Well, this has been a very successful Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting hosted by Samoa, and it is the first time that CHOGM has met here in the Pacific. Commonwealth countries represent one third of the world's population, and it's an opportunity to engage in Australia's national interests with our Commonwealth partners. And this morning, I've had the great opportunity to be here at the Pacific Policing Initiative being launched. We are determined to go forward with this initiative as the major outcome from the Pacific Island Forum meeting held just a couple of months ago. And during that period, we determined there'd be three aspects to the Pacific Policing Initiative. The first is a headquarters in Brisbane for training and for engagement with police officers from throughout the region. The second would be four Centres of Excellence located, one in Papua New Guinea, one in Fiji, and two more to come. And the third was the Pacific Policing Support Group, a multinational engagement so that when major activities occur, or there is a major natural disaster, or any request for a multinational police forcing element that will occur. And just two months later, here we are in Samoa, and the first deployment of the Support Group is occurring right here now, with 46 police officers representing eleven different nations engaged in security here in Samoa for the CHOGM conference. I look forward to this afternoon's deliberations. Last night, His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen hosted a Leaders Dinner at the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, and it was a convivial atmosphere. It was an opportunity to engage informally as well. Relationships are important, and it means that you can then pick up the phone and engage on an informal basis if you've developed those relations. And I, over the last two days, have taken the opportunity to engage with new leaders. Last night, I sat next to the Deputy Prime Minister of Malta, Australia has a very large population, of course, from Malta, numbering close to 400,000 and that is a community in which we're able to engage, for example. So, I look forward to this afternoon's deliberations.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, just on today's announcement. This is obviously a very quick turnaround from announcement to you know, being deployed on the ground. Can you give us a sense obviously, this agreement and the PPI doesn't exclude Pacific nations striking agreements with other countries, should they wish to. But the fact you've got nine Pacific leaders or senior representatives here today, does that give you a sense of confidence that at least when it comes to major events and major deployments that most, if not all, Pacific leaders do view it primarily as the responsibility of Pacific nations, rather than outside nations?
PRIME MINISTER: This initiative had the unanimous support of Pacific nations. The Pacific family needs to provide security for the Pacific, by the Pacific, and that's what this initiative is about. Pacific neighbours want to look after each other. We do that in times of crisis. The Fijian Prime Minister spoke about the deployment of Fijian support during the bush fires in Australia in 2019-20. Australia regularly provides support for our Pacific neighbours. And I think what this does is confirm the Pacific family needs to look after our own security in our own interests.
JOURNALIST: Does that mean the Pacific should be wary of the influence of China in this region, because they are not really one of the members of the family?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, this is about the Pacific family looking after each other.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, what was it like to be given a chiefly title?
PRIME MINISTER: It was a wonderful event. The children were very excited, it was wonderful that the women sang the Australian National Anthem, and it was a great honour. And it's something that I will remember, and I hope that all of you will remember as well, to see the green and gold throughout the village. The Samoan people are friendly, and they're engaging, and they're warm and they're hospitable, and it was a great honour for Australia, the fact that I was given that title.
JOURNALIST: PM, are you, not to pre-empt, you know, the final communique. But there's obviously hope from a lot of nations here that the Oceans Declaration will be endorsed. In principle, does Australia support protecting thirty per cent of the world's oceans by 2030? Is that feasible?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the Oceans Declaration is important, and yesterday at the leaders discussion, a range of national leaders expressed their support for that. I think it will be one of the major initiatives coming out of the Forum. We're here, we speak about the Pacific being the blue continent, and indeed it is. It's not just about the island, one of the things about the Falepili Agreement that we have with Tuvalu is it recognises that even with rising sea levels, the status of nations does not change. That is an important component as well, as His Majesty, King Charles indicated in his opening statement, and has certainly had a long-term view that climate change is an existential threat and we need to make sure that we provide protection on land, but also on water to mitigate its impact.
JOURNALIST: Sport has been a big diplomatic tool for you here in the Pacific, it's something that's shared across the Pacific family. We know there's a PNG team in the works. Have you discussed it with any of the other leaders here? Has there been, you know, excitement from the other countries?
PRIME MINISTER: Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football, sport is very important. And when we talk about our engagement in the region, for Papua New Guinea, the Prime Minister Marape was telling me last night that there were well over 1 million people watched in bars, in community centres, watched the game between the Prime Minister's Thirteen of Australia and the Prime Minister's XIII of Papua New Guinea just a couple of weeks ago. The other thing that occurred was that the PNG versus Fiji game as part of the Pacific Cup was watched again by well over a million people. Now those figures massively underestimate what the impact is. So these relations are very important. This morning we heard the Reverend before the Prime Minister of Samoa speak about the All Blacks Captain being of Samoan heritage. And certainly engagement with sport is a part on what we have in common, and we need to emphasise our common interests, rather than any differences which are here in the Pacific because we are part of the family.
JOURNALIST: Can I just one on the UK relationship just very quickly. After your meetings with the UK Prime Minister, a number of Brits reached out to me asking if you and the UK are looking at the issue where UK pensioners who aren't permanent residents have had their pensions frozen at point of immigration. A lot of people are really struggling during the cost of living crisis. It's different in the EU and US. Is this something that your Governments are talking about?
PRIME MINISTER: Governments Social Security ministers, respectively, have discussions on a regular basis, as do departments, as do our respective High Commissions in each other's countries. This isn't something that's confined, of course, just to the UK. When it comes to the UK, the agreement that we struck yesterday, where going forward on clean energy and climate action is something where we have very strong common interests. I've been able to engage informally with Prime Minister Starmer on a number of occasions, including last night, and it's been terrific to be able to catch up with him and also the Foreign Minister. Thank you.
