Well, I'm about to head to the G20 to represent Australia with the world's biggest economies. It's an opportunity to advance Australia's national interest, to talk about investment. I'll be having bilaterals with colleagues, including Prime Minister Modi of India and it will be an opportunity to put forward Australia's national interest. And one of the things that will happen at the G20 in Johannesburg, no doubt, is that we are the envy of the world. Both for how our economy is going, with unemployment falling, with inflation half of what we inherited, interest rates - three decreases in the last year. Importantly as well, we have incredibly optimistic future ahead of us. Just during this visit to Perth I was looking at the Alcoa site, which will produce 10 per cent of the world's Gallium. That will see investment from Australia, the United States and Japan, which will create jobs here, but economic benefit for Western Australia and for our nation. The AUKUS facilities where I was yesterday at Stirling, is quite extraordinary opportunities. Again, $8 billion of Commonwealth investment there at the site. We see the 13 Australian Officers and Seafarers have been working on USS Vermont, which has been maintained there. That represents about 10 per cent of the crew of that United States Virginia Class Submarine, the world's best. And Australians picking up those skills, meaning great benefit as well for advanced manufacturing. So it's been a terrific visit over the last four days to Busselton, to Bunbury, to Perth, and now I'll head over to South Africa before I go back to Canberra for the last sitting week next week.
JOURNALIST: Can you explain why Australia decided to cede the COP to Türkiye?
PRIME MINISTER: The COP rules are that if there is no agreement, every country has the right of veto. So we had considerable support. Türkiye's view was that they stepped back from holding the Glasgow Conference five years ago. We have a range of principles. One is our support for the multilateral system that is so important and so we didn't want the conference to go to Bonn. So, essentially we're in a position where it either went to Bonn in Germany or went to Türkiye. Our priority was to support the multilateral system, but also to get a good result for Australia and the Pacific. So we consulted our Pacific neighbours - I spoke with Prime Minister Marape, I spoke with Prime Minister Rambuka of Fiji - and what we did, we've come up with an outstanding result. COP31 will be hosted by Türkiye. Türkiye will have the COP presidency, but Chris Bowen and Australia will have the COP Presidency for negotiations in the lead up to the conference in Türkiye, but also at the conference in Türkiye. Part of that will be a pre-COP meeting to be held in the Pacific at a location to be determined by our Pacific family friends. And that will enable us to invite world leaders to make sure that the issues confronting this region, the very existence of island states such as Tuvalu and Kiribati, the issue of our oceans, all of those issues will be front and centre. So it's an outstanding outcome. I congratulate Minister Bowen for the work that he has done. I thank Türkiye as well for the constructive engagement. Two countries put in bids, they both have compromised, which is in the interests of climate change action.
JOURNALIST: By missing out on hosting the COP in Australia, will you avoiding some criticism over the hefty price tag? $2 billion?
PRIME MINISTER: No, we're very pleased with the outcome. Türkiye will host the conference, but Australia, by having the COP presidency for the negotiations will be in a very strong position. And some might argue in the strongest possible position because we will benefit from having Pacific issues and the issues confronting Australia that we know Australia is particularly vulnerable for, the extreme weather events which we are seeing more intense and more frequent.
JOURNALIST: Can Chris Bowen hold both the role of COP President and Energy Minister at the same time?
PRIME MINISTER: You bet he can, because action domestically is also about action globally. One of the, you know, the climate sceptics in the Coalition say, 'Oh well, Australia shouldn't do anything because the world needs to act'. This is Australia acting and promoting global action as well. This is a very strong outcome.
JOURNALIST: You had said though that a split presidency wasn't possible. Isn't this what's happening?
PRIME MINISTER: No, the COP President will be Türkiye. It wasn't possible to have under the rules, a joint presidency. But Türkiye has agreed that Minister Bowen and Australia will handle the negotiations in the lead up to the COP. Thanks very much.
