I move:

That this House:

(1) acknowledges the significance of the recent signing of the Australia-Vanuatu Nakamal Agreement;

(2) notes that this broad ranging partnership reflects:

(a) the meaningful relationship between the people of Australia and Vanuatu, which is built on a desire to support Vanuatu's critical infrastructure development and economic aspirations;

(b) the collaborative motivation to build climate and natural disaster resilience for the benefit of both people of Australia and Vanuatu; and

(c) the recognition that when the security and sovereignty of Australia and Vanuatu is supported, the Indo-Pacific region enjoys greater stability and prosperity; and

(3) affirms the Government's strategic commitment to continue to deepen Australia's security and economic relationships with our Pacific family and Indo-Pacific partners to strengthen the foundations for ongoing and sustainable regional peace and prosperity.

This motion touches on two really important things: firstly, the enduring nature of Australia's partnership with Vanuatu, one that has its foundations in a common vision for the Pacific region based on peace, stability and prosperity; and, secondly, it speaks to the work of the Albanese Labor government—the work that it has done to build, shore-up and then sustainably secure Australia's relationships with our Pacific partners more broadly. Whether it be regional security, economic growth, disaster response and resilience, climate change, or funding and strategy to combat regional drug smuggling, this government has consistently demonstrated that it stands ready to productively collaborate across the region to deliver economic and security benefits to the people of the Pacific.

On 29 June this year the Vanuatu-Australia Nakamal Agreement was signed. 'Nakamal' connotes a traditional meeting place where a community and its leaders discuss, consult, make decisions and resolve points of difference with mutual respect, trust and understanding. It is those principles that underpin this new and strategic arrangement.

The four key drivers of the Nakamal agreement are to deepen integration between the parties and their peoples, support Vanuatu's development aspirations and economic transformation, to enhance the climate and disaster resilience of Vanuatu for the benefit of the people of both nations, and to recognise, protect and promote each other's collective security and sovereignty. When the Pacific region and individual sovereign states within it are economically stable and secure with opportunities for growth and improved living standards, the region itself is more peaceful, stable and resilient and less susceptible to adverse influences. This is why the economic initiatives in the Nakamal agreement are so fundamental to regional stability.

The Nakamal agreement prescribes that Vanuatu's economic aspirations will be enhanced. Firstly, support will be provided to enable Vanuatu's safe and productive participation in the cloud based digital economy, particularly by assisting Vanuatu to improve its cyberliteracy and resilience by providing digital infrastructure and software. With the digital revolution in full swing, without meaningful, scalable and secure access to the digital economies, countries cannot grow and prosper. Communications, financial transactions, education, entertainment and business are now all conducted within the digital economy, and it's imperative that Australia supports Vanuatu in its quest to be a stronger presence on the global network of economic and social activity. Budget support to assist Vanuatu's economic and fiscal certainty also features in the Nakamal, and, to support a growing economy, an Australian traineeship program with Australian recognised qualifications that support Vanuatu's domestic labour market in demand areas will be developed.

Steps that signal regional security and stability as a priority of both Australia and Vanuatu also feature in the Nakamal, with Vanuatu making commitments to prioritising policing cooperation with members of the Pacific Islands Forum. Australia's role as Vanuatu's primary policing partner is confirmed by the Nakamal, with additional training and equipment for the Vanuatu Police Force and deeper cooperation on maritime and cybersecurity and security intelligence in general. Vanuatu's commitment to not allow any foreign military bases or infrastructure in its territory, keeping its critical infrastructure free from militarisation, is another demonstration of the importance the Nakamal places on regional security and stability. These sovereign commitments are in Vanuatu's interests, in Australia's interests and, ultimately, in the interests of the entire Pacific region.

Finally, climate change is rightfully recognised in the Nakamal not as an issue to be continually debated but as an issue on which urgent and unavoidable steps need to be taken in the interest of the region. Together, Australia and Vanuatu will advocate for ambitious and appropriate action that reflects the positions endorsed by the Pacific Islands Forum. A stronger, safer and sovereign Pacific is good for Australia, and it is good for our region. It's only this government that has proactively done the work to shore up the foundations that deliver this. It's meaningful action, taken time and time again, by government determined to protect Australia's national interests on the regional and global stage. (Time expired)

Is there a seconder for the motion?

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

I welcome this motion, as I welcome the recent signing between Australia and Vanuatu of the Nakamal agreement, which strengthens our relationship with one of our most important Pacific neighbours. As the vice chair of the Australia-Vanuatu parliamentary country group, I recently had the privilege of meeting the Prime Minister of Vanuatu, the honourable Jotham Napat, as well as the new high commissioner to Australia, His Excellency Mr Jimmy Nipo. It was a great opportunity to discuss Australia's close relationship with Vanuatu and to affirm that I believe Australia can do better in combating climate change,

Vanuatu is on the front line of climate change impacts and has consistently led the charge for stronger climate ambition. In recent years, Vanuatu spearheaded the remarkable campaign for the International Court of Justice to deliver an advisory opinion on the obligation of states to combat climate change. This globally significant legal document confirms what we all know instinctively: that states have a binding duty to avoid climate harm, which includes reducing not only the consumption but the production of fossil fuels.

The latter is particularly important for Australia because we're the fourth largest fossil fuel exporter in the world after Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia. Since it was delivered last year, the ICJ's advisory opinion has been rippling through governments and courts around the world by unambiguously showing all countries, including Australia, what needs to be done to address climate change and putting them on notice where they're falling short, so it's great that the Nakamal Agreement commits to cooperation. It recognises the existential threat posed by climate change, and it commits to drive the transition to renewable energy sources. These are sound and respectful bilateral terms. But Australia is giving with one hand and shovelling coal and gas with the other, and this government, like many before it, continues to kowtow to the interests of the coal and gas lobby.

It's not everyday Australians who benefit from Australia's gas and coal exports. It's not our Pacific family who benefits from Australia's continued expansion and peddling of fossil fuels to the region. It's a small number of highly profitable, mostly international fossil fuel companies. This government, like many before it, continues to prioritise the interests of those fossil fuel company owners over the interests of Australians and our Pacific family.

Our continued fossil fuel exports are inconsistent with what Vanuatu and our other Pacific neighbours are asking for. Earlier this year, Pacific leaders came together in Port Vila, Vanuatu's capital, to issue a joint statement called the Tassiriki Call for a Fossil Fuel Free Pacific. It was a clear expression of the Pacific's priorities on climate change. It calls very clearly for a rapid phase-out of coal, oil and gas through a fossil fuel treaty. Last week, when Australia attended the Pacific Islands Forum, Vanuatu's climate change and energy minister, Ralph Regenvanu, rightly criticised Australia's climate record. I'm going to quote him here, because his message bears repeating. He said:

Australia is not doing enough. Australia is a major producer of fossil fuels …

The very least a country like Australia should be doing is stopping future expansion, and it's not doing that.

This means a rapid transitioning away from fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies. There's no other way.

While the Pacific Islands Forum convened, the UN released a report finding that the world will likely exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius average global warming in the year 2030. This is devastating news. Pacific countries have fought so hard for the 1.5 degree target, recognising that climate impacts will be far more severe once that level of warming has been achieved. Next month, Australia's leading a pre-COP climate summit in Fiji and Tuvalu. This is an excellent opportunity for Australia to build on the Nakamal Agreement to show Vanuatu and other members of the Pacific family that it really can be trusted to deliver on climate. The way to do this is to make firm commitments to phase out fossil fuel subsidies, stop opening new fossil fuel projects and phase out existing production in an orderly manner. Our Pacific family, including Vanuatu, expects and deserves better from us, and I urge the government to listen to their demands.

I rise today to acknowledge the deep significance of the 29 June signing of the Australia-Vanuatu Nakamal Agreement. This agreement represents a new era in the Australia-Vanuatu relationship, reinforcing our shared membership of the Pacific family and our commitment to the rules based international order right across the Pacific.

I have the great privilege of representing Leichhardt. Once you leave the mainland of Far North Queensland, you get to the Torres Strait. The Torres Strait has its own unique culture in Australia, based quite squarely in Melanesian traditions, and this makes this agreement much more significant to my part of the world. In fact, article 2 of the Nakamal Agreement recognises the shared Melanesian culture specifically of Torres Strait Islanders and Ni-Vanuatu and the way that it enriches the relationship between Australia and Vanuatu.

There have been, it should be acknowledged, dark times in the history between Australia and Vanuatu. Some 150 years ago, people of what was then the New Hebrides were stolen from their families and brought to the far north to work in the sugar cane. But their culture, family and communities live on in the far north, and our relationship is not consigned just to history. Today the 51st Battalion, a fantastic reserve unit right across the Cape and the Torres Strait, regularly engages with Vanuatu. In fact, since the early 2000s, the 51st has engaged in joint training exercises with the Vanuatu Mobile Forces, the Vanuatu Police Force paramilitary wing. The chief of their police force trained in Weipa with the 51st Battalion, with men from Aurukun, Weipa, Napranum and Mapoon. Our connection to the South Pacific, particularly in Leichhardt, runs deep. We're very proud of this connection, and we're proud as a Labor government to deepen these connections.

As the world pivots north, the South Pacific becomes more and more important. We come to the people of the South Pacific as equals—as partners in trade, in defence and, over the last thousands and thousands of years between the Torres Strait and Vanuatu, in culture. Nothing is more important than our relationships in our region, and we're working every single day to strengthen them with agreements like the Pukpuk Treaty alliance with PNG, our closest neighbour, some 3½ to four kilometres north of Saibai; the Ocean of Peace Alliance and the Vuvale Union with Fiji; the Falepili Union with Tuvalu; the Nauru-Australia Treaty; and now, of course, the Nakamal Agreement with Vanuatu. These opportunities give the people of Vanuatu access to Australia and what Australia can offer.

We are positioning the far north as the hub for the South Pacific, be it through education or work opportunities. The PALM scheme allows workers from right across the South Pacific to come to Australia to work in our farms, and that is super-important for a region like mine, which has so much agriculture, including so many banana farmers. It is not unusual to find entire families come across, make their fortune and then head home to build. I saw on TV that night someone with a Western kitchen; he was so proud.

These kinds of opportunities are great now, but the future opportunities are where it's really exciting. Cairns will position itself as an educational and intellectual hub for the South Pacific. We will take the best and brightest that the South Pacific have to offer, train them and return them as doctors, health workers, nurses, engineers and administrators. We are able to provide that support because of our location in the world, and that will only deepen these relationships. That's real power. Real power comes in providing an opportunity and a hand-up to those around us.

This represents a turning point for Australia's relationships with the South Pacific. The work that has been done by our prime minister, our Foreign minister and our ministers for the South Pacific has been second to none. We've reached out. The former coalition government threw nothing but sand in their faces. We will continue to deepen these relationships within the South Pacific and right across Asia. We will continue to advocate for our region. We will continue to provide economic, educational and health opportunities to our part of the world, because that is the Australian way, because that's what makes Australia great and what makes the South Pacific great. I couldn't be prouder to be a part of a government that has delivered this treaty.

I'd like to commend the member for Sturt on this motion. My community's cultural ties to the Pacific run deep, and so I'm only too happy to add my voice to support this motion. We're proud to be home to the second largest Pacific population in Victoria, with more than 10,000 Pacific Islanders across the local government area. The Pacific is not foreign policy in my community; it's family. We know that a stronger, safer, more prosperous Pacific benefits every Australian.

So I welcome and we welcome the signing of the Vanuatu-Australia Nakamal Agreement in Canberra a few weeks ago. This is a landmark agreement with broad-reaching impacts. It's a 10-year strategic, economic and security treaty.

Australians want a peaceful Pacific, and this agreement sets out an enduring framework to strengthen people-to-people links and our cultural connections. I agree with what the Minister for Pacific Island Affairs said. It is about respect, trust and understanding. It strengthens and formalises our partnership as we walk forward together as two sovereign nations. These are values I can certainly get behind.

The time allocated for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.