My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence. How is the Albanese Labor government strengthening our relationships with our close neighbours, including through greater cooperation with our defence forces?

I thank the member for his question, and I greatly enjoyed visiting with him Holsworthy Barracks in his electorate, one of Australia's key defence facilities. Last Wednesday, I signed the Defence Cooperation Framework between Australia and Timor-Leste with the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmão. This landmark agreement heralds in a new era in the defence relationship between our two countries. It will greatly enhance our engagement with Timor-Leste, particularly through our major exercises, and better enable us to help increase the capability of the defence force of Timor-Leste. This is another step down the path of bringing closer together our relations between our two countries after the signing of the Parseria between Prime Minister Albanese and Prime Minister Gusmão in January of this year.

This defence agreement is one of the last links in the chain of the security agreements which we have signed with the countries surrounding Australia. In February, we signed the treaty of common security with Indonesia. In July, our alliance with Papua New Guinea came into effect. We are close to signing a security agreement with Solomon Islands. In June, we signed the Nakamal agreement with Vanuatu. We have a longstanding relationship with France, a NATO partner, which governs our defence engagement with New Caledonia, and we've been an ally of New Zealand since 1951. In July, we also signed the Ocean of Peace Alliance with Fiji. This defence agreement with Timor-Leste is the last link in the chain. It closes the loop, and we are bringing substance to these agreements.

On Tuesday, we held our first Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum as allies. Coming out of that, we announced that next month we will begin the process of recruiting directly from Papua New Guinea into the ADF, which will be great for us in terms of bolstering ADF numbers. But, at the same time, it will also provide wonderful opportunities to young Papua New Guineans. As we face an increasingly complex strategic landscape, now is the time to double down with friends, to double down with neighbours and to double down with family. Be it Papua New Guinea or Timor-Leste, that is exactly what the Albanese Labor government is doing to keep Australians safe.