PRIME MINISTER:
The thread of continuity, of commitment, all weather friends, is so strong.
Tomorrow we mark the two year anniversary of the Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement. Now more than 97% of imports from Australia enter Japan duty free or under preferential tariff rates.
Two-way trade between Australia and Japan is now worth over $60 billion. Japan is our second largest source of foreign direct investment.
We have among us today the senior executive team from INPEX. Their project alone represents the largest single direct overseas investment by Japan.
We recognise that in order to continue to succeed in this extraordinary time in which we live, when the pace and scale of change is without precedent, we need to be competitive, we need to be agile, we need to be adaptive.
That is why the centrepiece of our economic plan is reducing corporate tax rate over time from 30 per cent to 25 per cent. We understand that if you increase the return on investment, you get more investment – you get more investment, you get more jobs.
We are a thoroughly committed pro-business government, recognising that we need to be competitive in this global economy to ensure we have the best projects, the best opportunities and the best jobs for Australians.
While there is more than a whiff of protectionism in the global political environment, the Prime Minister and I are thoroughly committed to free trade and the open markets, to bringing into force the TPP, completing the [inaudible] negotiations because we know that protectionism is not a ladder to get an economy out of a low growth trap, it is a shovel to dig it deeper.
The road to prosperity is found by a commitment to open markets, to free trade and that is our commitment.
And of course, the bedrock of our prosperity in our region has been the peace and stability delivered by a commitment, by maintaining a rules based order.
The deepening cooperation between Australia and Japan on defence and security matters, as it has today, by commitment to a new agreement, working, committing to agree on the regional ACSA agreement being signed later this year, working towards that.
And I want to note, just in closing, another thread of continuity, the Security Declaration entered into by John Howard and Shinzo Abe ten years ago is another reminder of this strong relationship, getting stronger every day, is the work of many hands and many generations.
We are all weather friends and we welcome you Prime Minister and Mrs Abe to Sydney.
[ENDS]