 I just want to say I was waiting because I was told Channel 9 was not ready. Sorry. No, no, it's fine. I just wanted to make sure your colleagues knew that we were trying to be kind. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone ready? Thank you very much. Look, it's terrific to be here with Tim Watts, the Assistant Foreign Minister for the Indian Ocean Conference, and we're of course here in Perth, Australia's Indian Ocean Capital. This is the first time we've hosted such an important gathering, and it's really fitting we do it here in Perth. Look at the, not only our Indian Ocean Capital, but a city whose people understand very clearly the importance of looking to the Indian Ocean and the countries of that wonderful region. We're joined by no less than 400 delegates from across the region and beyond, and I particularly look forward to welcoming Sri Lanka's President, Wick Rima Singer. We're really very honoured that he is making this visit to Australia. I'm grateful also that 17 Ministers and five Secretaries-General have also made the journey to be here. In particular, my very good friend, India's Minister of External Affairs, Dr Jai Shankar. The Indian Ocean community is diverse, but we share a great deal. We share a vision for a region that is peaceful, stable and prosperous, a community in which agreed rules and norms empower all of us to cooperate, to thrive, to trade. We share a strong interest in climate change and tackling its effects and in ensuring the health of the oceans, the protection of fish stocks, marine safety and an interest, our interest in trade and economic development, and much more. So we share all of these interests and we want to work together on shared solutions. I would make this point to Australians. We talk a lot about the Indo-Pacific and a lot of the time we do look to the Pacific region and we do look north to ASEAN and North Asia. But the Indian Ocean also is essential to Australia's prosperity and our security. And in fact the DSR did list this as one of our primary areas of strategic interest. We want to contribute to the strategic balance of the region. That's the message I am taking into the meetings I'm having today with Ministers that we all have a role in building the region that we want. That is the approach Australia is taking as we work with partners in the Indo-Pacific and beyond. We want a peaceful, stable, prosperous region in which the ability of all countries to chart their own course and make their own choices is preserved and in which rules and norms ensure predictability for all parties. I'm happy to take questions on this first and then on any topics of the day. And if you have anything for Tim, please go ahead. Just somewhat related, the suspended death sentence of Yang Heng-Jong, has there been a fallout and have you spoken to your counterparts here about that issue? I've made extensive comments about that on the day of the sentence. As I said, the Australian government and I think the Australian people were appalled at the outcome. My thoughts are with the family. I made clear that we would be calling in the ambassador to make representations. We will continue to advocate on behalf of Dr Yang. I know that obviously he has further legal rights which he must consider and we will continue to advocate for him. My question to you is the Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean. How much is this a concern for Australia? We have recently seen the Chinese five vessels visiting countries in the region including Sri Lanka and now heading towards Mali as well. Anything Australia would like to say, what's your sense over the developments in the Indian Ocean? Our view is that we want a region that's peaceful and stable and we want to ensure that there is a strategic balance in the region so that no one country can determine outcomes and no one country can constrain the choices that other countries have. So this conference hosted with India is focused on that. How can we better cooperate and work together across what is a very large geographic and diverse region? How can we better work together to preserve and ensure the sort of region that we want? Just to follow up on that, when you said no country should constrain any other country's choices, Sri Lanka has now put its own moratorium on research vehicles coming into its shores. Would you like to see other Indian Ocean islands also put in similar moratoriums? And I did have a question about the court but I can ask that later. Well look, first on that I think those are sovereign choices for those nations and I would hope in making those decisions they could in fact make their own sovereign choices, their own free choice about what they believe is in the stability of the region and of their own stability. That is what we would always seek. I always think it's better to talk about what you're for rather than what you're against. So as I said we're for peace, stability, prosperity and countries being able to make their own decisions and we are for systems of rules and norms that ensure that it isn't power and size alone which determines outcomes. You wanted a Quad question then I'll come to Channel 9. Your meeting with the Minister here, given that election schedules in the US and India seem to be deciding whether the Quad summit can actually take place anytime this year. How hopeful are you and do you think this will derail the Quad process? In the relation to the answer, absolutely not. I think certainly in the very first meeting I attended as Foreign Minister with the Prime Minister was the Quad meeting in Tokyo and in the time that I've had this job I think that what we have seen at leader level and in the Foreign Minister's track the Quad engage even more strongly and work together more closely and it is a critical but not the only part of the sort of strategic balance that I'm describing which is essential for the type of region we want. It's all about strategic balance and the sort of region we want. Channel 9. Are you nine? I'm on the west side. Oh I'm so sorry you're standing together so I apologise. Okay the west. Now I'm going to get in trouble because I'm in Perth and I... As you spoke into delegates and kind of parts today has there been any feedback on the voice? Has that hurt our reputation and credibility the defeat of the referendum? Look we still speak about the importance of our First Nations heritage. We still articulate that as part of who we are. I mean I've said before that how you present, how you engage with the world, your national power starts with who you are in all of its diversity. So whether it's our First Nations heritage or our diversity that we have one in two Australians, other born overseas or have a parent born overseas that is a part of our national power because it gives us common ground with so many of the world's people. But I would say to you, if you speak to Prime Minister Marape yesterday or the day before about the visit, the welcome to country he had and how moved he was as someone of his heritage by that welcome, you will see the power of that part of our story as we engage with the world. And we'll continue to do that and I think the lunch today has a very strong focus on First Nations. Minister, can I ask you about Australia's Indian Ocean Territories? Obviously the fence has been building up some of the runways and some of those territories and locals have expressed a little accreditation about what they see or some of them see as the militarisation of those Australian territories. What's the government, to the extent that you can talk publicly about, a kind of two in places like Kokos? What sort of contingencies is the government preparing for? And how does it fit into our borders? Wow, there's a lot of questions there, Stephen, and I'm probably not going to respond to all of them, but I would say Australia's presence, whether it's in Kokos and Keeling or whether it's in the Pacific more broadly, we always seek presence in order to reinforce stability. So we are not a country, we were geographically large, but we're not a great power. We're not a country that seeks to dominate or a country that seeks to work with others to preserve stability. And so whether it's in the Indian Ocean Territories in Southeast Asia or in the Pacific, that's the approach we take and that's the approach we take here. There's an Indian delegation here and we've got a few Indian expats here in Perth that are looking to develop space ports in Pesperance, Albany and Christmas Island. I wonder if you can give a sense of just how genuine Australia and India's interest is from your perspective in funding and supporting these projects? I can't speak to the specific projects at this point, but what I'd say to you is we've had, I think it's 20 visits or 15 visits since May 2022 between Australia and India. We've had, obviously Prime Minister Modi, we've had Prime Minister Albanese go to India. I've been there. Many of my ministerial colleagues have been there. This is such a big relationship for Australia and it's a relationship which covers a wide range of engagement from the quad to the people to people. Our fastest growing diaspora is the Indian diaspora as well as investment such as you describe it. What I would say is we see India's importance to Australia economically, strategically and in terms of people-to-people links will only grow. Minister, just on unrightful mind, you said yesterday that you asked Israel for further evidence. Can you give us a sense of how do we initial response since Australia made that request with their willing to provide more information? Not as yet to my knowledge, but I would make the point about unrightful. There are two irrefutable facts in relation to unrightful. The first is it's critical. It's the only organisation that has the infrastructure and personnel to provide assistance into a region which is experiencing a devastating humanitarian crisis in the midst of this conflict. The second is that serious allegations have been made and I note that unright itself when these allegations were made public describe them as serious allegations against other staff and itself said that they would be terminating contracts and launching an investigation. Now, we obviously have previously increased our funding for UNRWA and we are keen to work with both the organisation and with Japan and other like-minded organisations who have paused funding to work out how we can gain the confidence to restore funding and we'll continue to do that work. A special councillor of all came out describing Joe Biden as well meaning but forget the old man, he had another stumble today. Are you concerned that this may both leave the way to Trump's return, especially what you mentioned about the North-based order and climate change to tear that up and believe in climate change? Well, I'll make a few comments. First, we have had excellent engagements with President Biden both bilaterally and in the Quad and he is a great friend of Australia and we work very closely with him at leader level and with his administration. In relation to the second, you know, the domestic politics of the United States is a matter for them. I make the point that this is an alliance which has become stronger through many changes of administration and many changes of Australian governments and it will continue to be so. Anything more? One more question. You talked about India-Australia relationship, pretty strong relationship, but there are certain elements, the irritating element which is the Khalistan extremists indulging in violence, they were attacked on Hindu temples as well. Any update as to the actions taken by the Australian government over these developments? Well, I think we've been very clear. Australia is a democracy. First, obviously we recognise India's sovereignty. I think that's self-evident. Secondly, Australia is a democracy. We believe that people do have a right to peaceful protest. We do not support, we do not condone and we don't countenance people engaging in protest which is violent and appropriate law enforcement arrangements are made or appropriate law enforcement actions are taken in respect of the latter. Thank you all very much.