Opening remarks – Parliament House, Canberra
HENRY PUNA, SECRETARY-GENERAL TO THE PACIFIC ISLANDS FORUM: Prime Minister, good morning.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Welcome to Canberra.
SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you. Brought the sunshine.
PRIME MINISTER: You have. It was very miserable yesterday.
SECRETARY-GENERAL: It was more miserable last weekend when our Blues team didn’t do too well.
PRIME MINISTER: Indeed, these things happen. Can I very much welcome you here to Parliament House and to Canberra and to our nation. Can I thank you for the work that you’ve done with the Pacific Islands Forum. But previously, of course, with your leadership in the region with the Cook Islands and your long term commitment to the Pacific family. We very much value our participation in the Pacific Islands Forum. We endorsed, of course, very strongly at the last leadership group meeting in Fiji the 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific. We believe that climate action is an absolute priority for the world, but has very specific and harsh consequences for our region and for the Pacific family. We are very pleased that the Pacific Islands Forum has come together again with all of its members now participating fully. And that’s a credit to your leadership, and is something that we have been very strong on. We have challenges in the region of dealing with climate, dealing with economic opportunities, dealing with security issues in the region, as well. But we want to see a peaceful, secure and prosperous region. And the Pacific Islands Forum is unique in that we all now have a little leadership group as well, exchanging text messages with each other so that we can communicate, all of the leaders throughout the Forum. I’m very much looking forward to attending the leaders meeting in the Cook Islands in a few months’ time as well, and to continue to work to strengthen the Pacific Islands Forum. As you know, our Foreign Minister, Penny Wong has visited every single nation in the Forum, which is quite remarkable in the first year of our Government. But that says a lot about what our priorities are. And so you’re very welcome guest here today.
SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you very much, Prime Minister Albanese. I’m so pleased to be in Canberra today with my delegation. And we were received with the warmest of welcomes by the First Nations people with the smoking ceremony this morning, really and thoroughly enjoyed it, and just very meaningful. Can I also congratulate Australia for recognising the importance of the First Nations people. I note in all your acknowledgements of major events or any gathering, the first acknowledgement is always to the traditional custodians of the lands – that’s wonderful, Prime Minister. You know, we think of ourselves in the Forum as family. And Australia, of course, is a leading member of that family. A member that we look to for guidance, for support, and for advice. And it’s nice to know that when we have issues, that we can sit together and talk. And through talking we can resolve anything. And I’m a firm believer in that. Yes, it’s wonderful to have the family complete now with the return of Kiribati. And I think for me, it gives integrity to our message, particularly with the 2050 Strategy for a Blue Pacific Continent, because it is premised on the unity of the Forum family. So proud to see the family now complete. And we look forward to the implementation plan, work that our Secretariat is undertaking with excellent support from our members and our development partners. So it has worked. And we’re confident we can put together and have it ready for presentation to you and the leaders in Rarotonga in early November. Yes, there’s a lot of challenges facing our region – economic recovery, particularly for small island states from the economic damages of the lockdown from COVID, climate change, of course, always is still a threat, security issues. All these pressing challenges are very important that we navigate and confront them and resolve them together as family. And I firmly believe that, you know, we can overcome any challenges just by sitting down together and talking through them. So we welcome this opportunity to be in Canberra to meet you. We just met with Minister Wong and Minister Conroy. And we look forward to meeting with your senior officials for the rest of the day to talk through some very important priorities for all of us. Prime Minister, thank you for the very warm welcome. I wish our Blues team all the best for the second game.