Joint Press Conference, Port Moresby

SUBJECTS: Australia-PNG Defence Relationship; Pukpuk Treaty. 

ELIAS KAPAVORE, PNG MINISTER FOR DEFENCE: Thank you everyone for coming. We again welcome the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, the Defence Minister. We just had a bilateral today. I commend His Excellency, the High Commissioner of Australia, my Defence Secretary and team here today [inaudible] and everybody else who is here today. Thank you all for coming. We just completed the bilateral today, talking about our defence Papua New Guinea-Australia mutual treaty. I invite the Deputy Prime Minister to say something first with regard to some of our discussions, and then I will say something after he says something. 

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Well look, it's a thrill to be back in Papua New Guinea. I feel like, genuinely, PNG is my second home and it is great to be in Port Moresby on this magnificent day here at Airways. I met with Prime Minister Marape about a month ago in in Brisbane and at that time, I was really keen to come to PNG when there was a new Defence Minister in place. And so, with the appointment of Elias Kapavore as the now Defence Minister of Papua New Guinea, it is an absolute priority for me to be here today. Elias and I have met previously. We were at Manus on that very extraordinary day last year, opening the barracks there. There might be some of you who were present on that day as well when literally, the heavens opened, but it was a very memorable day. But it's really great being able to spend some time with Elias today, and I'm really looking forward to our partnership as the two defence ministers of our respective countries. And Elias takes on his role as the Defence Minister of PNG at a really critical moment in the context of our bilateral relationship. 

Article Nine of the Pukpuk Treaty empowers both Elias and myself, as the two Defence Ministers of our countries, to implement the Pukpuk Treaty. And that is really where we're now at in terms of this journey of our two countries becoming allied partners. Since the end of last year, with the signing of the Pukpuk Treaty, we've had a task force in place to implement the Treaty and that has met on numerous occasions, including two weeks ago, and I think another meeting is occurring in a week or so. And so, work has been happening at a pace to see this Treaty implemented, so that not just the commitments to each other are there, as important as they are, and they're very important, but also that there is substance which now sits beneath it in terms of the activities and cooperation between our two defence forces. First among that is the project that we're working on to recruit Papa New Guineans into Australian Defence Force. This is a huge moment in terms of the history of the Australian Defence Force. It's a really big moment in terms of the history of PNG, and in terms of our bilateral relationship. We discussed this today, and we are both very committed to ensuring that by this time next year, recruitment is well and truly underway from PNG into the Australian Defence Force. We are looking at an initial pilot program which will start the process of proving the recruitment pathway. It will be smaller numbers to begin with, but in time we see this happening at scale over the next decade, where we are imagining thousands of people, thousands of Papua New Guineans are recruited into the Australian Defence Force. So we're really excited about taking the first substantive steps down this path, and we are very confident that by this time next year, this will be well underway. We look to the Ministerial Forum later this year between our two countries and we will have more to say about the specific steps that will be taken by then. But we've been really pleased with the initial discussions between Elias and I around the progress in respect of this. There's a whole lot of work that's already been done. This forms the significant funding on the part of the Australian Government to this project in particular over the next two years, and we're really confident that we will be able to get this going really quickly. We're also looking at a range of other issues – infrastructure; we spoke about aviation today and the air wing, where there's been a lot of cooperation; looking at a range of implementation arrangements, which will make it much easier for our defence forces to operate in each other's countries – and all of that work is progressing under the leadership of the task force, which of course is reporting to the two of us. 

We are seeing our defence forces increasingly working more closely together. Over the last few weeks, Exercise Pitch Black has been undertaken in Australia's north, principally out of Darwin. This is the major air exercise that we do every [two years]. A component of that was PNG's two PAC 750s, or two of the three PAC 750s that the PNG air wing operates, came down to participate in Exercise Pitch Black. That was more than 20 personnel from the PNG Defence Force. They did a fantastic job, and to be honest, were stars of the show. I mean, everybody was wanting to meet them in an exercise which involved Australia and 20 other countries. And we could just see the sense of excitement about us exercising together for the first time as allies. And indeed, right now, Exercise Puk Puk, which is an engineering exercise being undertaken in Lae, has more than 100 ADF personnel who are present there, engaging in that exercise. So we're really seeing the living, breathing operation of our alliance partnership being undertaken by our two defence forces. I really enjoyed our conversation today as our first. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Elias again in the coming months as we lead into the Ministerial Forum. Both of us, I think, feel that there is much work to do at a time which is really exciting in the history of our two countries, and we are very cognisant of the responsibility that both of us have in the roles that we are undertaking now, and I'm very much looking forward to my partnership with Elias.

KAPAVORE: Taking over from the former Defence Minister and now as the Minister for Defence, the Pukpuk Treaty becomes our fundamental document that we will work together to begin to be implemented. So I thank the Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles for coming to our country, my first engagement with him today, and look forward to implementing this Treaty as one of our priorities. On behalf of our government, I also thank the government of Australia, the Australian Defence Force for continuing to support our pilots, improving our defence force infrastructure in our country. Under this Treaty, it will enhance more capabilities and more building our capacity together as we move forward into implementing the Treaty going into the future. So I thank the Deputy Prime Minister today for coming. I know he's having a short time here, he'll be going over today [inaudible] that's why we're having the meeting today on a Sunday. We were thinking that we will be having a meeting tomorrow as a normal working day, but we wish him a safe fight going to visit another country today. For ourselves, we stand committed as a country. The Pukpuk Treaty remains our important document that we must implement together for the two countries. Thank you. 

JOURNALIST: My question is directed to the Deputy Prime Minister. You mentioned the pilot program. When do you expect the program to start?

MARLES: So, we are very committed to seeing the pilot program be well underway in the context of this financial year, the financial year 26-27. In our 10‑year procurement schedule that we published in April of this year, we've got significant funding in that, in the Australian budget over the next two financial years and beyond– but over the next two financial years, to really see this be established now. So we are working on the basis of having the first pilot training program for the first intake well and truly underway during the course of this financial year. So by this time next year. There's significant work that needs to be done here in terms of the recruitment process, how people are chosen, advertising, all of that. And as I say, we'll have more to say about that at the Ministerial Forum when we meet in a couple of months' time. But the short answer to your question is we see this happening essentially now. The financial year that we're in right now. And we want to make sure that by the time that we get to the end of this financial year, by the 30th of June, that that we are substantially in the process of this recruitment occurring. 

JOURNALIST: Speaking on capability and infrastructure development in Papua New Guinea, can you confirm if plans or some work is already underway in PNG, and whereabouts in Papua New Guinea?

MARLES: So we continue the program of infrastructure support that we have had across PNG. There have been a number of issues that we've been working on over the journey, including what we've already done at Murray Barracks, for example, over the last couple of years. So that program we continue to pursue, and we're working through with the government the ongoing priorities in terms of infrastructure. But I think when we're talking today – really making sure that the recruitment process is happening, that we continue to follow through on the infrastructure priorities of the country, and also then looking at the long-standing challenge we've had in terms of developing the PNG's air wing – these, I think, are at the heart of the priorities that we’ve been pursuing. 

JOURNALIST: Currently, Papua New Guinea is facing a recruitment challenge. Will it have an impact on the coming pilot program or–? 

KAPAVORE: Papua New Guinea facing challenges in terms of recruitment, we are fully aware of what has happened and at the moment our own internal issues, we are managing those. We will issue a statement as soon as we can. We are finalising the report of the recruitment process that has taken place the last couple of months, and I mentioned that we will commence or recommence the recruitment in as early as September as we conclude the report for recruitment that we are undertaking within our country. 

MARLES: For our part, I would say that the PNG Government’s been really good at briefing us on the recruitment issues here, but fundamentally, this is a matter for Papua New Guinea. What's really important is that, in answer to your question, it's not impacting the work that we are doing in terms of developing the recruitment pipeline into the Australian Defence Force. This has been a key early objective of the Pukpuk Treaty. It's been very much an aspiration both in Papua New Guinea, but also for us in Australia, and so we are moving ahead at a pace. And I mean, the issues that PNG are dealing with, they'll deal with, and that’s fine by us. But we don't see that as impacting what we're doing in terms of working together.

KAPAVORE: I'd like to just clarify that the recruitment that we are undertaking within our own arrangement is building our own defence capability in the country, and under the Treaty is a different arrangement. We are now finalising the framework. That's the one that we are discussing for our citizens to go through the process of going to Australia and joining the Australian Defence Force. That’s a different arrangement. 

JOURNALIST: Just one question, aside from issues with recruitment and all that, has the joint task force already fine‑tuned eligibility for Papua New Guineans who are going to be joining the Australian Defence Force?

KAPAVORE: I will say something first then the Deputy Prime Minister can answer. It involves different government agencies – immigration, foreign affairs, and different people. So it's a work in progress at the moment and the team has– we’ve established a task force [inaudible] and they’ll be advising us on how this will be happening [inaudible]. 

MARLES: Yeah, that's exactly it. It's a work in progress. It's certainly one of the key issues that's being discussed by the task force, that we need to be being really clear that there is a clear eligibility requirement, and obviously that all has to be worked through. That's not settled yet. But the objective here is to have– when people have gone through the training program here in Papua New Guinea, that they would then have the ability to meet the eligibility requirements to enter the Australian Defence Force. That's in essence what we're trying to build, and so all of that's being worked through in terms of the base eligibility requirements to enter that program.

ENDS