ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Thanks for joining me. I've just returned from Bogor Palace after attending a very productive Annual Leaders’ Meeting with President Joko Widodo. My meeting with President Widodo was warm, it was productive and it was heartfelt. Though it wasn't the first time that we've met, the President and I shared not only the vision for our two countries and how we can best work together, we also shared our similar stories of humble beginnings. And that was the significance of the bike ride, which was deeply touching to me that he had researched my background and talked about his own. And it was, of course, symbolising the fact that for so many Indonesians, they rely upon bikes for the essentials of their everyday life and their livelihoods and I was deeply touched by this gesture from the President. As I said in my earlier statement at the Leaders’ Meeting, Australia's relationship with Indonesia is one of our most important. That's why I was absolutely determined for this to be my first bilateral visit and it's a great honour for me to attend just two weeks after my swearing-in as Prime Minister with my Foreign Minister, my Trade Minister, my Industry Minister and with the Member for Solomon. Darwin, of course, has a particularly close relationship with Indonesia. The seriousness of our delegation shows the way in which the Australian Government takes our partnership and our relationship and I must say that the response of President Widodo and other Indonesian Ministers and the effort that has gone into the warm reception that we've received shows that they feel exactly the same way and I thank them for the generosity of the welcome. Today in my one on one meeting, I informed President Widodo that I will attend the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali in November. I did so because the work of the G20 is critical at this time of global economic uncertainty and it will be by working with Indonesia that we most effectively tackle the many challenges we face in navigating the post-COVID global economic recovery. And I look forward to working with President Widodo to help deliver a successful summit. I reiterated my support to President Widodo in revitalising our trade and investment relationship, including through realising the potential that's there of the Indonesian Australian Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. We spoke about a range of other issues in which we have specific commitments. The issue of climate change, where we have our $200 million Climate Change Infrastructure Partnership Program, the importance of ASEAN and its centrality to our foreign policy and to the region, and I'll meet with the Secretary General of ASEAN after this media conference. I spoke about the importance of education, a real priority for the President, and the fact that we will have ten postgraduate scholarships aimed at areas of significance for the President's agenda in master's degrees and PhDs in Australia. But we also spoke about the importance of increasing the number of students coming to Australia, but also Australians studying here in Indonesia, and the presence of Monash University, establishing the first international university presence here in Indonesia is important. And, of course, Margaret Gardner is part of the business delegation here. The fact that so many senior business leaders are here as part of this delegation on very short notice, this has been organised for obvious reasons, is a sign as well that it’s not just the Australian Government but the Australian business community which understands how important the relationship with Indonesia is going forward. I thank very much President Widodo for his warm welcome. I look forward to welcoming him at our next Leaders' Summit in Australia. We got on exceptionally well, I've got to say, and it was a very warm welcome. And I thank him and all of his Ministers, a number of whom will attend the business dinner that we have on, this evening before we travel to Makassar, which is also an important symbol that Australia understands that Indonesia is much more than Jakarta and Bali. This vast archipelago and this great nation is diverse, is spread across a wide area of geography. And Makassar has a particular connection, of course, with Australia, going back many hundreds of years in terms of trade. So that will be, I think, a successful day tomorrow as well. But happy to take your questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, on the G20. Can you explain the reason why (indistinct)?
PRIME MINISTER: Well, Mr Morrison said a range of things, but in terms of why I'll be attending is that I'm focused on sitting with President Widodo, not sitting with President Putin. It is in Australia's interest to have good relations with our Indonesian friends. The Indonesian presidency of the G20 is an important moment for Indonesia. There's a lot of work being done. Arrangements for the meeting will be settled in due course, and we discussed that, and it's important we work through. The understandable concern is of President Putin's attendance. I said before I travelled to Indonesia in Perth that Vladimir Putin attended previous meetings in Australia hosted by Tony Abbott. That didn't mean that we agree with his stance. Indeed, we find President Putin's behaviour to be abhorrent, to be illegal, to be a travesty of the international order, and betraying the norms of behaviour that we expect from every member country of the UN, let alone a member of the UN Security Council.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: I don't intend to discuss the issues that were raised one on one with the President. You wouldn't expect me to. But in terms of our dialogue that we had between our delegations, I certainly mentioned our commitment to AUKUS, reaffirmed our view as well that that is consistent with our position on non-nuclear proliferation, and that it was consistent with that.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Growth and investment. This is our 13th. In terms of if you look at trade, Indonesia is running at 13. This is a country that is a near neighbour, a country that has enormous potential and when I met with Australian business leaders this morning who are here, it's significant that the head of the BCA, the President of the Australian Industry Group, as well as individual CEOs like Rob Scott from Wesfarmers and Matt Comyn from CommBank and others are here, all looking at investment. What I would see as a success is that investment growing, that relationship growing. And we spoke with Ministers today, as well as with President Widodo about the potential that's there across a range of areas. Australia also needs, in our relationship with Indonesia, not just look at investment, but tech transfer and how we can engage, is a big matter. That's why that's one of the reasons why Ed Husic is here as part of the delegation as well. I think Ed might want to, I'll give him the opportunity if he wants to add something there, but we have enormous opportunity for growth. Indonesia is going to be a top five economy in the globe, during your lifetime certainly, and hopefully mine as well.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: No, it didn't come up, but Australia has made our views known to the Chinese government.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Here and then here.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, in terms of his public comments, what struck me was how similar that it is to what I've been speaking about, which I've directly quoted the Biden Administration, of competition without catastrophe. We do have strategic competition in the region. We need to make sure that it's managed in a way that doesn't have catastrophic consequences for the region. We want peace and security in the region. Australia and Indonesia will have different foreign policies, as you would expect, with different nations, with different priorities. We also have different histories. Australia has a strong alliance with the United States as one of our three pillars of our foreign policy. Indonesia's historical relationship and positioning, international relations has been different. We respect that. What we do have is respectful dialogue and cooperation absolutely, wherever possible. And today's discussions were consistent with that.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, there were no discussions on that today.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, I'll ask Penny to supplement this answer, but ASEAN's centrality is really important. And one of the things we discussed today was that President Widodo will assume the leadership next year. It's important for the region as well. And we spoke about today the policies that we have, including establishing a dedicated office in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, including our $470,000,000 of additional aid into the region. But what has happened in Myanmar? We continue to express our concern at the appalling situation based upon, once again, a breach of the rule of law and the consequences of that for minorities and the consequences for Myanmar in terms of human rights. And we'll continue to do that strongly. Penny?
PENNY WONG, MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Well, obviously Australia continues to express our deep concerns about what has occurred in Myanmar. We made some comments part of the election. Obviously, we've only been elected for a couple of weeks, but we'll be working our way through those commitments. I would acknowledge Indonesia's leadership and in particular my counterpart, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, in terms of seeking to try and utilise ASEAN and bilateral discussions to express concerns and gain progress. She and I did discuss that, but as the centrality is important to the region, that doesn't mean Australia doesn't have to make its own choices about how it deals with this issue bilaterally.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, that was raised during discussions and we looked at a range of potential solutions. There's an APEC business visa, there's a range of ways in which we could streamline. This is an issue that, upon coming to government without going into other issues, we have found it isn't just in this area, we have a problem processing visas. There is just an extraordinary backlog. It's something that I raised in briefings before the election with the Home Affairs Department that we had in the lead up to the election, when we're getting briefings, because it's a consistent issue which is raised. We need to make sure that in the areas in which we've said we will have greater access, which is in Australia's interest and Indonesia's interest, it is for work visas, for areas in terms of student visas, business visas, all of these issues I think we need to do better on. We need to be more welcoming in what is a globally competitive labour market as well. If a business leader who wants to come and engage with Australia has more difficulty getting into Australia than a near neighbour, then we're at a competitive disadvantage. And that's something that we're really suffering from across the board, our students, international students to Australia is an important export, but it's a bit more than that. It's not just about the economy, it's about building relations there's 200,000 Indonesians have studied in Australia. They go back as ambassadors and advocates for Australia. They come and they travel and they come back with their families in later life and travel for longer periods of time. The nature of it tends to be that they're middle class, so they have more income to spend as tourists when they come, and importantly as well, they increase our understanding of each other and that's something that we really need to build on.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well, the big topic of discussion was about our relationship, Australia and Indonesia. That was the focus of the discussion. Obviously, there's a context of the strategic competition, as it was called, is part of that context. But we're very much focused on our bilateral relationship was the focus of the discussions, and that is as you would expect.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Well on a practical measure, strengthening our relationship with Indonesia as part of the dynamic in the region, strengthening our relationship with ASEAN as a part of the dynamic in the region as well. And that is one of the reasons why ASEAN is so central, is that context of competition between the big powers of China and the United States in the region. It's one of the reasons why we speak about the centrality of ASEAN. That's part of the context of what we're dealing with here. But across a range of areas we can provide assistance increased cooperation and engagement in defence, increased cooperation areas through the ITSAP program, the Indonesian transport safety assistance package whereby we provide assistance in maritime that includes maritime security includes maritime safety issues we provide support in terms of aviation support in the region as well. There's a range of areas in which we can provide assistance to strengthen that relationship, strengthening that relationship will help to provide a context of what is going on in the region.
JOURNALIST: (Inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER: Yes, I have not heard back at this point in time, we have made representations through appropriate channels and they were strong representations as you would expect. We've also made the public comments, so they haven't just been quiet diplomacy in this case they've been strong, because we regard the actions of China in this area as being an act of aggression and a dangerous act against the Australian Air Force which was conducting aerial surveillance in accordance with international norms and in accordance with practice that's been long observed.