Australia-Latin America Forum 2026

Speech, check against delivery 16 June 2026 Good morning. I'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands on which we're meeting, the Wurundjeri people, and pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging. I want to acknowledge Costa Rican Foreign Minister Tovar.

And I want to thank the organisers of today's event, the Australia-Latin America Business Council, for this opportunity to come to Melbourne. It's always a pleasure, even for this Sydney-sider, to come here. To come to a city acclaimed for its beautiful architecture, its street-art and laneways, its food scene, and of course its coffee culture.

Now, I'm sure that many of you have arrived today already well caffeinated if not at home, then probably at a nearby cafe. But whether you went to the original Patricia's, on Little Bourke Street. Or Bench Coffee, on Little Collins.

Or if you sat upstairs in Tom Thumb, over in Flinders Lane. Really, if you went anywhere here in Melbourne. Then there's a good chance your cup was made with beans grown and harvested in Latin America.

And whether the specific country of origin was Brazil or Colombia, Costa Rica or Guatemala or Panama. Whether it was a plain ol' Arabica varietal — or a specialty bean, like Bourbon or Caturra. That coffee is emblematic of the many ties that exist between Australia and Latin America.

Ties that reach across the oceans, spanning trade and investment, agriculture and research, education and tourism and emigration all linking us together. We've long had these ties, of course. After all, Latin America, specifically, Rio de Janeiro, re-supplied the First Fleet while it was enroute to Australia in 1788.

It was a Mexican mint that supplied Australia's first home currency, the 'Holey dollar', in 1814. During the Gold Rushes, when many farmers walked off the land to go mining, Australia was fed by 16,000 tonnes of Chilean flour and 1.2 million bushels of Chilean wheat. And, of course, Chile gave us our first Labor prime minister, in the form of Johan Cristian Tanck better known as Chris Watson!

The ties are not just historical. They are ongoing and growing, threaded into everyday life. To take just a handful: Brazilian company Marcopolo SA builds buses here in Australia, through its subsidiary, Volgren who are here today.

Peruvian oils and lubricants manufacturer Vistony del Peru has its Australian and New Zealand headquarters in Geelong. Brazilian meat company JBS runs Primo a supplier of ham, bacon, salami, and more. And Mexican conglomerate Gruma runs Mission Foods, which makes tortillas in Epping for distribution across Australia and into Asia.

These ties go the other way, too. In the mining and resources industries, Australian-backed companies like BHP, Rio Tinto and Woodside have made significant investments across Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Peru and Brazil. A host of Australian companies, like Worley, Ausenco, and Bradken, work in the adjacent mining equipment, technology, and services industry.

And that Australian presence goes further, into other sectors. If you drive out to Mexico City's newest airport, you'll be doing so on roads to which Australian companies Aleatica, through IFM Investors, have helped build. If you fly into Bogota, Colombia, you'll be doing so to an airport that is not only one of the busiest on the continent but also part-owned by Macquarie.

If you board a train around Chillán, Chile, you'll likely be travelling on infrastructure supported by Australia's own Martinus Rail. If you board the ferry from Buenos Aires to Uruguay, you'll do so aboard either the which is recognised by the Guiness World Records as the fastest ferry in the world or soon, the China Zorilla , the world's largest battery-electric ferry.

Both are creations of Australian shipbuilding company, InCat, whose shipyards are down on the River Derwent, in Hobart. The point is simple: Australia's presence reaches into daily life across Latin America. And for Australia, deeper engagement with Latin America means practical benefits at home: new markets for our exporters, more opportunities for Australian businesses, and more jobs in our regions and cities.

From Mexican and Peruvian beer produced with Australian brewing barley. To Honduran lempira banknotes produced by Australian company CCL Secure. To the tours led across the continent by Australian company Intrepid Travel.

Australian business is everywhere. More than 300 Australian companies operate in Latin America. Representing an investment of more than $35 billion.

Trade with Latin America is growing apace by almost 40 per cent over the last five years. And total two-way trade between Australia and Latin America is now almost $20 billion per year. These figures and these links, all this activity, it's not accidental.

Rather, it's the product of deliberate work and effort. And a robust trade architecture, alongside the initiative and acumen of Australian business and forums like this one, has supported it. From our free trade agreements with Chile, in 2009, and Peru, in 2020.

To the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), signed in 2018 and drawing in Mexico, Chile, Peru with Costa Rica on track to accede and accession discussions underway with Uruguay. We have been alive to the opportunities for building on our links. Strengthening the ones that exist and forging new ones.

And we are intent on continuing that work especially now. Because there's no doubt that our world is more contested and more complex. Old tenets are coming into question.

And some of the established dynamics of the world are evolving in new ways. In such a moment, openness to new opportunities. To diversifying our sources of trade and investment.

To broadening our engagement with new and emerging partners. To building resilient and secure supply chains around energy and food. Is integral to securing stability, peace, and prosperity.

For Australia, Latin America is such an opportunity. With a combined population of over 650 million people. And a growing consumer class of more than 250 million people.

With rapid urbanisation underway. And a GDP that is double that of ASEAN. With the statecraft and substantial economies that can contribute to new coalitions in a multi-polar world.

And with nine of the twenty members of the Cairns Group, which is committed to achieving free and fair trade in agriculture. Latin America is a natural partner for Australia in reinvigorating the rules-based trading system that reinforces global stability and prosperity. Latin America is also a natural partner for Australia in the global energy transition.

That transition is reliant on a host of rare earths, critical minerals, and strategic materials. The mineral endowments that Latin America enjoys. 15 per cent of the world's rare earths. A third of the world's copper deposits and 45 per cent of its lithium make it pivotal to that transition.

And we're partners in that. Australian companies are already working collaboratively to help bring it about. Running the Escondida copper mine, in Chile, which produces around 5 per cent of the global copper needs, BHP is both an enormous contributor to Chile's GDP and a key supplier of the materials needed for the energy transition.

And, with their capital and their expertise. With their technologies and processing capabilities. Australian companies can likewise make similar contributions all across Latin America.

Australia's reputation for environmentally sustainable mining and high ESG standards gives our companies an edge in this space. And our involvement opens opportunities for Australian businesses in other sectors: in mining equipment, technology, and services, in environmental management, robotics, AI, and more. Moreover, the energy transition works both ways.

Latin American business has a role to play in creating the secure supply chains that we need in critical minerals. In Western Australia, the Mount Holland lithium project is being developed with the help of Chilean miner SQM an investment of more than $2 billion for a mine and processing facility that will secure Australia's role in global battery supply chains.

It's a telling sign of the scope available for us to collaborate and co-operate on shared challenges. Of building those resilient supply chains, of developing more downstream production, and of increasing the availability of sustainably sourced critical minerals for Australian markets. Opportunities for Australian expertise and innovation exist in many other sectors.

Latin America is already an agricultural powerhouse. As the world's largest net exporter of foods, it is an essential part of ensuring global food security. That creates challenges around land management, water management, and sustainability challenges in which Australian business and industry have considerable experience and expertise.

Two such businesses are here today. Perth's Rumin8 uses seaweed-derived feed to reduce methane emissions from livestock. And Melbourne's Rubicon, who increases the water use efficiency of irrigation networks.

They're just a few examples of the insights and understanding we have, in Australia, that makes us natural partners. All the links and ties that we have with Latin America have been forged by people. And growing them further, extending them, strengthening them and multiplying them, will take people.

We have in Australia a great Latin American diaspora vibrant, diverse and thriving communities that enrich the culture and outlook of this country. Some 46,000 Brazilians, some 36,000 Colombians. Around 30,000 Chileans and 20,000 Argentinians.

Nearly 11,000 Peruvians and 10,000 Salvadorans. And these ties, which already knit our regions together, are multiplied by our tourism sector and our education sector. With more than 150,000 Latin Americans visiting Australia annually.

And more than 30,000 Latin Americans students coming yearly to study at our universities or vocational education and training providers. We are constantly creating new links for the future. The world is changing to become more complex and more contested.

But amid that complexity is the opportunity to seize these links with Latin America and make the best of them. Nurturing them for our mutual prosperity and mutual futures.