ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Thanks for joining us. I was absolutely delighted to host Prime Minister Luxon in Queensland today for our Annual Meeting. Australia has no closer partner than New Zealand. We are family. And we share values, we share history and we're two of the world's most integrated economies. And the meeting that we had beforehand as well with business leaders really highlighted that integration which is occurring. And we spoke about practical ways in which we could further integrate our economies, have that seamless activity across the Tasman. And in addition to that, I think there's a new element which is that we're living in a world which is really volatile, where there is a great deal of turbulence and some of the old certainties that commanded global trade and global activity has disappeared. At a time like this, Australia and New Zealand working together is more important than ever. And there are also more opportunities than ever. Our engagement together as friends in the Pacific Island Forum, in ASEAN, at the sideline with our fastest growing regional world in human history just to our north, our participation in APEC, our engagement across so many global forums as well provides that real opportunity going forward. So, I think this is an exciting time for us.
As many of you would know, our Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement was one of the first major achievements of the Hawke Government back in 1983. It is one of the most comprehensive bilateral trade agreements in existence anywhere. Australia is New Zealand's third largest trading partner and New Zealand is Australia's seventh largest trading partner. In 2025, two way investment was valued at $308 billion dollars. In 2025, our two way trade in goods and services exceeded $38 billion dollars. This year as well, we celebrate 75 years of our Alliance under the ANZUS Treaty. The other thing we've spoken about today is our cooperation in defence, in foreign affairs, in international relations, that's so important, both in terms of the interoperability of our defence forces, but also the benefits that we can get from our defence industry investments that both of us are making going forward. As founding members of the Pacific Islands Forum, we're also working with our fellow Pacific leaders to support Pacific-led regional architecture. Now, I had a visit just this week of Prime Minister Wale soon after his election in the Solomon Islands. And he'll visit New Zealand in just a short period of time. That is really important. We discussed the lead up to the PIF meeting in Palau. We'll participate of course in a pre-COP event as well in the region. And we'll continue to engage in the Pacific to meet the challenges which are there, but also to seize the opportunities which are there. So, I want to thank you, Christopher, and I thank Amanda as well for visiting us. For members of the New Zealand business community who've joined with us here today. I think it was one of the most effective business meetings that I've had as Prime Minister, I've got to say. It was very sharp. A lot of work went into the preparation, clearly, to make sure it was a very effective use of our time. And I thank the Australian business leaders as well for visiting us here in Queensland. So, we'll hear from Prime Minister Luxon then we'll have questions.
RT HON CHRISTOPHER LUXON MP, PRIME MINISTER OF NEW ZEALAND: Well, firstly, kia ora everyone, and can I just say thank you, Prime Minister Albanese, for so generously welcoming us here and for your very kind words up front. We have really enjoyed our time together with you, as we always do as a delegation. And it's a real pleasure to be back here in Australia and to spend some time in Queensland, which is obviously a pretty popular tourism place for Kiwis to head to as well. I agree with Prime Minister. I'd like to think that the strong and close relationship we have is a small scale version actually of how our two countries relate. Our connection goes well beyond shared borders and history. It rests on a genuine warmth between our two countries. We are family, as we say, and I think this relationship is in the best shape it's ever been. We have real work out there in the world to do together to remake the case for multilateralism rather than the multi-power world that seems to be emerging. We are moving definitely from a world of rules to power, from economics to security, and increasingly from efficiency into resilience. We have two fantastic countries that can do incredibly well out there in the world together by working together. We are sitting in a region as the biggest driver of growth in the world. Two thirds of future global growth will come out of the Indo-Pacific region. Two thirds of the middle class will be sitting in this region. We have abundant natural resources, we have strong social and democratic institutions that, and values that many of the world aspire to. And most importantly, we have most incredible world class people and talent. So, despite the choppiness, despite the volatility, there's no reason why we can't do extremely well for ourselves.
Look, today we had a very productive discussion. As the Prime Minister said, we touched on defence, that history continues to shape how we cooperate today. That Anzac connection that was forged so long ago is just a good reminder of us about how enduring and relevant that relationship is. We talked about ensuring that that relationship remains fit for purpose. That includes our defence cooperation with the goal of operating even more closely in a more integrated way over time, working towards that capable ANZAC force that we set that vision for in 2035. We also talked about the importance of our cooperation in the Pacific. New Zealand and Australia have closely aligned interests in supporting a region that is incredibly stable, resilient and prosperous. And we also committed to working together in a coordinated way that delivers practical outcomes for our Pacific partners as we do each and every day. Alongside that strategic alignment, our economic relationship is highly developed. As the Prime Minister said, there's about $38 billion dollars’ worth of goods and services that moves between our two countries each year. It was a very, very good conversation with the CEOs from both sides talking about what more we can do together. And that alignment in our economies just continues to play a really big strength as we think about how we build more financial security as part of our broader national securities in the context of that volatile and changing world. There's more that we think we can do together as we think about how we do more around technology, building that resilience and driving more economic productivity and more economic growth. It’s a real pleasure just then to stand and actually see the signing of the next phase of the Trans-Tasman science collaboration related to the Synchrotron Agreement that reinforces New Zealand's long-standing commitment to international science collaboration and shared research infrastructure with Australia. And it commits us to the next phase. And then finally our people to people connections are just another key strength in our bilateral relationship. And Australia of course is the largest source of visitors for us, with more than one and a half million Australians coming over and seeing and spending some time in New Zealand. And that is a genuine two-way exchange, as you know, with New Zealanders coming to Australia and more broadly, a number of New Zealanders now calling Australia home.
Looking ahead, I felt after this visit there are real clear opportunities in this foundation to continue to build out upon, having met with the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games team. That is a massive chance for our region, a fantastic chance for our region in the next decade to lift the profile of tourism and infrastructure and productivity in the broader Australia-New Zealand region. At its core, this is a relationship that is deeply integrated. It is highly practical and pragmatic. It's focused on delivering outcomes for both of our countries and the priority for both of us is to continue to build on that strength, focusing on positioning Australia and New Zealand to make the most of the opportunities that we see out there together in the world, in spite of the volatility and the uncertainty. Prime Minister, I just want to reiterate again a big thank you to you and Jodie for so warmly being so generous with your hospitality and we really appreciate the friendship and the spirit of our negotiations always with you and all the officials and all of our teams that work so closely together. And we look forward with great confidence to continuing to deepen our friendship and our partnership and taking it to the next level.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Thanks, Christopher. We'll take questions I think alternating between Australia and New Zealand.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister Luxon, the Australian Federal Government just recently announced changes to Capital Gains Taxes discount, following that your Finance Minister urged Australians looking to start or grow a business to come to New Zealand because you don't have Capital Gains Tax. Do you support this call from your Finance Minister and if so, why? And for Prime Minister Albanese – what do you think when you hear our neighbours are encouraging Australians to move overseas, effectively criticising your changes to CGT?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: I might jump in first here –
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: I think I know what you're going to say.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: What next? The Wahs signing another Jackson Ford? I mean we have a relationship which is often a bit tongue-in-cheek. That's the truth of the matter. The Wahs sign our players. We have a few Kiwis in Australia too. 638,000 of them here in Australia. One in eight New Zealanders live here. Why? Because it's a good place to live. Just like Australians will continue to enjoy living in New Zealand as well. And so it's a good relationship. Occasionally there's a bit of cheekiness to the relationship. Long may that continue.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: It's no secret within the New Zealand domestic context there's been a long running debate now for over ten years about the merits of introducing a CGT or not. You know, we haven't ever introduced one in the country. Her comments were really in the context of that debate domestically rather than, there was no comments about the domestic settings of the CGT here in Australia. That's up for you guys in your different economic context to obviously make your decisions, as it's a debate domestically in New Zealand. We don't think that's appropriate for New Zealand and we feel pretty strongly about it. You know, we've got a recovery underway and we just think a CGT being introduced to New Zealand now as that would be a wrecking ball through our economy.
JOURNALIST: Sure, but do you support (inaudible)
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Well, I think the Prime Minister discovered, you know, I think it was done in good humour and yes, it was cheeky, I agree. But what's important for me is that we don't comment on each other's domestic economic policies because that's these different contexts and different histories that may have got us to different decisions. And she definitely didn't do that. She was responding to the broader challenge about the merits of a CGT in New Zealand. And that's really what we're, it's quite a, a robust debate about that, you know.
PRIME MINISTER: For any All Blacks out there thinking of moving to Australia, we can fast track your citizenship.
JOURNALIST: Did you feel, Prime Minister Albanese, did you feel it was appropriate though for Nicola Willis, who is also the Government's Finance Minister, to attack New Zealand's Labour Party by essentially saying your government made its tax reforms because you're under the political strain? And on that political strain that both of you are facing from the likes of One Nation and New Zealand First, what do you make of the rise of immigration as a political issue on both sides of the Tasman? Do you think that that is bad?
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Well, maybe if I take that one first. I mean, you know, the immigration debate in New Zealand, as I said in recent weeks, is, you know, I get what the populists want to do on one side of politics about talking about immigration. But the reality is we have a system that is about legal immigration. We have immigration settings that are constantly adjusted and tweaked to make sure they are very strongly linked to our infrastructure capacity, but also to the broader economic agenda we have. And when countries lose their formation about linking immigration to their economic agenda and infrastructure capacity, that's when we've seen challenges like we've seen in the UK where there is, you know, frankly up to a thousand illegal immigrants coming into the UK each and every day at times. You've seen huge amounts of illegal immigration in the US. So, that is not the situation that we have certainly in New Zealand. That political mentality, the point I've been trying to make, shouldn't be trying to be imported in to whip up xenophobia and an anti-immigrant feeling when that is not the way, that is not the New Zealand experience. We have legal immigration. We constantly adjust our settings, we make sure that it's broadly linked to our infrastructure capacity and importantly our economic agenda where we have work shortages and gaps. And I just think it's easy and lazy politics doing so.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: We have cut immigration levels or the net overseas migration by 45 per cent since its peak. Obviously post-COVID there was a spike in migration. That's not surprising given that Australians were stopped from coming home, let alone people visiting Australia as well. We are a nation made up, with the exception of First Nations people, of migrants or descendants of migrants here in Australia. They play a vital role. One of the things that I will never draw a distinction between is Australians and migrants, because to do that is to seek to divide. Before I became Prime Minister, there was a scare campaign saying that the boat arrivals would start up. The truth is that no one who's arrived by boat is allowed to stay here. We've kept Operation Sovereign Borders in place. We have an orderly migration system. What we are doing is making sure that is continued. Making sure we link migration with skill shortages is very important going forward.
JOURNALIST: Can I give an answer to the first question? Did you feel it was appropriate for Nicola Willis to make those comments and attack New Zealand's Labour Party by claiming that you made the changes because of political pressure?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: I'm very relaxed about what people say, tongue-in-cheek, overseas. I doubt whether anyone took it any more seriously than I did. That's the way that I took the comments to make and that's the nature of the banter that occurs. Myself and the PM here were exchanging text messages over the Sydney FC game that was held. When was that? About two weeks ago.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Yeah.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: About two weeks ago on the Saturday night. You know that's the nature of banter. I know the Finance Minister. I also know Chris Hipkins as well, and I regard him as a friend, as I regard the other Christopher as a friend here as well. I have no intention of engaging in internal New Zealand politics and I don't think the Finance Minister was doing that either. I just took it as a bit of a, bit cheeky given 638,000 Kiwis are living here. I don't think there's 638,000 Australians living in New Zealand. So –
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: It’s 90,000. I just do want to point out –
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: But they're quality.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Yeah, yeah.
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: They’re quality, Prime Minister, as are every one of the 638,000 New Zealanders, particularly those who have taken up the opportunity of my changes I made to make it easy –
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Which we are very grateful to you –
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: To become Australian citizens and vote in Australian elections. So, I encourage both of those events to occur.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: That sounds like a perfectly good time to move on to the next question.
JOURNALIST: A question to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Prime Minister Luxon, if you'd like to jump on off the back of it. Mr. Albanese, how concerned are you about China's recent travel ban on four Kiwi MPs following a cross-parliamentary trip to Taiwan? And do you think it's appropriate for our Foreign Minister to make representations to Beijing?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: We make diplomatic representations all the time when it's appropriate. Australia's position on Taiwan has not changed. We support a one China policy. We support the status quo as well. MPs will make their own decisions and they're entitled to do so.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: Yeah, we have very much the same view that, you know, MPs represent the legislature, they're not part of the Executive Government. Visits are up to them. It's been a long standing practice frankly of MPs accepting invitations to visit Taiwan. We think it's inappropriate the bans are put on these four MPs from New Zealand that have gone. They've simply just exercised their right to travel and they're free to see who they want to see. And so for us, we have raised our concerns with the Chinese Government and we're seeking to understand what, you know, why they've done that and understand that better. And again from our point of view, we haven't made any changes to our one China policy and it continues to be fully observed by our government. So, you know, we'll work that through with the Chinese.
JOURNALIST: Do you think it was appropriate for Australia’s Foreign Minister to make comments on that?
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: We appreciate the support. I mean again, you know, we both recently in the last week came out jointly supporting each other's, you know, we actually supported the Australian call for making three more extremist settlers on the West Bank entirely appropriately sanctioned as well. And we think that's, that's good, that's a good example where we do, you know, come together in that. So, we appreciate the support and the concerns being raised as well. Obviously we work it through with the Chinese directly ourselves as well.
JOURNALIST: I just wanted to touch on some of the points about military alignment and engaging in the Pacific. Given the interoperability is a priority, Prime Minister Albanese, will Australia ever expect New Zealand to change its policy to allow Australia's nuclear propelled ships into its waters? And given the pressure from the US to up defend spending, can both countries actually rely on the US to help it defend the Pacific region where threats and tensions are rising when the US is so unpredictable?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Well, two questions there. On the first, what I expect is for New Zealand to remain a sovereign state and we respect the decisions that New Zealand makes. We work with our friends in New Zealand each and every day. We have defence personnel embedded in each other's defence forces. That is very important. We cooperate and see huge opportunities in not just in the defence of our respective nations and working together, but as well in defence industry and what that will do. One of the things about defence industry, it's highly advanced manufacturing. So, there are spin offs as well from that and we want to share the benefits for that as well –
JOURNALIST: [inaudible]
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: With regard, we respect New Zealand's position and will work with that whilst respecting New Zealand's sovereignty. On the US, the US remains our most important ally. We celebrate this year 75 years of ANZUS and the alliance that we have with New Zealand, the alliance we have with the United States. We've recently got a third alliance now with Papua New Guinea. The first that we've had since 1951, is very significant. We think that the US, just in the last week we've had up at the Shangri-La Dialogue, meetings of our respective Defence Ministers of the US, the UK and Australia. And our Deputy Prime Minister works closely with his counterpart Pete Hegseth in the United States. This is a relationship beyond just individuals, beyond leaders of our respective nations. This is a deeply committed relationship. Australia have key personnel there at Pacific Command in Hawaii. We have people in Central Command embedded in the United States. There are many Australian submariners working as we speak at the moment on US submarines, learning the skills and the capacity which will benefit Australia when we receive the Virginia-class submarines and when we make build our own SSN-AUKUS in the future as well. So, we regard the United States relationship as being very important. We encourage the United States to continue to be engaged in our region and we work closely with them.
PRIME MINISTER LUXON: I'll just say with respect to the point about interoperability between our two forces, I mean we've in the last 12 months we've had 15 joint training exercises between the Australian, New Zealand Defence Forces. We now have currently at the moment there is a Hercules flying under Australian call sign. We have Seahawks that are coming, helicopters, we have aircrafts, so that we've got the same kit and the same equipment so that actually we are interoperable, we do get synergies and we can be a force multiplier by working together in the way that we do. So, we'll continue to do that. We think that's really important. As you know, we've had a, you know, we've come a long way. We've had 30 years of underinvestment in defence forces in New Zealand over a long period of time. We've moved from a benign environment to a much more globally strategically competitive environment. It's entirely appropriate that we double our defence spending, but that takes us time as we work through the acquisition of those key bits of aircraft and ships and obviously needing to recruit more personnel as well. So, you know, we need to be able to do that because we want to be part of these alliances. But we also, it's really important we play our part. And so, I make no apologies in the New Zealand context for actually wanting to double our defence expenditure. Again, with respect to the nuclear free position. You know, I've spoken about that over the course of the last week. I mean, that obviously has full support across all of our political spectrum, as you know, in New Zealand. It is a Kiwi thing. It's a matter of principle for us and there is no appetite for change, and it won't be changing while I'm Prime Minister. And I think Australia and all of our partners have been very good at understanding our position and working with us around that and with that.
JOURNALIST: My question is for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Could you please outline the rationale behind the decision to cut Commonwealth disaster relief funding for Queensland, where 200,000 Kiwi expats are, and were all in the direct line of fire for multiple severe weather events?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: What we've done is, we did a review and the review is about fast-tracking funding. It's about making sure that we remove some of the red tape and bureaucracy. Previously there wasn't a system put in place. You had to have letters and exchanges and assessments taking place. What we've done is to move through in a full and fair way, 50-50 funding arrangement for every major event. But in addition to that, we're looking down the track in the future Budgets as well, as resilience as well. Every single event that has occurred in Queensland, I not only have signed off on important funding for Queensland and for Queenslanders, I've been on the ground, whether that be in Mount Isa in the far north, whether it be in Cairns, whether it be in South East Queensland as well, or whether it be in Central Queensland. We have done that. We're making sure that none of that will change whatsoever and it's something that we're very committed to. And can I make this point that before my government was elected there wasn't a National Emergency Management Agency in place. We are seamless every time there's an event as well. We've had our Minister on the ground, sitting in on meetings, or indeed at the leadership level, I've sat in meetings with Premier Crisafulli in Brisbane, in Cairns, right around this state to make sure, and none of that is going to change.
JOURNALIST: The State Government has have come out and said this decision will leave Queenslanders worse off. Do you reject that?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: State Governments often say that on most things that they would like to advocate their interest against what is actually occurring. I'm just saying, these changes will ensure faster support through a simpler scheme that is in place. This should not be an ad hoc arrangement. There should be an actual scheme in place. That's precisely what we're doing. That's why we did the review and that's why we're adopting the recommendations of the review.
JOURNALIST: The health of the Australian economy is obviously [inaudible] with the New Zealand's economic performance, yet headline inflation in Australia is tracking outside of its target band and the government is continuing to increase spending, and some growth is being considered directly or indirectly by State and Federal Government spending programs. How are you planning to put Australia on a low inflation sustainable growth trajectory? And what do you make of New Zealand's economic [inaudible]?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: The truth is that the war that's occurred across the other side of the world, where neither Australia or New Zealand are protagonists, is having an impact on global inflation. We are experiencing the fastest and largest energy crisis that the globe has seen, far exceeding the 1974 OPEC crisis or other events. The events that occurred after the Russian illegal invasion of Ukraine. We're dealing with that, as is the rest of the world. But if you look at our economic fundamentals, they are very sound. We had our National Accounts just this week that showed the economy continuing to grow, annual growth of 2.5 per cent. We're seeing the unemployment rate to be relatively low still, with a four in front of it. We saw importantly in the National Accounts, we saw the big growth being business investment occurring in the first quarter and that's a good thing going forward. And I am positive that in spite of the difficulties that are there in the global pressures that are on our economy, there's nowhere you'd rather be. And we saw headline inflation is 4.2, so it's above the band, but trim mean inflation is 3.4, which is much closer to what the RBA wanted between two and three. We produced a Budget just a couple of weeks ago that has $64 billion of savings in it. More savings than have been produced in any Budget ever, is what we produced. And we did that because we understand that that was appropriate economic settings going forward. So, the changes that we've made compared with what we inherited in 2022, every year, firstly, two Budget surpluses, the only Budget surpluses in recent memory that have been handed down consecutively and reduce deficits. So, we're providing sound economic management in difficult global economic circumstances going forward. And that assists us in the trade relationship that we have with our friends in New Zealand.
JOURNALIST: I guess just following up on that, I mean, what, obviously probably have limitations of what you want to say about New Zealand domestic policy, but what are your reflections on the New Zealand economy over the past year and from there as well?
PRIME MINISTER ALBANESE: Look, I have no intention of commenting on domestic politics of any nation. What I would say is that the relationship between Australia and New Zealand has never been stronger. And the meeting that we had today was with the business community in particular, showed that. I mean, business leaders have travelled from New Zealand and from different parts of Australia, senior business leaders, because they know how important this relationship is. It is in both of our country's interests for that to be further advanced in the future. I'm very confident that that will occur.
PRIME MINSTER LUXON: Yeah, look, and you know, our New Zealand settings, we've come through a Budget where, you know, we've got growth at 2.7 per cent next four years, we've got inflation around about 2 per cent that period of time. And most importantly, to help with affordability challenges, we've got wages growing faster than prices, which is important, but our surplus coming forward a year to 2028. So, that's all good. I just say, you know, when you take a zoom out, we're living in a world of 195 countries, eight billion people, everybody dealing with the challenges that we're dealing with. We're all over it. We've gone through pandemic, we've gone through inflation, we've gone through recessions, we've gone through weather events, we've gone through Trump's tariffs. Now we're dealing with a fuel crisis in the Middle East. And, you know, in both cases in Australia and New Zealand, our job is to make sure we build as much financial security in order to give us national security. But man, wouldn't you like to be living in this part of the world? Because out there, there is a massive opportunity for both Australia and New Zealand which is, as I said, two thirds of the growth in the middle class, two thirds of global economic growth sitting in our region. We're not a long way away from it. We're bang smack in the middle of it. We have social and democratic institutions and values that people aspire to have. And importantly, we have abundant natural resources. And as I said at the beginning, we've got kick arse, world class people. We should go out in the world and see a world of opportunity and bring the money home to Australia and New Zealand. So, that's been the mentality of our conversations as we think about, yes, we're going to have influence and use our agency to control as much as we can in the global political environment and where that world order ultimately ends up getting to. But in the intervening period we're going to control what we can control in Australia and New Zealand which is to build kick arse countries. Okay.
PRIME MINSTER ALBANESE: Thank you very much.