and some we have economic relations as well as principle-based relationships. And those particular envelope of relationship we have with every nation will be maintained within the context of how we want to build a nation going forward. Last year we received and hosted many leaders who came to our source. There were gracious to come, the leaders from Fiji, France, India, Indonesia, Hungary, as well as the United States. And of course the Pacific Island leaders including Australia and New Zealand, those were visits that we received and we know we will be receiving similar visits going forward. If you want to go to Asia, you pass for PNG. Whether you're going west or going north. If you want to go east to the Pacific, you pass for PNG. If you want to come south into deep south on planet Earth in Australia and New Zealand, you come to PNG. We cannot ignore the fact that we are straddled right in the heart of the exciting part of planet Earth. And we will be so unless someone drags us away from here. But if we are dragged away then as I told Parliament today, Julie, we stuck at the hips. The Oslo-Laysian continental plate joins us at the hip. Half my country is in fact Australia in the Australian continent. The Oslo-Laysian continental plate is half the southern part of my country. The other five plates, plate tectonics, concede the Highlands and the Nguyen Highlands. And so we stuck with you here forever. We're not going anywhere else. And I want to say that our democracy will be preserved. Our union and our relationship is something we don't take for lightly, take for granted. We know our place in the world and we know our place in the Pacific. In the midst of many relationships we will never compromise our democracy and our subscription to free economy, market economy and the rule of common law for all. PNG continues to find membership in many global forums. We are active member of PIF, we are active member of APEC, we are active member of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. As a member of the Melanesian spirit group, whenever our opinions are sought, we are transparent. We never play nations against each other. As a custom to Melanesians, we believe friends to all and enemies to none, DNA is all about transparency and maintaining transparency in how we relate to each other and we don't play one against each other. We will maintain the sanctity of the union we have with its nations, but also we will not capitalize on where we are placed to ensure that our relationship east-west-north-south is maintained in the context. If you ask my take on many, some of the issues that is coming up into the future, whilst geopolitics remain a big issue, I still think poverty induced trigger to planet Earth will still remain a big challenge. There's a substantial poverty in a region and elsewhere. With the poverty that is prevalent, it will force population to have a massive rush to harvest of natural resources and with continuous threat on the climate change, poverty issue needs to be addressed by all public policy matters because everyday need forces people to run to what they can do for basic human survival. We saw that on the 10th of January in Potmosby in a small trigger that took place, everyday need cost certain part of our city to run to ransacked stores within the precinct and neighborhood. So I just thought poverty will be a major issue for the have-nots on planet Earth. It's not just in our part of the world. Papua New Guinea and Australia is fortunate to have big land where people who properly engage could sustain themselves on the land and sea they relate to. But many parts of planet Earth, Africa, the Asian economies and of course Europe, population will put stress on resources and expressly matters relating to land and agriculture. Climate change has been a big issue for every one of you in Australia. PNG Forest is there for you to partner. I point to you PNG Forest. For every one of you looking for clean energy solutions, PNG's geothermal and hydropotential is there for you to tap into. We are only kilometers that separate us. Our waters run endlessly, endlessly into the Gulf of Papua. If Australia looks for cleaner energy options and alternate, Papua New Guinea offers you our massive river system south of PNG, south side of PNG and directly north of you. These are possible solutions to your alternate energies and we offer that to Australia in as far as the future is concerned. So I speak much on this one. I just want to give you our fullest assurance in summary. We're trying our very best to build a stronger economy. Building a stronger economy ensures our domestic security as well as regional security contribution is free flowing and in the process we hope to support Australia in the upkeep of our region from what might happen into the future. Today when I spoke at the parliament I said we must construct a feature using the past as our tailwind. The future needs to be constructed today. I look forward to contribution from all of you. Your reports on election deficiencies are noted. We're working to have a better election and reform underway and something my generation of leaders want to give to our country is a better election platform in 2027. Hopefully we add more women into the fray when we tidy ID-based voting platform in our country that will start with this year's census update. We have issues with Bougainville. Bougainville remains very much torn on the side. We love Bougainvilleans. They're part of us. They voted for independence. 97.7% vote for independence. But we're following the details and the spirit of the 2001 peace agreement. We're now coming to the last 10. That means parliament must have a handle on the vote that took place in Bougainville. And we give every respect to our kinsmen and kinswoman in Bougainville. The 2001 peace agreement will be supported in its fullest and entirety and parliament will take custody of the result of the vote. And whatever it is, that will not be the end game. Bougainville is part of Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea will be part of Bougainville as we are part of Greater Melanesia. That relationship will remain and we will work this through as Melanesian brothers and sisters does work. They voted for political independence. Our constitution at the moment doesn't allow one part of our country to be politically independent. And they know, we know that the mountains are too high for the crossover. But we as brothers and sisters, we work it through. We don't intend for us to break the intention of the 2001 peace agreement. We have stepped in the right direction. We're now waiting to bring the results into the floor of parliament. But it will be done in the context of the 2001 peace agreement. Looking forward to the future in conclusion, I'm excited about Papua New Guinea. Next year we celebrate 50 years of our nationhood. We seal a robust democracy. We seal a free market economy with all the fragilities. But our potential is second to none. The highest density in as far as Australian investors are concerned is found in Papua New Guinea. You have over 5,000 Australian investors in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinea's concentration of visit offshore is Australia. We're here as brothers and sisters nation. For 50 years on we'll be measuring as a nation, but we still carry our downsides. If you at ANU see in some areas of public policy that needs us to be improving on, I can give you one certainty. James Marape and my team of leaders take all the criticisms we can take and we are not offended by any criticism. So long as you offer alternate solutions, we are ready to listen and work to ensure we fix those problems that we have and carry through and we make PNG a better place. When PNG becomes a better place, then Australia will live in a better region. It's as simple as that. I was telling some of my friends earlier needless to say who I was speaking with. But if PNG is a failed country, you don't have to worry about both seekers from a thousand miles off. Canoes will peddle down into Australia. I don't want canoes to peddle down to Australia. I would have failed in my lifetime if canoes peddled down into Australia. I would possibly hang myself in shame. And so I'm working very hard 18 hours a day to ensure canoes don't come down to Australia. Thank you for helping us out. Speak from ANU context with you PNG. Speak the data and facts that you have offer credible alternate solutions if you find some. We're looking forward to work with credible data and solutions to ensure PNG is better, Australia is better, Pacific is secured and we all coexist for the next 50 years going forward. Thank you very much. Thank you for the opportunity. Now, is this working Prime Minister? This is what we call a fireside chat without the fire, although your speech certainly raised a number of challenging issues. So, back in 2019, you gave your first major speech in Australia as Prime Minister and you spoke of your government as having a core group of young educated leaders. Clearly, the transformative power of education is dear to your heart. You are in fact a product of it. What is your vision for improving educational standards in PNG? And what more can institutions like ANU do? Yeah, we write reports and we criticise positively. But what other practical things can institutions like ours do with institutions like University of Papua New Guinea? The partnerships that have existed in Australia and PNG, how can we refresh, enhance them so that they meet the needs of the 21st century? Yes. Thank you, Julie, for this question. Education is key, as I was saying earlier. In 1984, I hardly connected two English sentences together. Here I am, I've never been school outside, but just a home schoolboy, high school PNG, university PNG, both undergraduate and postgraduate, possibly going towards my PhD. We just want equality interventions if ANU can ensure that the quality interventions are inbuilt into the programs you're doing. And in the world today, education is much easier with the use of ICT platform. And so online learning, real-time learning, mass learning. PNG right now faces a deficiency where actual in-classroom facility is far lesser than the number of students we produce out of our year 12 every year. We had an education reform in 1991 that created the converse negative impact. Instead of opening up accessible quality education to our people, students, it created more drop-outs with half-baked education. We created more grade 8 drop-outs, more grade 10 drop-outs, more grade 12 drop-outs, and our spaces at the high education remain static. In 1991, we had about 10,000 high education spaces, including UPNZ, in 2024, 10,000 spaces still remain as we speak. And so we haven't grown high education sector. We've just grown our low education sector with almost quality that doesn't match them to be skilled people when they come out of grade 8 or grade 10 or grade 12. When I was education minister 10 years ago, I introduced an alternate flexible open learning program. As Prime Minister today, I'm entrancing this to bring those left of school. There's about 5 million of them since 1991. They've left grade 8, grade 10, grade 12, or even university colleges who have no work, they're in society. And so empowering them is our immediate interest but going forward, opening up spaces for schools at different levels is something we want to work on. And Jolie, I just think even at the high education down to after year 12, opening up through the use of ICT should bridge again for us at the very earliest. If A&U can continue on partnership with us through the ICT platform in opening more specialized education better, going forward as well as your input in our postgraduate qualifications for our teachers who will go back and teach at different levels back home in my view. But mixing quality interventions as well as opening up space for educational accessibility. Prime Minister, one of the strengths of Papua New Guinea is that it has a young and growing population. 50%, I think, of your populations under the age of 25. But that presents massive challenges. What are going to be the jobs of the future for these young people? We understand a P&G's current economy but where can the government diversify in terms of the economy so that there are jobs that match the aspirations of your significant population of young people? Thank you, Jolie. The six mining and oil and gas project I've mentioned would not create a million jobs. The highest they would create possibly 10,000, 15,000 jobs. And so we understand clearly what we need to do. We've had a focus on downstream processing as a key conversation for us to move into the industry space. Our resources we want at the very earliest instead of exporting raw timber, raw fish, raw agricultural produce, we want to move into the downstream space. That hopefully in the next 10 years if it matures it should create a new stream of job that is quite substantial. But at the very earliest we're putting budgeted program for small, medium, and micro-businesses for people who own land by the way. Papua Nicanians who are all sitting here in this class or classes here own land back home. Land is asset. This resource has not been monetized or used properly so we're encouraging the mass that 5 million that I spoke earlier. Instead of wasting time in the cities or urban areas doing nothing, why don't you go back and link back into agriculture and other sustainable proceeds of life. So our immediate focus in the next medium term is to arrest this unengaged population but midterm as well as long-term in the next successive midterm for us if we can migrate to a downstream process, industry-based that will be the multiplier we need for our country. Prime Minister you mentioned the events of January earlier this year where there was a period of violent unrest. You were commended for your swift response in declaring a state of emergency. You provided a package of support for businesses affected by the violence. You also undertook to carry out an investigation into the root causes of the social unrest. What has been the result of that investigation early day as I appreciate but do you believe that lack of work opportunities was one of those causes and what can the government do about that? Well the trigger point was the police in the city not turning up to work and when that become the trigger point again I'm at the mercy of the full conclusion of the investigation that is going on. I don't have the full basis to indicate what the report has found. We're very soon coming across. PNC is an interesting place. It's a very interesting place. Those who want to gain office in a couple of times in a nation's history have resorted to lawlessness and on the event on tent they just need a trigger. Trigger and the trigger was that and certain parts of the city went to looting our shops. We're giving incentives. We're giving assistance to those who are tax-paying businesses who lost out and those assessments will be completed very, very soon. But the good news and you sort of gave credit to me in saying that we took immediate measures I want to pass it back to the super majority of our people. That one night and one day in the 24 hours the entire city of Potmosby that houses almost a million people police was not at work. The destruction we face was not even more than 10%. 95% of our city was secured by the people themselves. So it is not James Maraper that restored peace in Potmosby. Super majority of my people maintained peace in the city when police in one night decided not to work in Potmosby. So credit must go to my people. The greater majority even in the midst of their own poverty they never went out on a rent sack in over 500 stores in Potmosby. Less than 20 stores were attacked. So I think that indications link towards a little bit of organization beyond what happened. We will leave no stones unturned. Police, we are calling for greater commissioner inquiry into the entire police structure. We are getting a judge to have that inquiry. And those police who decide not to be loyal to allegiance to the state will lose their job as I speak. I have a question. When you were 19 you spoke at the Lower Institute and I recall you said at that time that PNG was a nation at the crossroads. You mentioned that next year it will be 50 years since independence. And one of the challenges that PNG has always faced has been service delivery to the remote areas, the 830 language groups. Looking back now and looking forward how do you think PNG is going to tackle that challenge? I mean, it is a strength that you have one of the most diverse populations in the world but it's also an immense challenge for you. How do you think you've progressed and would you still describe PNG as a nation at the crossroads? We still at the crossroads but we have strikes in place. What I have with my cabinet is to increase efficiency in those strikes and step up on accountability. We're putting the necessary steps in place. Part of the gift we want to give to our nation at 2025 is a refurbished and improved public service structure that delivers to our people. The current structure we have is workable if we can increase on efficiency. That is why for me I could not have the independent commission against corruption. We're trying to set up a national monitoring authority that will be also assisted by the independent stakeholders in our community including civil society. And so that arms length check on what governments do at different levels. The structure we have is workable for us right now in my view. The district development authority the structure, the provincial governments and so we've got the planning minister sitting here part of the job he will tidy is clearly defining the various functions and responsibilities on the different structures to address the diversity of people we have districts become important conduits of service delivery. Many accuse us on the way in which we transfer money from the national government to the sub-national governments but Julie can get money out from the cumbersome centralized system that is based in Wegani straight to the point of service delivery to the districts and to the province. If we can get them to be fired up then they save their own local community better. As prime minister I'm not everywhere all over the country. Ministers are not all over the country in a system that has eroded in efficiency over the last nine years. If we can get it right cleaning up the entire structure of public service delivery making districts functional with accountability built in making provinces responsive. The reason why we have provincial governments in our country is to embrace the diversity of people we have. The government expectations in an island province is different from an island province different regions of our country for that matter the structure we have in as far as government and arms of service delivery is good all I must do now with my team of leadership is to ensure we increase efficiency building accountability mechanisms and get the funds to them and hopefully they deliver to intention. I tell all my taxpayers if a district is not working report the district to a woodsman now we've given you ICAC and you've got police so if the city of law enforcement is being reported about I don't think anyone will stand a chance of trying to play hide and seek so we've thrown in ICAC into the fray this integrity officers are there if in between now and 2025 2026 and in this time of parliament we tidy the service delivery mechanisms I expect a better outcome if not in this decade then in the next next decade PNC should be a better place in the business. Prime Minister PNG is a nation blessed with resources natural resources and you spoke of the increased returns from resource development you spoke of taking equity positions in development projects and you speak very eloquently about foreign direct investment which of course is just central to Australia's success as an economy foreign direct investment yet a PNG's approach has been criticised as resource nationalisation some the critics have gone so far as to say it presents a greater sovereign risk how do you address or how do you balance the state-owned enterprise approach with the foreign direct investment that we all know is needed for large projects that drive economic growth and prosperity well since I pronounce our government's intention on May 30th 2019 we look back retrospectively from 2024 we've had Newmont the biggest mining company coming to the economy we have Barrick the second biggest gold company still maintaining presence in PNG first for them globally they don't own minority share in mines they operate today they own 49% in a mine they operate continually maintaining presence in PNG we have two super majors in Total and Exxon Mobil in PNG we have Santos in PNG we have Telstra in PNG the biggest telco company in our part of the world so having big companies in PNG is a testament that yes the headlines may sound different but we know our commercial numbers there's a deal space you make a return on investment we make a return on investment we know the hard place to do business we are democracy we believe in free market capitalism you come into our country we look after you you make a return on investment today we far different than what it was in the 70s and 80s we read numbers much much better than where we were reading in the 70s and 80s so the big majors are in our country if the majors are in our country I encourage all the miners something must be happening right for the majors to be in PNG two big mining companies globally speaking two big hydrocarbon industry companies globally speaking the big four is in PNG take that critics Prime Minister one of the great challenges in our region is the great power competition between the United States and China and it's playing out in the Indo-Pacific perhaps more intensely than anywhere else as you've heard many times Australia has always sought to balance our relationship with China our largest two way trading partner and our relationship with the United States our ally strategic defense intelligence and investment partner I know that PNG like other nations face the challenge of managing and trying to get that balance right what do you think the future holds there how do you see PNG managing what we all call the great power competition between those two powerful nations well Julie we have not gone anywhere else last time I was in the US someone asked me what do you think about China and I said I'm in the same place you were in 1976 in 1976 President Nixon had a good relationship with Beijing PNG had a good relationship with Beijing we're in the same place and they may have done some revolutions and so we have not gone anywhere else and we will not go anywhere else but having said this we will not compromise certain values we hold here PNG and China respects us for this we deal transparently with them when I was in Beijing few months ago lucky for me I was earlier than Prime Minister Albinasi few months later President Xi Jinping President Biden had a wonderful bilateral a four hours bilateral much longer than my one hour bilateral with President Xi Jinping they had it few weeks later after I visited Beijing PNG knows our place in the past week and the world very well we will not compromise our relations with China just as much as we will not compromise our relations with USA we subscribe whilst we are friends to all enemies to none we also believe that someone else's enemy is not my enemy we maintain good relations with all nations in that context and only time we will think and give a second thought is when our values are on this road and our values are to be compromised if they respect our values we respect their values some things are deeper certain things that are 5,000 years old cannot be changed by one Prime Minister it takes time and process to work through and so for PNG and Australia in the context of where we are we export big into China and the Asian market the next 100 years is almost the Asian century as the last 100 years was the western century more so the European century and so we cannot ignore the fact that market is opening big not just in China but Southeast Asia India, West Asia this market needs to be tapped and for PNG as a nation needing economic sustenance I cannot compromise market unless another market opens big time for me and so right now my market cannot be compromised in dogmas and political world views I remain and maintain my friendship with all nations for China we give them respect they totally respect our security arrangements with USA our security arrangements with Australia and they give us full respect in the context when I went into Beijing they state clear of security conversations they honoured us in the economic space that simply because we were transparent with them we don't play nations against each other we tell them what we all about we relate to them and for PNG word is a bond Malinese society word is born for us writing was introduced later we give you our word we hon our word and so Chinese know our word with them and Australia and the US knows our word with them and as much as our humble and little role is concerned we pray for peace, we work for peace we work for tolerance of diversity the only time we come into the conversation is when human right is abused Prime Minister I have so many questions to ask you but I'm going to narrow it down to two more if you'll forgive me and I'll be really quick first the Australian PNG economic partnership clearly part of that envisages access to the Australian labour market there is the Australian Pacific engagement visa particularly young Papua New Canadians were to come to Australia for skills training entry into the labour market what is it that you would want us to provide them so that when they come back to PNG they can make a significant contribution to your economic development Julie thank you for raising this we had a good conversation with Prime Minister Alvinesi Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles in the office much of the conversation also centres in progressing the CISA signed with the Liberal Government as well as the bilateral agreement I am happy Australia is now opening up a specific visa pathway for Pacific Islanders to work in Australia that in my view is timely Papua New Guinea by the way is 90% of Pacific by population size by land size and by economy and my brother Pat understands this very well but we don't intend to clutter the space for our smaller brothers and sisters in Pacific they need more employment as much as we need employment please give them the quarter of access to Australia we are your immediate precinct we are your immediate neighbour accessibility when I say we meaning the Pacific and so I advocate for them in all conversations I speak for the entire Pacific Islandation so give them as much accessibility to Australia in as much as possible in the context of PNG it's a two way conversation when we talk about tidying the border security arrangements and the visa requirements we want to elevate our own quality of visa data and visa systems to the level you have with New Zealand so that easy access by Australians to PNG and PNG to Australia can take place Australia remains the biggest place of PNG visits as well as PNG remains the biggest place of Australian visit especially by investors so the free floor of moving in and out of Australia PNG must be reached at the very earliest we intend to make that pronouncement better as part of our 50th anniversary announcements but deep inside coming back to your issue on people coming to work and study here under the auspices of the seasonal work program we don't want just to be stopped at a level we want them to also be placed into specifically targeted training in vocational and TAFE and technical schools here as well as high education learning also here if they could also move on into study gain additional skills and if you need them here you can pick them up otherwise they can get engaged in SME and other needs we have I don't know what you see but when I look into the future I see your population stagnant at around 30 million I see my population catching up with you and so in that context but you have a very A plus economy you need blue colour workmen and women to support your economy Papua New Guinea speaks your English Papua New Guinea has the same world view as you have in respect to democracy and Christianity and others we can fill in the gap as far as your labour gap is concerned and we're just speaking deeply into how we could fill in the space not just in trade and skill also in defence and other work opportunities in Australia so that conversation is turning up very well I keep on reminding Australia that you better us so if you need help and that goes to supplying you also with additional workforce but not just quick on-the-job seasonal workforce arrangements but more importantly training our citizens to be skilled to work here as well as work back in our economy, our country Now Prime Minister you know and Minister Conroy knows that we cannot have a conversation with the P&G leader without raising sport and I recall my first visit to Papua New Guinea when I was in opposition and we arrived in the morning and everyone and I mean literally not figuratively, literally everyone at the airport was wearing a maroon jersey, Guernsey what do we get? Jersey okay they're wearing a maroon from the little ones I think I saw one or two blue ones and I said I think it was Fixie I think you were there at the time the High Commissioner now was in P&G and I said why is everybody wearing a maroon jersey and they said oh it's State of Origin last night like duh, State of Origin now you have a magnificent team, the P&G hunters currently playing in the Queensland Rugby League comp how important is it to P&G for the hunters to be in the national competition here because the one unifying force in P&G amongst all others is sport so how's it going how's it looking, 2026 what do you think? yeah without stealing the thunder from Pat Conroy oh I just did did I? I just want to say it's our national unity strategy it's not just sport for us the other beats for NRL will come from a sports and commerce business perspective for us has a deep intrinsic national community perspective in a land of many divides including ethnicity, tribe, language and politics one thing that can unite is sport and Rugby League is the common sports we have in P&G right now although we have other sports Rugby Union, Aussie rules basketball and every other sport but Rugby League is a dominant sport and so having a team in national rugby league competition for us will force to unite a nation that is so diverse and so in the strategy our beat is more serious it is a compelling case but we will not override the natural process of the beat it has to have a business case and the business case has been worked upon so that it sustains on its own marriage without using politics and government as a conduit to have access to a team so we're doing what we can to ensure that the beat is sustainable and beat is competitive in the face of other beats but again it's a national unity strategy if Nelson Mandela could have used the invincibles and look last year they won in as many years the fourth World Cup in a nation of many contests and many once Rugby Union continues to anchor South Africa for us in a land of the most diverse nation we thought Rugby League can unite a nation so it's a good good intention at the end of this one Prime Minister what it's worth I'm backing the hunters it might be another name you might be pleasantly surprised we might give a name that is to attract Australian support as well so I'm just letting my mind is racing we have rich history that runs from 1906 all the way right up until today so there's big moments in which we were together and we'll pick one of the names that is I said with one of the big moments I love where your mind is going ladies and gentlemen we have been privileged this evening to hear from the very eloquent leader of Papu New Guinea a very dear friend to many of us here we are absolutely delighted that with your distinguished delegation you chose to visit ANU to address us you spoke of the many challenges, the many opportunities the shared history and you are quite a student of the Australian Papu New Guinea in history but optimistically you spoke of a future for Papu New Guinea as a natural leader in the region as a strong and dynamic nation that can provide opportunities for the many magnificent people who are citizens of your great country Australia is your very best friend there is so much warmth and love and affection between Australians and Papu New Guineans maybe we take each other for granted from time to time and I just hope that generations who weren't around in 1975 or 1945 I hope that they understand the breadth of this truly unique and very special relationship and Prime Minister you are an exemplar for us all in the way you articulate this very special relationship we thank you for your time here and we wish you and Madam Marape and your delegation a very safe journey home but don't go too soon we would like you to join us for drinks outside and let's hope everybody gets an opportunity to meet the Prime Minister and just one last point on the book Genevieve found our old visitors book that A&U introduced back in the 1950s and there are some amazing names in there and it got lost in 1984 Bob Hawkes is the last signature in the book and so now Prime Minister Marape has reignited that visitors book and has signed it so graciously so please thank Prime Minister James Marape