Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS OMITTED]
It is a great honour for me to be here in this beautiful land.
Like Australia, this is a land of the Southern Cross.
No country is closer to Australia than Papua New Guinea.
Our geographic proximity mirrors the closeness of our people and our institutions.
We are neighbours and we are yet more than neighbours.
During a terrible world war, our people were bound together in mutual striving and sacrifice, and some of the places most sacred to the Australian imagination today are on your soil.
Australians fought alongside the men of the Papuan Infantry Battalion and the Pacific Islands Regiment.
All of them comrades in arms - too many of them, comrades in death.
Australians received aid from other Papua New Guineans all along the frontline.
Angels of kindness and courage, men and women of PNG who remain heroes to Australians today.
While I'm here I'll be announcing details of a new oral history project, to collect the remarkable stories of Papua New Guineans during the Second World War.
This forms part of our initiative to document and preserve the immense historical and cultural value of the Kokoda Track and other major Papua New Guinean theatres of the Pacific Campaign.
Australians are proud of our part in the shared endeavour of the 1940s.
Australians are also proud of our part in the shared endeavour of the 1970s - building the foundations for an independent, modern Papua New Guinea based on the rule of law, democratic institutions and human rights.
As my great predecessor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam rightly said: Australia was never truly free until Papua New Guinea became free.
When other emerging countries followed the false trails of dictatorship and doctrine, you took the harder and the better path.
Free elections under a democratic constitution.
An independent judiciary.
A free and active press.
Openness to investment and growth.
As you approach four decades of nationhood, we survey a remarkable journey for Papua New Guinea.
Just as we are proud of the shared endeavours of our forebears, we are determined to succeed in the shared endeavours of our own day.
So I come here - firstly and above all else - to honour this land and its people.
To pledge Australia's abiding commitment to Papua New Guinea as one of our closest friends, in every sense of the word.
Here, Australians see a nation able to resolve its political differences peacefully and in accordance with the Constitution.
A nation showing leadership in the Pacific: encouraging Fiji back onto the path of democracy, contributing to RAMSI, fighting the scourge of people smuggling.
A land rich in resources enjoying a decade of uninterrupted economic expansion.
Home to seven million people, increasingly connected to each other and to the world through technology and a wider network of international trade and investment links.
In short, a country surely and steadily finding its own place in the Asian Century.
I come here with a firm faith in Papua New Guinea and its future joined with a firm determination that Australia play our right part.
Through the entrepreneurs of both our nations, partnering in the unlocking of this land's hidden wealth.
The scholarly exchanges between our universities.
The important work of development shared by our communities.
The friendship between our two Parliaments, including - I'm delighted to say - three strong Papua New Guinean women.
As with every nation pursuing development and growth, significant challenges remain.
In governance and transparency - so vital to investment and growth.
In security - especially for women, who endure such particular horrors.
In health - where levels of maternal mortality remain worryingly high.
In education - where so much remains to be done and where so much good can be achieved.
In development - where progress towards the Millennium Development Goals is unacceptably slow.
I know you are committed to progress in these fields, and Australia joins you as a partner.
The PNG Government has a far-reaching agenda of reform and we will support and assist you in that vital work.
Our aid program is improving quality and access to education.
In health we are providing medicines and training nurses and supporting a growing number of supervised births.
We help maintain PNG's road network and community facilities.
Australia's development assistance is based on partnership with the PNG Government, embodied in agreed goals and shared commitments.
This is a period of unmatched opportunity for Papua New Guinea.
I know how determined this generation of leaders is to translate that opportunity into benefits for the generations to come.
We can see the signs of progress in the 40 billion kina PNG LNG project, backed by an international consortium including the Australian Government through the Export Finance and Insurance Corporation - where I will visit tomorrow.
We see the same signs in the 41 billion kina in Australian investment and in your commitment to establish an effective sovereign wealth fund based on international best practice.
Australia is by far the biggest destination for Papua New Guinean exports and the biggest source of PNG's own imports of goods and services.
We see the signs of progress in the exchange of human contacts - no longer just northwards but southwards as well.
We have researchers and students at each other's educational institutions forging lifelong ties.
Our sportspeople play alongside each other and against each other with passion and pride.
Each year thousands of Australians make their pilgrimage to the Kokoda Track.
All these connections between our people will be made easier by the introduction in the near future of the new PNG Online Visitor Visa.
Of course, the firm basis for all this is our traditional diplomacy - the bonds and collaborations of governments and leaders.
Our officials work fruitfully together, our Ministers meet regularly and know each other as colleagues and friends.
I've been delighted to have had regular opportunities to meet with Prime Minister O'Neill over the past two years.
We must build relationships that stand the test of time during the pressures and changes that accompany the Asian Century.
That is why Prime Minister O'Neill and I will tomorrow sign a Joint Declaration for a new Papua New Guinea-Australia Partnership.
The Declaration builds on the 1987 Joint Declaration signed by then-Prime Ministers Paias Wingti and Bob Hawke in Canberra.
This 2013 Declaration points the way to a new level of cooperation based on mutual trust, respect and common values.
Papua New Guinea has grown richer and stronger throughout the past four decades - the next four decades hold the same promise.
You will be a nation with a population the size that Australia has today.
You will be a force for good in the Pacific and the world.
The potential conceived at independence will continue to unfold.
And as you grow, our fortunes and futures will be connected, as two hands are joined, in friendship and respect.
Thank you very much.