*Acknowledgements omitted*
It is a pleasure to be here with you, and it was such a pleasure to be asked to deliver the Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Honner Leadership Oration this year, as we celebrate 50 years of independence for Papua New Guinea, and to talk about the future we are building with the Pacific family.
I do want to thank The Kokoda Track Foundation for the invitation, and for their projects that provide so much support in education, health, gender equality and renewable energy across Papua New Guinea.
The Kokoda campaign lives on in our collective memory.
Where so many - including more than 600 Australians - lost their lives in pursuit of security for our region.
Prime Minister Curtin made the declaration that Australia was at war.
"Because," he said "Our vital interests are imperilled and because the rights of free people in the whole Pacific are assailed."
It was recognition that Australia's interests were here in our region. And that our security could not be outsourced.
So while this was a defensive act for Australia, to forestall further advances, we must always remember that Kokoda was not simply a battlefield.
It was home, to so many courageous people of PNG, that fought alongside and provided essential support to the Australians deployed there.
Just as the Pacific family is today playing a role in shaping the peaceful and prosperous region that we want, our shared action in that terrible war was pivotal.
Lieutenant Colonel Honner was able reignite the spirits of overwhelmed and young soldiers of the 39th Battalion, who were charged with holding the enemy forces at Isurava.
Australians fought bravely there and across Papua New Guinea, at Gona, Buna and Milne Bay, where a Japanese amphibious landing was decisively defeated for the first time in the war.
Field Marshal Sir William Slim described this defeat as the breaking of a spell.
And as Prime Minister Albanese said at Isurava on Anzac Day last year, having walked the Kokoda Track alongside Prime Minister Marape:
If that spell was broken, something far greater was forged - our friendship, our powerful bond with the people of Papua New Guinea.
I spoke about these bonds and our profound kinship with the Pacific at my very first speech as Foreign Minister, when I had the honour of attending the Pacific Islands Forum on my fourth day as Foreign Minister. I wasn't nervous at all.
I thanked and acknowledged the Pacific family - for being custodians of the planet's ancient cultures, many of the world's languages and our shared ocean and its biodiversity.
And I began our sincere effort to reassure the Pacific of our commitment and our intent.
I described the kind of partner Australia wanted to be.
A neighbour - that respected Pacific priorities and Pacific institutions.
In my first year as Foreign Minister, I travelled to every Pacific Islands Forum member. A tangible expression of my commitment to the Pacific family.
Unlike some of my predecessors, I didn't turn up to lecture. I went to listen.
I have been humbled by the reception I have received in the Pacific. By the invitations to Talanoa and to hear from respected elders.
Whether it has been gaining insight from the Chair of Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs on how Fiji is integrating traditional and modern forms of leadership.
Or learning from President Whipps Jr about Palau's perspective on climate change and strategic competition on a walk by the spectacular coastline.
We share an ocean, and we share a future - and that is the kind of partnership that we have achieved.
Our strategic circumstances have changed dramatically from the years following the Kokoda campaign and the end of World War II, where nations came together to embrace the UN Charter.
A time where the world agreed that international law, rules and norms were the way to ensure no country dominates or is dominated.
But today many of these rules and norms that matter so much to Australia, and so much to the Pacific, are being challenged.
The multilateral system is under strain as the world falls short of the commitments to which we have all agreed.
And the rules have not been respected in the face of newer challenges, including disinformation, interference, and cyberattacks.
China continues to assert its strategic influence, including through economic and security means, and is more frequently projecting its military power further into our region.
We see the worrying pace of China's military buildup, without the transparency that the region expects, as we saw in Pacific reactions to China's ICBM test last year.
The pervasive scourge of transnational crime - including irregular migration and people smuggling, and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing - threatens the Blue Economy, and the livelihoods and stability that rely upon it.
And of course, nothing is more central to the security and economies of the Pacific than climate change.
As Pacific leaders themselves put it plainly in the first article of the 2018 Pacific Island Forum's Boe Declaration on Regional Security:
We reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and wellbeing of the peoples of the Pacific and our commitment to progress the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
We know we are made stronger by what we do together.
And our collective security and prosperity depends on each other.
This is how we can ensure that we have choices, should pressure be applied to us.
The unity of the Pacific Islands Forum exemplifies regionalism: empowering smaller and medium-sized countries to counter power asymmetries.
Australia has backed in a Forum-first approach to Pacific peace and security including when Prime Minister Albanese stood with Prime Minister Rabuka and the Pacific Islands Forum to endorse the Blue Pacific Ocean of Peace Declaration.
The Declaration affirmed that Pacific security is the shared responsibility of Forum members, and called on the international community to respect sovereignty and Pacific-led approaches.
Because this is our home.
And the growing interest and activity from external partners in the security of our region has had consequences, both intended and unintended.
Coupled with the failures of the previous government, we know that Australia can no longer be the only partner of choice in the Pacific.
There's no rewind button. We now face a permanent contest.
As I have said before, things may not go Australia's way every time.
But we're going to patiently and persistently press our national interest in the contest every day.
And we will always seek to remain a partner of choice in the Pacific.
There are three themes from Lieutenant Colonel Honner's life that I want to talk about tonight, because of what they mean in the context of our engagement with the Pacific - resilience, respect, and family.
Every year, resilience becomes more and more central to Australian foreign policy and my work as Minister.
Now I am not suggesting at all that this is the same resilience that was required in the Kokoda campaign.
But modern challenges require modern resilience.
Nowhere is this clearer than in our region, where climate change, governance challenges and economic insecurity demand responses from all of us.
In that first address I delivered at the Pacific Islands Forum, I said we would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Pacific family in response to the climate crisis.
We are doing just that - we have committed to climate action at home through ambitious and achievable targets, accelerated the climate transition, and just last week, we passed landmark environmental law reforms.
We're on track to deliver $1.3 billion in climate finance to the Pacific, and we have made a foundational $100 million commitment to the Pacific Resilience Facility - a Pacific-led, owned and managed financing facility to tackle climate change.
We have negotiated an outcome for COP31 to ensure Australia and the Pacific have unprecedented influence over the deliberations and actions of the international community in 2026.
I want to thank Pacific leaders, ministers and representatives for their collaboration and efforts.
And we look forward to a special pre-COP for leaders in the Pacific, to see the impacts of the climate crisis for themselves, and a session at COP31 on climate finance needs of Small Island Developing States, providing a platform for pledges to the Pacific Resilience Facility.
Our efforts to build resilience include a commitment to respond to infrastructure needs, made more acute by the climate crisis.
This includes refurbishing and replacing ports in PNG and constructing climate-resilient bridges in Fiji, through the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific.
It includes delivering climate-secure infrastructure and reliable and secure off-grid energy solutions in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, under the Pacific Climate Infrastructure Financing Partnership.
We are helping to ensure every Pacific Islands Forum member will have a primary undersea cable connection through projects such as the Tuvalu Vaka Cable, the Solomon Islands Google Branch and the East Micronesia Cable.
And we are investing in safe and sustainable air links across the region, including the Palau Paradise Express and the Australia-North Pacific Connector.
Supporting the long-term stability and security of the Pacific also requires meeting aspirations for sustainable economic growth.
Australia is helping the Pacific to remain connected to the global financial system and with access to vital banking services.
And Australia imported over $9 billion worth of goods and services from the Pacific last year, an increase of 70% since 2022 following the COVID decline.
Those who come to Australia, including via the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, are able to fill gaps in our labour market, earn remittances and develop skills and experiences that benefit their homes.
This is often with the support of networks at home - earlier this year, I heard directly from Port Vila chiefs, along with our First Nations Ambassador, Justin Mohamed, who is here tonight, about the role traditional leaders play in supporting PALM workers to succeed in Australia.
This was at the Nakamal - a meeting place for traditional owners.
All of these efforts to build resilience prioritise Pacific leadership, culture, and aspirations.
That is what we mean when we talk about respect.
Lieutenant Colonel Honner was respected not just by those he commanded, but by the enemy of the day.
You probably know this story, but in his book the Kokoda Hero, Peter Brune describes a Japanese veteran bowing at Honner's coffin, and bowing again to offer a letter of condolence to Honner's family.
He wrote:
"Even in death, this distinguished soldier's faith and moral strength stood above warfare and its victors and vanquished."
Our vision for the region is grounded in respect.
Respect for sovereignty. Respect for Pacific priorities. And respect for the Pacific way.
It is why Australia is honoured to play a supporting role to Pacific-led approaches.
Such as the Pacific-led, Australian-backed Pacific Policing Initiative, which is building regional centres of excellence in the Pacific, with a coordination and development hub in Brisbane.
Or the Pacific Response Group, which is enabling more effective co-deployments to assist with recovery from severe weather and natural disasters in the region.
All of these initiatives involve Australia responding to and backing in Pacific priorities with respect and as equal partners.
This is why we welcomed Tuvalu's request for the groundbreaking Falepili Union.
Prime Minister Teo told me years ago why he wanted to call this Falepili.
It is a Tuvaluan word for the traditional values of good neighbourliness, care and mutual respect.
This Union provides a security assurance to support Tuvalu.
It creates a special pathway for supporting mobility with dignity, and I am so pleased that the first Tuvaluan family under this pathway settled in Melbourne last month.
And it is the first time in history that two nations have agreed in a legally binding instrument that statehood endures in the face of sea level rise.
The Nauru-Australia Treaty builds on the shared history, cultural affinity, and love of sport which bind our people.
And we are working towards elevated partnerships with Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga.
I want to pause here on this truly historic moment in the story of Australia and Papua New Guinea.
True friends, closest neighbours, and new allies.
The Pukpuk Treaty elevates our relationship and longstanding defence cooperation with Papua New Guinea to an alliance - the first for PNG and Australia's first in over 70 years.
In Prime Minister Marape's words:
"It ensures that when history tests us again, Papua New Guinea and Australia will stand - side by side - ready to defend our peoples, our sovereignty, and our shared future."
Pukpuk enshrines in treaty, at the request of Papua New Guinea, what we know. Our futures are tied together.
As Curtin knew in the 1940s, our bonds are forged in conflict, but sustained in peace and prosperity.
As some would say in Tok Pisin, Yumi Stap Wantaim.
Just as Prime Minister Whitlam sat next to Grand Chief Somare in 1975 at the ceremony for Papua New Guinea's independence in Port Moresby, this year we saw Prime Minister Albanese stand with Prime Minister Marape to celebrate fifty years of PNG's independence.
And we will be there to celebrate when the PNG Chiefs play in the NRL in 2028.
I do remember working with Deputy Prime Minister Rosso to negotiate the Bilateral Security Agreement on the sidelines of a Matildas game at the World Cup. It's a good place to have a negotiation.
We bonded over our love of sport while watching the incredible Mary Fowler, so proud of her PNG heritage.
Family is the theme I wanted to finish with.
Lieutenant Colonel Honner gave a speech to the 39th militia battalion at Menari as the unit was relieved, in which he said:
"And remember…remember the glory is not the exhortation of war, but the exhortation of man...Faithfulness and fortitude. Gentleness and compassion.
I am honoured to be your brother."
Some of you would have heard me say before it is an honour have respected elders like Prime Minister Marape and Prime Minister Rabuka call me 'sister'.
Because we are family.
We talk a lot about family, but what are families about: Families are about care, love and forgiveness. But they are also about duty and loyalty, looking out for each other, and listening to each other.
It has been my mission to ensure that Australia is a better, more involved and more helpful member of the Pacific family.
At a time where we have seen global uncertainty in development funding, with the impacts not fully known, Australia has remained a committed and reliable partner.
We are delivering a record $2.157 billion in development assistance to the Pacific to meet the highest needs at a time of disruption.
Just last week I announced a new $48 million program, where Australia will partner with the Pacific to tackle the growing public health threat of HIV.
And a further $25 million to strengthen frontline services in the Pacific as part of our ongoing commitment to end gender-based violence.
We now dedicate 75 cents of every Australian development dollar to the Indo-Pacific.
Our response to others reducing their funding has been to pivot and reprioritise, ensuring we respond to the most acute needs.
Because our nations and peoples all benefit from the peace, stability and prosperity we build together.
And because we believe as partners and neighbours, that we have a responsibility to contribute to a more equitable future for our region.
It is a responsibility that our Government will not abandon.
Our efforts at integration are also bringing our people closer together.
In addition to PALM, the Pacific Engagement Visa and Australia Awards programs deliver education, skills and economic dividends and closer connections for the region.
Our longstanding support for skills and training has seen more than 20,000 Pacific residents graduate with full Australian qualifications.
And our First Nations ties ground us and connect the family even more closely in the Pacific.
Remember the words of Prime Minister Marape in his historic address to the Australian Parliament:
"Ours is a relationship that has shared ethnicity, that is built on shared ethnicity between the Torres Strait Islanders and my people up north from you, between the Indigenous Australian people and the Melanesian people, who have lived in this space of planet Earth for more than thousands of years."
Being a committed family member and a good neighbour is not just about securing our interests.
It is not only to ensure that Australia never again has to make a terrible choice as Curtin did, and that Lieutenant Colonel Honner lived.
It is also about who we are.
A nation that is stronger in the world because we are united at home.
A nation that welcomes different races, religions and views, united by respect for each other and each other's right to live in peace.
A nation that is stronger in the world because our First Nations people and our multicultural society gives us the ability to reach into every corner of the world and find common ground.
Last Wednesday I had the privilege of meeting with Pacific-Australian emerging leaders - including young First Nations Australians, members of the Pacific diaspora, and those who have travelled from across the Blue Pacific.
Their report, The Pacific We See 2025, spoke clearly about their hopes, fears and vision of a future where Pacific leadership is grounded in culture, sovereignty and traditional knowledge.
Anyway, we had a sudden storm because Canberra has very interesting weather at this time of year. So we all had to abandon our chairs in the Senate courtyard.
We all took shelter, but there weren't any rooms in the Parliament so we just occupied a corridor.
And as so often happens at Pacific gatherings, the delegation started to sing.
They sang "This is the Day that the Lord Has Made" - led by First Nations siblings from Kuku Yalanji country, singing in language.
They then sang the hymn in Fijian, in Bislama and then in English.
Their young voices rang through the Parliament, echoing through the building.
Voices of kinship. Voices of faith. Voices of hope.
And it is with hope that we look to the future.
Thank you.
