Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On Sunday and Monday, 18 and 19 May in Cairns, the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Forum and Trade Expo was held. Phil Franklin, President of the Australia Papua New Guinea Business Council, who is based in Lae, and Frank Yourn, the executive director, who is based in Wynnum in Brisbane, were both heavily involved in setting up this fantastic affair. It is a trade show with dinners, get-togethers and lots of chat around the place. It was well attended, with a wide cross-section of banks and companies plying their wares, and I hope everyone had a great time. They had one aim, and that was to do business better and increase activity between our two countries.

One of the keynote speakers was the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, the Hon. Peter O'Neill. He said it was great that Papua New Guinea was back on the map for Australia. He did note that it was the first time in history, probably never to be repeated, that Papua New Guinea had been visited by three different Australian prime ministers in one calendar year. It made an impact. He spoke quite passionately about the visa issue in trying to get to and from Australia. People applying for education and business visas would like to have quicker access to the country. We do throw up a fair few barriers when it comes to access for those sorts of people. Whilst the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop, who also spoke at the forum, recognised their concern, it is not a governmental thing; it is not a policy thing. This is a regulatory thing, and we are working with the Papua New Guinean government to bring their processes up to scratch, the same as other countries.

Papua New Guinea is coming into its 14th year of real economic growth. Whilst I was in Port Moresby recently for Anzac Day, they were burning off all the impurities in the natural gas pipeline and so there was an ethereal glow over the horizon, where the gasworks were going on. This is a massive project for PNG and it will be an economic driver into the future. Their economy is expected to grow over 15 per cent in the foreseeable future, and they have a plan to grow their economy, to build their workforce and to work their way through.

At the forum, Julie Bishop spoke about our aid and the respect between our two countries.

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