Australia and PNG must join fight to ‘defend democracy’, says Anthony Albanese

Anthony Albanese will make the call as he becomes the first Australian PM to address our nearest neighbour’s parliament.

Anthony Albanese is flanked by Queensland Labor’s Brittney Lauga, Stephen Miles, Barry O’Rourke and Murray Watt in Rockhampton on Wednesday. Picture: Annette Dew / NCA Newswire

Anthony Albanese will call on Papua New Guinea’s politicians and colleagues at home to “defend democracy” and make the 2020s a “decisive decade for peace”, as he becomes the first Australian prime minister to address our nearest neighbour’s parliament.

In the historic speech, which will be at the centre of the Prime Minister’s two-day trip to PNG that begins on Thursday, he will also pledge to deepen defence ties through a “swift conclusion” to negotiations on the new bilateral security treaty and talk up the relationship between “equals”.

“There have been rough seas and tough times. But our friendship has held true,” Mr Albanese will say on Thursday, in an unprecedented address to PNG’s parliament. “Now, on the horizon, a world of opportunity awaits us. Because Australia and Papua New Guinea are bound not just by a shared past and a shared border but by a common determination to shape our own futures. To seize the opportunities of this moment, in this region.

“This can be a decisive decade for peace, prosperity, unity and security in the Indo-Pacific. As two big Pacific Ocean states, Australia and PNG must work as equals with our fellow Pacific states to build a stronger, safer, more secure region.

“All of us have a part to play in realising that vision. And tied in with that, all of us who serve as parliamentarians have a unique opportunity and a particular responsibility to defend the democracy in which we serve.”

With China’s increasing presence in the Pacific a concern for Australia, Mr Albanese will say he wants to help PNG “unlock a new generation of prosperity” in 2023. He will list working with PNG on childhood and vocational education and training, equality for women, health, trade, infrastructure projects and telecommunications, expanding work rights, climate change and sport as priorities for the Albanese government.

The Prime Minister ignored a warning by Beijing’s top diplomat in Canberra of a return of Japanese militarism as a threat to regional security, saying Australia had a “very positive relationship” with Japan. Xiao Qian delivered an extraordinary rebuke of his Japanese counterpart Shingo Yamagami on Tuesday, saying he was not doing his job and invoking the bombing of Darwin in World War II. “Once somebody threatens you, he might threaten you again,” Mr Xiao said at the Chinese embassy on Tuesday.

But Mr Albanese said he had already visited Japan twice since winning the election in May and hosted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Perth “at a very successful visit”. “I look forward to hosting Prime Minister Kishida here in some time in 2023 as part of the Quad leaders meeting,” Mr Albanese said.

“With China, we also want to see an improvement in relations. I believe that the ambassador’s comments were positive and constructive about those issues … I look forward to continuing to build on that constructive dialogue, I want to co-operate with China where we can, we will disagree where we must, but will engage in our national interest.

“No one can argue that the mood in the relationship has not been enhanced substantially since I’ve been Prime Minister. I’ve been busy making sure that that occurs.”

In Port Moresby, Mr Albanese will say he wants two-way trade between Australia and PNG increased this year and private investment ramped up. He will say the new defence treaty will be “based on deep trust” and will build on a “family-first approach” to regional security, which could be used as “an example to others and an investment in the future of our partnership”.

Mr Albanese will say his government backed PNG’s ambition to increase the number of its workers involved in the Pacific Australia labour mobility scheme and that both countries must show leadership and take action to combat climate change. He will also reaffirm his push for a PNG-based NRL team.