PRIME MINISTER CLARK:
Well good evening everyone. It is my pleasure once again to welcome Prime Minister John Howard and Mrs Janette Howard to Auckland and to New Zealand. John has been a very regular visitor to New Zealand as Australian Prime Minister. Indeed he tells me this is his eighth visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister, and we do appreciate, John, the personal interest which you take in the trans-Tasman relationship, which is so important to us. Australia and New Zealand prime ministers do meet regularly at many regional and international gatherings. But these annual talks give us a chance to focus directly on issues relevant to both of us as close neighbours and very long-standing friends. So in the talks today we've done just that, covering our economic, defence and other relationships, sharing ideas about how to boost productivity, savings, ideas on social security reform, and, of course, discussing developments around our region and further a field.
Both our economies have enjoyed high growth in recent years with falling unemployment and rising living standards. In New Zealand we can take pride in now having the lowest unemployment in the OECD. And both our countries benefit from each other's success because of that very close economic relationship. Indeed our trade with each other has increased at a faster rate over the past ten years than the trade of either of our countries with the rest of the world. For New Zealand, Australia remains our largest market, taking just over one fifth of what we export. For Australia, New Zealand is actually the largest market for its elaborately transformed manufactures. And we are each other's largest tourism markets with 1.5 million visits by our peoples across the Tasman each year. The success of CER is obvious, and both governments want to build on it. There's a big work program for progressing the single economic market, and that was the focus of the discussions between Treasurer Peter Costello and our Minister for Finance, Michael Cullen, last week - focussing on competition policy, joint accounting standards, mutual recognition for securities offerings, and banking supervision.
As well, we're pursuing, both jointly and in parallel, a range of very important trade initiatives in Asia. Australia's FTA with Thailand is now in force, ours takes effect from the 1st of July. Australia has a trade and economic framework agreement with China; we've started FTA negotiations with that large country. Both of us have been engaged with FTA studies with Malaysia, and together we've secured agreement with ASEAN for an FTA with our CER economies. In other developments in South East Asia, the forces of nature have led to our two defence forces working there very closely in recent weeks to provide immediate relief after the tsunami. There was a truly ANZAC effort in the medical facility in Banda Aceh, bringing much needed relief to the people there. And I also applaud, John, Australia's great generosity to the relief and reconstruction effort in Indonesia and the very positive impact that will have on that country's ability to recover from the tsunami affecting the coastline of Sumatra. Elsewhere in the region we continue to be very closely involved together in the regional mission in the Solomon Islands, and in stepping up our support for development and better governance in the South Pacific, and for more regional cooperation.
Tomorrow John comes to Wellington for discussions with our Cabinet on many of these issues, but for now, let me simply repeat my welcome to both John and Janette Howard, and say to you, you are always very welcome visitors to Auckland and New Zealand. I now invite Prime Minister John Howard to say a few words. Thank you.
PRIME MINISTER HOWARD:
Thank you very much Helen, Peter, ladies and gentlemen. It's a real delight to be back in New Zealand. This is the eighth occasion that I've visited your country in the time that I've been Prime Minister. I take the relationship between our two countries very seriously. It's an old relationship; it's a very close one. It's on that is not only steeped in history, but in more recent times it's been bound together evermore tightly by the close economic integration that has naturally taken place between Australia and New Zealand.
We find ourselves in this part of the world with a lot in common with each other, but also a great deal in common with the challenges of our region. It is true, as Helen says, that we see each other very frequently. I think in the time that's gone by since the last election in Australia on the 9th of October, Helen and I have met up on three or four occasions, at various gatherings in our region, quite separately from the regular meetings that we have - one year in New Zealand, the next year in Australia. It is important that we do that. It is important that we do that. It's important that we work hard at the relationship because those natural relationships and old relationships are the ones that can, in a sense, be more readily strengthened and added to.
We share a place in one of the most dynamic regions in the world - the economic growth in the Asia Pacific region has been quite phenomenal. The contribution that China, awakening from hundreds of years of economic somnolence, the contribution that China is making to world growth - and certainly it's having and impact on the Australian economy has been immense - but of course our economic relations with nations such as Japan and Korea, and some of the smaller ones of the region - Thailand, and Malaysia, and Singapore - are also immensely important.
Helen mentioned our $1 billion program of assistance to tsunami ravaged Indonesia. That was not only an act and a response based on humanity, but it was also a recognition of the tremendous importance of the strength and the stability of the of the Indonesia nation. It is the largest Muslim nation in the world, and the success of Indonesia as a moderate Islamic country, a democratic moderate Islamic country, is enormously important in the fight against terrorism. Terrorism must be fought with adequate security and strong forces; it must also be fought by demonstrating to those who might otherwise be susceptible to terrorists, that there is a better, democratic, moderate, conciliatory alternative. And there is no country in the world, in a sense, where that battle is being more keenly fought than in Indonesia. Indonesia is the third largest democracy in the world, and it is sometimes not given enough credit for the enormous transition that has been undertaken in very difficult circumstance over the past few years.
Now these are challenges that Australia and New Zealand together face. We've faced many challenges in the past; we'll face more in the future. But the genuine friendship and the reciprocity of economic interests, the commitment to playing a very positive role in our part of the world, remain absolutely undiminished. In the time that I've been Prime Minister I have worked very hard to make sure that our relationship remains on a sound footing, and the regular, open discussions that we have, the opportunity tomorrow of meeting the entire New Zealand Cabinet and also meeting the New Zealand Leader of the Opposition, and participating in a parliamentary luncheon, is a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate again the real friendship that the people of Australia have towards the people of New Zealand, and the high regard in which I hold the people of New Zealand, and the commitment I have to ever closer relations between out two peoples who's destiny is forever linked together. Thank you.
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