Doorstop, Lae City, Papua New Guinea

SUBJECTS: 50th Anniversary of Papua New Guinea's Independence; Australia-Papua New Guinea Relationship.

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: It is my enormous honour and pleasure to be here with my good friend John Rosso, the Deputy Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. I've had this date in my diary for the last five years. I've been so excited to be here for the 50th anniversary of PNG independence, and I really want to thank John for inviting me specifically to Lae because if there is a person that I would want to have spent this day with, it's John Rosso. John is my counterpart as the Deputy Prime Minister. The two of us have worked so closely together over more than three years now, I think we've done a lot in terms of the relationship between our two nations over that period of time. And it is such an honour for me to have been able to spend this incredible day beside John Rosso. It is an enormously significant moment. This is the one really big milestone in the journey of a nation, which happens within a span of a single life. And so there are people here today who were here on that very day, back on the 16th of September, 1975. And in that sense, the progress and the journey of this nation lies within the memory of living people. And we can look at how far PNG has come in that period of time, and the journey of Papua New Guinea over the last 50 years has been genuinely remarkable. This is resolutely a democracy over successive governments, over eight prime ministers. This is a place where freedom of speech is celebrated. This is a country which is proudly independent and our relationship today is so different to what it was 50 years ago. Then, as it may have been parent and child, today ours is a relationship which is based on economic opportunity and economic cooperation on mutual strategic reassurance. Today, we are two equal partners, the best of friends, the closest of family. At a personal level this couldn't have been a better day walking around the stadium amidst all the people. Being submerged in humanity was just a quintessentially Papua New Guinean experience. I just feel so excited to be able to be a part of this day here with John. 

I would like to say that we feel as a nation, Australia, incredibly proud on this day to be gifting to the people of Papua New Guinea a new ministerial wing of the National Parliament. It speaks to our shared democracies and the commitment that both of our countries have to democracy, to the will of the people, and to the rule of law. And I know that our Prime Minister today was very proud to be able to announce that gift, as a gift from Australia to PNG on this very auspicious occasion. Thank you.

JOHN ROSSO, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER OF PNG: Thank you, Richard. I'd like first of all — great, great day. I  reiterate what you said, it’s been a great day for us, and been a great day for me too having Australian Deputy Prime Minister, my good friend, Richard, coming here. We've had a close relationship. We've become very good friends in our own occupation, but the interaction between the both of us for both our nations. And having Richard accept our invitation to come and share our 50th anniversary today, especially in the City of Lae, it's been pretty, pretty magical for us. We truly appreciate your presence here today. Both Australia and Papua New Guinea have shared a long history together, a long relationship. As our Prime Minister quite rightly points out, both countries are joined at the hips and the customs and traditions and everything else, the relationship has strengthened day to day. And it has strengthened a lot, lot more with people like the Honourable Richard, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. The 50th anniversary is a big thing for us, and as people say, we've come a long way since the days of 1975. Papua New Guinea has developed, and it's not just been as a relationship of an older sibling and a smaller sibling, now it's become on equal terms and that relationship is fostered on both sides, both government sides. I'd like to say again, thank you, Richard. Really appreciate you and your team that arrived here and helped us celebrate it. And it was a great opportunity seeing the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and myself mingling with the crowd, and all the children and parents and everything, shaking your hand made me immensely proud of my people in Lae. And also today, seeing we had our own People's Balus, the Air Niugini new plane. That was a highlight of the moment, and it circled over the City of Lae, over the stadium today. But once again, Richard, thank you so much the relationship and everything that you've worked on behalf of Papua New Guinea. Appreciate it. Thank you.