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JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just a couple of issues. First, you’re heading to PNG. How concerned are you about China’s attempts to further ingratiate itself up there in PNG? And secondly, what’s your response to these stories this morning putting you in the frame for the defunding of roads around the Western Sydney Airport?
PRIME MINISTER: Well Australians, those are two very distinct issues. Australia has the closest of relationship with Papua New Guinea. The fact that Prime Minister Marape and I will be walking part of the Kokoda Trail together, from Kokoda to Isurava, to pay tribute to Australians and Papua New Guinea citizens as well, who stood side by side to defend our respective nations. It was a different system at that time, of course, it says a lot about how close that relationship is. We’ll be paying tribute to the courage, the endurance and the sacrifice which Diggers made in World War Two. ANZAC Day is a sacred day for Australians, but it’s also a day that’s commemorated in Papua New Guinea, and our relationship is very strong. The fact that the Foreign Minister visited PNG last week, he visited Australia a few weeks ago, I don’t regard it as anything other than business as usual. China seeks to improve its standing in the region. We know that that is just a fact that we are dealing with. But I am very confident that PNG has no stronger partner than Australia, and our defence and security ties have never been stronger as a result of the agreement that Prime Minister Marape and I signed at the end of last year, and this visit just cements that.
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Source: Office of the Australian Prime Minister
Speaker: The Hon. Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia
Format: Press Conference
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