 have everyone's attention and we'll start the official proceedings. My name's Amanda Rishworth and I'm Chair of the Pacific Australian Friendship Group but also the Secretary of the Australian P&G Friendship Group and it's my honour to be able to introduce our speaker tonight. First I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate Richard Males, the Honourable Richard Males on this initiative. I think it is a very special event that we have tonight and I think the huge amount of people here does show that the relationship between P&G and Australia is very strong. I have to say I wasn't as young as Richard when I had my first experience travelling to P&G. I recently went a couple of years ago on a delegation and apart from realising just how geographically close Australian P&G were, in fact when I was on the P&G border in the western province I could get Telstra coverage which was of course very interesting to show just how close we were but we did meet with a lot of people and a lot of politicians and I think there is a strong, it really illustrated to me the very very strong relationship. However I have to say that I learnt a couple of lessons when I was there as well and I think any time for us Australian politicians when we're sort of talking about how hard it is to communicate with our electors have some sympathy for some of the P&G members of parliament. One of the members we met with indicated that he had to drive and then get on a boat and then get on a bicycle and then have to walk so that he could connect with his electors. So on days when it feels difficult for us in Australia I think it is important to think about our colleagues, our parliamentary colleagues in P&G. But I am very pleased and honoured to have this opportunity to introduce our speaker for the first Papua New Guinea Independence Day oration delivered by a statesman of the huge standing of Sir Robbie. Such an important figure in Papua New Guinea's recent history. Sir Robbie was part of the Papua New Guinea's delegation to the United Nations in 1975 that saw Papua New Guinea's membership as an independent nation. He was Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea from 1988 to 1992. Also serving as Minister for Foreign Affairs, Primary Industries, Petroleum and Energy and Minister for the Treasury at various points in his political career. From 1994 to 1997 he was Speaker of the Papua New Guinea National Parliament. In the education sphere he was the first Papua New Guinea graduated to be appointed to the University of Papua New Guinea's academic staff in 1973. And from 2007 to 2011 he was Chancellor of the Papua New Guinea University of Natural Resources and Environment. Sir Robbie you certainly have not slowed down in recent years and you are currently serving as a non-executive director of the Nurengo and Mining Limited and Bogenville Copper Limited, non-executive director and Chair of Cramer Onesco and also Chair of the Board of Directors of Keener Management Limited and the Chair of the Papua New Guinea Advisory Board of Inter-Oil. Sir Robbie we are very delighted and pleased that you could take the time out of your busy schedule to join us here today. We are very eager to hear from you tonight and I'd like to invite you now to take the floor. Thank you once again for addressing us tonight. Mr. Speaker, the Parliamentary Secretary for Islands Affairs, Hon. Richard Miles, Hon. Amanda Richworth, Chair of Parliamentary Friends of the Pacific and Secretary of Parliamentary Friends of P&G, High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea to Australia, Your Excellency Charles Lepani and your colleagues, Excellencies, the High Commissioners of New Zealand, Samo, Thelma Islands and I believe Thelma as well. The Shadow Ministers, Shadow Ministers for Affairs, Julie Bishop, Chief Whip, Joel Wieskeben, Hon. Members of the House, Hon. Senators, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Firstly, let me thank the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Islands Affairs, Hon. Richard Miles for the very real commitment and we've heard a bit of it being said tonight by him to strengthen relations between our two countries and boarded in his initiative to arrange this occasion tonight. I'm indeed honoured to accept his kind invitation to deliver this first oration in what I am sure is the shared hope that it will not only be the first in an ongoing series of similar public discussions of relations between Australia and Papua New Guinea, but part of a much wider joint effort to strengthen relations between our two nations. Australia and Papua New Guinea already engage in diverse official consultations and exchanges within the framework of the joint declaration of principles, guiding relations between our two countries and other bilateral and regional arrangements. Members of the Joint Business Council hold annual forums to enhance cooperation on the mutual interests between businesses in Papua New Guinea and Australia. So does the Chamber of Mines and Petroleum. A variety of church bodies, sporting associations and other non-governmental organisations work very closely together. But even so, it seems fair to say that the mutual importance and benefits of relations between our two countries sometimes creep below the horizon, usually not deliberately, but because they're taken for granted. Let me therefore express the very strong hope that the present occasion contributes to the Australian P&G relationship and ongoing dialogue and above all to the broadening, deepening and diversifying of the relationship to which like-minded people in both countries are firmly committed. But let me say now, at the very beginning, that despite the meetings and our exchanges already mentioned, one of the aspects of our wide-ranging bilateral relationship that gives rise to concern is the shortage of genuine two-way dialogue on the relationship between our countries and our peoples. It needs to be enhanced, and not just at the political or government-to-government levels. This event can contribute to a broader and more informed debate, a number of academic bodies and think tanks such as the ANU and the Lowy Institute, and various academic associations are contributing positively to an informed dialogue, but more needs to be done. Tonight I want to make some brief observations on the history of our relationship over the last 36 years since Papua New Guinea became independent. Then I want to focus on some ideas I have for strengthening and broadening the links between our two countries and peoples into the future. I would broadly describe the Papua New Guinea-Australia relationship over 36 years as remarkably sound, consistent and harmonious. There have been differences, occasionally substantial ones, but over the years, and regardless of the political complexions of successive governments in both countries, the bilateral relationship has remained remarkably steady. I speak as one who set a privilege to be very directly involved in the maintenance and development of the relationship for close to 12 of those 36 years as part of my responsibilities as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister. At other times, I have served as Speaker of the Parliament, and in other senior ministerial offices where dialogue with Australian counterparts was a regular occurrence. I also speak from an entirely different perspective, acquired over the last four years since I left public office. My current perspective as Chairman and Director of a number of publicly listed and private companies with strong Australian connections, including equity and management. I have always argued that a unique relationship such as that between our two countries with a shared colonial history, and many common interests as very close neighbors and friends, needs to be kept relevant and contemporary. It must be constantly refreshed and updated the circumstances in our two countries, relations between us and the wider regional and global environment change. In my time as Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister, I was always going to look out for ways to add new dimensions to the relationship. I should therefore like to take the opportunity to highlight two aspects of which I am immensely proud. Soon after I was elected Prime Minister in 1988, I was able to negotiate a very special scholarship scheme with my then Australian counterpart, the Honourable Bob Hawke. The scheme enabled about a thousand of our high school students each year to complete their high school education in Australia at both government and private schools. I know that the administration of the scheme is costly and time consuming, but the benefits more than outweigh the resources required for implementation. I was accordingly disappointed when one of my successes negotiated to end the scheme, ostensibly to be replaced by a scheme to fund the upgrading of our national high schools. It is now more than a decade since the original scheme was abandoned. I remain unconvinced that it's replacement that's achieved anywhere near as much, either in providing additional scarce, much needed resources for our national high schools or in enriching the lives of students. The great benefit of sending Papua New Guinea students to school in Australia was more than just providing them with access to good education. It strengthened people-to-people relations between our two countries. In doing so, it broadened the students' understanding of Australia, your culture, your history, and your lifestyle. The second achievement I want to mention is the focus my government, working with the then Australian government, gave to the heroism sacrifice of young soldiers operating alongside their Papua New Guinean counterparts and with the support of carriers and other villagers along the Kokoda Trail during World War II, and we've heard Richard Miles refer to that just a little while ago. In 1992, the 50th anniversary of the momentous battles along the track, and elsewhere in Papua New Guinea, the then Prime Minister, the Honourable Paul Keating, visited Port Mosby to take part in the UNZAC ceremonies. He and I also visited Kokoda and agreed on a program to support the villagers along the track and to work together to enhance the track's accessibility to Australian walkers and tourists. We also agreed to encourage the descendants of the Australians who served in the Papua New Guinea Theatre, and particularly the descendants of those who paid the supreme sacrifice to visit Papua New Guinea and the carefully maintained Commonwealth War cemeteries and other places of interest and significance. The program has not just given a greater focus in the Australian community to the sacrifice and enormous difficulties experienced by the Australian servicemen, and the brave Papua New Guinean carriers, affectionately known as the Fasi Wazi Angels, and villagers who supported them so magnificently. It has had a similar impact in Papua New Guinea. I believe the wartime experiences of which the Kokoda campaign is just one face at are a vital and enduring part of our relationship that needs to be enhanced even further. I'm proud of the historic steps our two governments took 19 years ago. It has been built on by our successes, but more needs to be done. The joint declaration of principles guiding relations between our two countries contains a clear commitment to promote knowledge and understanding of the other country. Clearly, many more challenges remain. Having referred to briefly to what I regard as two significant achievements in which I'm proud to have played a part, I should now like to make just a few more comments on aspects of the relationship that have particular current political relevance, both in Papua New Guinea and in Australia. As I look back over Papua New Guinea's experience since independence, I'm surprised that issues which have not only become part of history, but seem to reappear frequently, albeit in different forms. One that stands out is the vexed question of landowner rights and involvement when major resource sector projects are being developed. I was Prime Minister when the rebellion occurred on Bogenville, which led to the closure of the Bogenville Copper Mine. It was the most difficult and the saddest time in my public career. Time does not permit me to go into all the relevant issues, the government's responses, and the current situation. I've done that on other occasions. But what I do want to say is that one of the lessons my government learned from that experience and turned to the substantial advantage of the nation is as relevant today as it was then, more than 20 years ago. As a direct result of what happened in Bogenville, my government introduced a comprehensive development forum process for all major resource projects, a process that has largely been followed by all of my successes. The process was designed to ensure that landowner groups, local level government leaders, and provincial governments are fully involved in the negotiation and approval of all major resource projects from the very outset, and at all stages of the process. It sets out clearly the equity to which landowners are entitled, carried by the state, as well as direct and indirect benefits, including a future generations fund in which they will share. Multimedia standing the enormous damage caused by the closure of Bogenville Copper Mine, my government was able to successfully negotiate a number of major projects in the two or three years after the crisis began. This included the Pogra Gold Mine, the first oil project up at Kudaboo, and the initial stages of the Hyde's Guest Project. We began the negotiations that led to the Leahy Gold Mine. The development forum process unquestionably enabled us to deliver more projects in two to three years than any other government had ever done. Given the historical context, that was an exceptional achievement, driven very substantially by a process that genuinely involved all stakeholders. Some of the commentary about landowner issues in Papua New Guinea gives the impression they're unique. They are common, not only in developing countries, but even here I get in Australia. I know for example that there are major landowner issues, such as access, rights, and royalties in your developing coal seam gas, in the energy sector. There are of course landowner issues in Papua New Guinea today when it comes to developing our resources. It is how we manage these issues that is the key. And drawing on my own experience in office in a very difficult period, it is a matter of getting a balance right. That was the case 20 years ago, following the Bougainville crisis. It is most certainly the case today. The second example I want to mention very briefly concerns our raid arrangements. My government proudly oversaw the ending of direct budget support, untied aid in those days, which had largely underpinned our budgets from 1975 until the end of the 1990s. I believe we got the timing of shift from budget support to program aid of our right. But I also believe that both countries could have done better in determining the nature and structure of succeeding aid arrangements. I believe the fundamental test of any bilateral aid arrangement is whether it enhances the bilateral relationship and is probably supported in the communities of both the donor and recipient country. I'm not sure that key aspects of our aid arrangement over the last two decades or so fully passed that test. And that is where I urge our two governments to focus attention. Far too much of your generous aid ends up being boomerang aid. Aid funds that are spent here in Australia, not in Papua New Guinea. I know there have been substantial changes in the last couple of years in order to begin rectifying the situation, including reducing the proportion of funds allocated for foreign consulances. However, the problem or at least the perception remains. There is also a view that some of the aid money is wasted because it is spent on projects that are not sustainable. Again, changes have been made, but more needs to be done. Let me be clear, the shortcomings in aid programs and delivery are problems for Papua New Guinea and Australia both to address. The experience of the last 20 years should encourage both governments to look at aid programs that can be more clearly targeted and focused. This means shifting the emphasis to jointly funded projects with a national impact, such as the rebuilding of our regional hospitals, roads and ports that are vital to social development and economic growth. And in the present circumstances, especially resource development. This brings me to the main points I want to make tonight. As I've already said, the success and effectiveness of our unique relationship and partnership depends on it being relevant and more and not being taken for granted by either country. There is always a danger, as the years roll on, that a relationship that is seemingly in good shape with a few hiccups can be taken for granted. There have been times over the last 36 years when that has happened. Not long periods, but there have been short periods of neglect on one of both sides. I would like to see the relationship focused on Papua New Guinea's current future real needs and on capacity of the Australian government and the community to help us meet those needs in a unique way given your experience and success in specific areas. Of all the mistakes we have made since independence and mistakes there have been many. As the Prime Minister, the Honourable Peter O'Neill has recently stated, in his independence they addressed the nation, I doubt if any is greater than our failure to develop and maintain technical or trade and vocational training programs that would ensure that our people have the skills required to meet the massive labour demands of the resource and infrastructure development that is currently underway. That includes obviously the ExxonMobil led LNG project. We are playing catch up and not doing so adequately. Because of the massive shortcomings in these areas, the current Prime Minister, when he was still treasurer last year, provided funds to enable school leavers to study at TAFE colleges in Kansas and Townsville beginning this year. This is a Papua New Guinea government program. There is no counterpart funding from Australia. It means that there are now around 100 of our young men and women doing TAFE studies in North Queensland, where they have been warmly welcome and where their presence already helped to strengthen goodwill between our two nations. I would like to see not just the federal government, but the state governments and your private sector work in harmony with our government and our private sector to undertake a massive skilling and training program, so that the maximum number of young Papua New Guineans can participate fully in resource and infrastructure development. And I say that knowing that we are losing more and more of our tradespeople, skilled people, not to anywhere else but to Australia, to your mining and petroleum sector, and thereby depleting our own capacity to have skill trades in our country. The program needs to be based both here in Australia and in Papua New Guinea. It needs to include an active component of trading trainers, so we can have long term teachers and trainers who can help young Papua New Guineans make their careers in many different skill, semi skill, and even largely on skill pursuits. The best way we can ensure the harmonious development of our resource sector is to maximize the workforce participation of our people. That cannot happen while our training capacity is weak. I welcome and applaud the announcement's Prime Minister Gillard made at the recent Civic Islands Forum with regard to training in the South Pacific. The further funding promised for the Australia Pacific Technical Colleges, one of which is operating successfully in Papua New Guinea will help with the skilling that we and other island Pacific countries need. The Prime Minister announced out of support along with New Zealand that will assist with trading. These are important and very timely measures. The APTC colleges were the Howard government's response to our seasonal worker proposals, even though there was some initial opposition to them. The managers of the colleges appointed by the Australian government have worked hard to ensure they're effective and well run. The Port Moresby APTC College is highly regarded by our business community. The future funding the Australian Prime Minister announced will be welcomed by our private sector, which needs skill and semi skill workers in a wide range of industry and business areas. The second area I hope Australia can consider or revisit in conjunction with Papua New Guinea is the one I've already referred to. I believe the high school scholarships program was cut short too early and without ensuring there was an adequate replacement in place within our own education system. I would hope that the original scheme can be reintroduced on a reduced scale, perhaps focusing on the new high school trade of occasional colleges that I know been successfully developed in Australia. But if it is reintroduced, it should be jointly funded and managed by Australian Papua New Guinea and the private sector should be encouraged to participate as well. One form of assistance to private sector might usefully provide would be to ensure that Papua New Guinea employees offered scholarships to study or train in Australia are given leave to do so and not required to resign from the positions they hold when offered a chance to learn more overseas. And I say this although it is obvious as we heard earlier that the Australian government has increased the number of scholarships provided at the tertiary level, university level in this country. The third area in terms of training should be given priority is the seasonal workers scheme for workers from Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries. When foreign minister a few years ago I raised with my then counterparts in New Zealand Australia the proposal to develop a seasonal worker scheme which would allow workers from Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries to undertake manual work such as food picking for short periods. New Zealand successfully introduced such a scheme some years ago but its introduction Australia has been at best a slow and hard was exercise. It took until the middle of this year for the first Papua New Guineans to arrive in Australia around the scheme and so far less than a dozen have done so. The scheme is obvious mutual benefits. We have workers willing and able to participate and then return to our country where their experience and the income they've earned will be valuable in improving the living standards back in their own communities. As has been the experience in other countries in our region such as one or two. I would like to see the scheme expanded and perhaps focus on helping to develop the skills of our workforce in areas such as tourism and hospitality. We workplace shortages in tourist areas are identified here. Papua New Guineans should be allowed to seek work along with backpackers from other countries. The scare campaigns about seasonal worker scheme have been wholly misdirected in the informed my view. Papua New Guineans have an excellent record when it comes to obeying your reason related laws. A record at least as good as any other countries. The scheme is the support of key producer groups in unions in the agricultural sector as well as regional mayors and communities. I hope it can be expanded as part of our future bilateral relationship as well as within the civic forum framework of regional cooperation. I would hope that we can also make university education a key part of our future engagement. Professor Ross Gano and I were commissioned by the Australian Papua New Guinea governments by two prime ministers at that time Kevin Rudd and so Michael Somare to review the state of Papua New Guinea state universities. The report has not yet been made public. However I can say that the overall state of tertiary education in Papua New Guinea is of profound and growing concern. Here too are opportunities for exchange and cooperation well beyond those already in place. Underfunding and other issues of combined to drive down standards in many not all areas of tertiary education. Let me put it bluntly. We need help. We need it both to redevelop campuses and to rebuild standards of academic teaching and research. Speaking as a former academic and university chancellor myself I believe that an option well worth exploring would be an exchange scheme which not only provides additional experienced Australian academic expertise for universities in Papua New Guinea but enables young and mid-career Papua New Guinea academics to work abroad for a time both teaching and conducting research in Australian universities, CSIRO and other Australian institutions with relevant interests, expertise and facilities. Finally there's one other area I would like to propose is capable of enhancing our relationship in a modern very relevant way and we've heard again a little bit about this from Richard Maas. Like Australia Papua New Guinea is a sports-slaving nation. We follow your sporting contests intensely especially state of origin and the Melbourne Cup. One of the fine wallabies now in New Zealand taking part in the World Cup, Wilgenia is the son of a former ministerial colleague of mine. Just tonight I got presented with a jersey by the member for Herbert. A jersey which was given to me or is asked specifically to give to me by two Papua New Guineans playing for the Cowboys up in Townsville. James Cigarro and Ray Thompson. That just shows the passion that Papua New Guineans have for sports not just in our own country but also and for a while now here in Australia where obviously they've been given opportunity to to play in your national games. We are following Wilgenia's success obviously with a great deal of pride but when it comes to participation in sports we have leg behind where we once were and where we need to be. I would like to see the government and private sector in both of our countries work together to help our government and our communities rebuild sporting infrastructure and opportunities for participation in schools as well as villages and communities across Papua New Guinea. The AFL, the NRL and the Prime Minister's 13 which will obviously be going up to Papua New Guinea in a week or two weeks time to play our own Prime Minister's 13 and so got Thoris in Australia and worldwide are helping develop our national teams and are starting to make an impact in schools. Much more can be done but we do not have the internal capacity to do it on our own. Sport at local and national levels is not only healthy it helps build community harmony and national pride and in doing so enhances national unity especially in a country like Papua New Guinea which is so diverse ethnically geographically, tribally. It is an extremely important instrument for bringing the nation together. It needs to be given greater priority. So let me summarize very briefly speaking generally the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea continues to be in good shape but it needs constant attention, review and updating and where appropriate and agreed revision. It needs to remain contemporary and relevant to both countries national interests. That means at the government level in business and among the community there needs to be greater dialogue and more informed debate on key issues in Papua New Guinea today. This needs to be accompanied by greater media coverage of events in Papua New Guinea. Only a few Australian media organizations, fewer than during the lead-up to and the early aftermath of independence have reporters and analysts in Papua New Guinea and the posting of Papua New Guineans to report on Australia is almost non-existent. It is I believe time to encourage major news gathering organizations to exchange personnel so that the media report more on our two countries and help to promote greater mutual knowledge and understanding. Schools and universities in both countries need to be encouraged and supported to promote knowledge and understanding of our two countries close to a graphical location. Shared history and common interests as well as the distinctive richness of our diverse historical and cultural heritage and natural environments and I was great to listen to Mr. Wiltonite talking about our own trip to Papua New Guinea and she's right. Daru is just across the straight, it's not far from the Australian border and yet how much do we know about each other? Certainly our people, the Kiwai people are the same people that are on your side of the border. They're the same people, they speak the same language, the same culture, the same traditions and yet there seems to be a barrier in between that somehow keep that distance between us. I hope that with schools and universities being encouraged to promote knowledge and understanding of our two countries that this will help to enhance that better understanding of each other, of where we sit in in relation to each other and things that we share which we don't always talk about there often. Quite a number of Australians lived and worked in Papua New Guinea before and during the transition to independence. They included young people who went on to distinguish careers in academia, the public service, human politics in this very house where we are this evening and international organizations in which their previous experience in Papua New Guinea was a rich resource. I am pleased to count a number of them as colleagues in diverse activities and as good friends, both personally and of Papua New Guinea. More recently, some hundreds of young and fit Australians, both military and civilian personnel, women and men, made a vital contribution to Papua New Guinea's well-being working alongside New Zealanders and other Pacific Islanders as members of the truce and peace monitoring groups and transmission team which supported a peace process in Bougainville. In doing so, they did much to strengthen people-to-people relations between our two countries. So to make messages I want to leave with you are we need more interaction and friendship between our two nations. We need wider coverage, media coverage of events, good and bad, communications and knowledge of one another's countries. Papua New Australia, Papua New Guinea and Australia are immediate neighbors. With all that implies, both for the need for mutual understanding and managing occasional problems and our common border and in securing shared interests on wider regional global stages. The best way for Australia to help ensure stable and harmonious Papua New Guinea is to help us ensure that our young people can participate fully in the resource boom period and accompanying infrastructure and services growth. We are entering. It is a great and pressing challenge, but it is one we simply must confront and overcome. For this to occur, we must work together to improve mutual knowledge and understanding, strengthening and diversifying people-to- people links provides an important key. Thank you very much indeed for the honor of inviting me to deliver this first independence oration and the opportunity that's provided both review and to make a plea for enhancing relations between our two countries. A project to which I'm sure the Honorable Richard Miles and many of you present here tonight are firmly committed and in which we seek to encourage many more people in both of our countries. I thank you very much. Speaker Harry Jenkins, their excellencies, the High Commissioner of Papua New Guinea and New Zealand, distinguished guests, members and senators. I thank Richard Miles for organizing this evening and Sir Abhi, we have been honored by your presence here this evening. Given your distinguished background as a statesman in Papua New Guinea as a minister, the Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament in Papua New Guinea and your ongoing commitment to the Papua New Guinea community, we could not have had a more appropriate speaker for this inaugural Independence Day oration.