ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: I am absolutely delighted to host Prime Minister Luxon here in Australia on your first official overseas visit as New Zealand's Prime Minister. I congratulate, once again, Chris on his election as Prime Minister. Australia and New Zealand, of course, share history, geography, values, and a common strategic outlook, and our relationship has never been more important.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister, welcome to Australia for your first official visit. We, of course, have met many times here in Australia, and also in New Zealand and a very warm welcome to you. The relationship between our two nations is a relationship of friends and partners. And that of course, this year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of our closer economic agreement. And what we see is the interaction on a personal level of friendship, the relationship.

It’s a great honour to have been invited to deliver the annual Lowy Lecture.

The Lowy Institute has been an important part of our national discourse for 20 years.

It is a great gift to Australia from Sir Frank Lowy, a man who has found so many ways to add to the fabric of our nation.

Sir Frank’s story is an extraordinary one. A story that began on the other side of the world, and became a quintessentially Australian one.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, it’s good to be here in Queensland, although the circumstances are of course unfortunate. But I do want to begin by congratulating the new Premier of Queensland, Steven Miles, and to say that we've had a really good strong working relationship over a long period of time and I look forward to working with him in the interests of Queenslanders and in the interests of the nation going forward.

The Albanese Government is delivering additional financial support for people directly impacted by the devastating floods in Far North Queensland.

From 2pm AEST, Wednesday 20 December, applications for the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP) and Disaster Recovery Allowance (DRA) will open for people who live and work in the Cairns, Cassowary Coast, Cook, Douglas, Hope Vale, Mareeba, Tablelands, Wujal Wujal and Yarrabah Local Government Areas (LGAs):

JESS WINDOW, HOST: Good morning, Prime Minister. Jess speaking.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: G'day, Jess. Anthony Albanese here.

WINDOW: How you doing? Great to hear from you. I spoke to you many times, but before you were the big PM.

PRIME MINISTER: Oh, that's right.

MURRAY JONES, HOST: Let's talk about the Australian Defence Force helicopters, more personnel deployed to the area. That's one of the key things that we need as we go into a recovery phase here in Tropical North Queensland. Also some incredible stories when it comes to people being absolute heroes and some of the things that they've done. Joining me this morning to talk about the way forward for Tropical North Queensland, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Good morning.

ADAM STEPHEN, HOST: The man on the phone with us this afternoon is in charge of the country and we'll put to Anthony Albanese some of the concerns of you and find out what the Federal Government has planned with the assistance and recovery from this weather event. Prime Minister, thanks for joining us.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will welcome the Prime Minister of New Zealand, The Rt Hon Christopher Luxon, to Australia on 20 December 2023.

This will be Prime Minister Luxon’s first official overseas visit.

The early engagement between the two leaders demonstrates the closeness of the Australia-New Zealand partnership.

The leaders will meet in Sydney to discuss how to continue deepening ties between the two countries and our shared vision for a peaceful, stable and prosperous region.

SABRA LANE, HOST: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joins us now from Kirribilli. Good morning and welcome to the program.

PRIME MINISTER, ANTHONY ALBANESE: Good morning Sabra.

LANE: Some areas have had huge amounts of rain, a metre in 24 hours, dangerous flash flooding, people on rooftops needing to be rescued. Civic leaders want Defence help, will they get it?