Opening remarks – Aus-NZ leaders’ meeting
CHRIS HIPKINS, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: Welcome. It’s great to be able to formally welcome you here to the New Zealand Parliament. My office and I were having a debate about how many times we’ve met in the six months that I’ve been Prime Minister, by my count it’s five. So, two visits to Australia, then the King’s Coronation, then NATO, and then it’s great to be able to welcome you here. I think the trans-Tasman relationship, as I indicated in the House, is in very good shape. I think we’ve made a lot of progress in a short space of time, and I want to thank you and your government for your leadership in that regard. I know that work started under my predecessor, and has continued since I’ve taken over and we’ve really appreciated the progress we’ve been able to make on a number of long standing issues. And we’re excited about the, you know, the anniversary of CER and the potential to, kind of, continue with the economic momentum that we’ve got between the two countries. There are a lot of future opportunities ahead for us, including in areas like climate change where we will continue to work closely together. Our unique relationships in the Pacific, I think they are areas where New Zealand and Australia have a long history of working together, and I hope that we’ll be able to continue to do this as members of the Pacific family, and there of course, I think on a range of areas, a range of issues affecting the Indo-Pacific region, New Zealand and Australia see issues very similarly, and so we will begin to have further discussions around all of those.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Thank you so much, Prime Minister for the very warm welcome that I received here today. It is our fifth meeting, indeed I thought about that on the way over as well, in such a short period of time. And the first person I welcomed as Prime Minister in Australia was Prime Minister Ardern, and then your visit so soon after your appointment as Prime Minister was a very welcome one as well. And since then the five meetings have, I think, helped to cement the nature of our relationship, which is of course, there are no two countries in the world that are closer than Australia and New Zealand. We share so much history, we share so much culture, and we share values that are very important as well, and that’s why our cooperation, particularly in the Pacific region is so important. Our leadership through the Pacific Island Forum has been critical, our action on climate change. I think we can do much more in terms of our economic relationships, in terms of defence and security relationships, but also our people-to-people relations. I was so proud to welcome you to Brisbane for what is a really important reform that will strengthen those people-to-people relations by essentially equalising the relationship, allowing for citizens who’ve been in Australia for a long period of time, making a contribution, will actually get the acknowledgement that they deserve. Prime Minister, more than 10,000 have taken that up in the first few weeks, and of course, there are many more who will as well. And I think the fact that we’re both hosting the Women’s World Cup together shows the importance of that close relationship. And I’m sure that out of today, we’ll be talking about ways to build on the CER that we commemorate this year, and to build on those people-to-people relations. So I thank you for the welcome, I thank you for the friendship between our two nations as well, which has been so strong and will continue to strengthen I think even further in the future.