QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Mr MARLES (Corio—Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence) (14:21): I thank the member for his question and acknowledge his service. Yesterday, our prime minister and James Marape, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, signed the Pukpuk treaty, article 4 of which contains a mutual defence obligation, giving it the character of an alliance, the first alliance into which our country has entered since 1 September 1951, when Australia signed the ANZUS treaty, 74 years ago.

This means that PNG is now our third ally, along with the United States and with New Zealand. This is deeply historic, but it's also perfectly natural. It is unthinkable that any Australian government today or in the future would regard an attack on Papua New Guinea as somehow not engaging our national interest.

Indeed, on the one occasion when this has occurred in our past, we were most definitely there. The Kokoda Track, during the Second World War, is deeply etched into our military history. It, along with the battles of Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and so many other places, saw more than 6½ thousand Australian personnel make the ultimate sacrifice in the defence of that territory.

At each and every moment, Papua New Guineans stood shoulder to shoulder with Australian soldiers, emblematic of the relationship between our two peoples then and our two countries today. From PNG's point of view, this represents an unambiguous choice to see Australia as its natural security partner—a choice that we do not take for granted. This alliance will now further the process of the integration between our two defence forces, which will include the recruitment of Papua New Guineans directly into the ADF, the first step of which will see PNG permanent residents in Australia able to join our Defence Force from 1 January next year.

This agreement has been negotiated in record time, underpinned by a shared and significant ambition. I really want to thank James Marape; the Deputy Prime Minister, John Rosso; and my counterpart, the defence minister, Billy Joseph; along with our prime minister; our Foreign minister; our minister for Pacific island affairs; and the countless officials in both Port Moresby and Canberra who have brought this treaty to fruition.

The result is an alliance which will see both Papua New Guinea and Australia be fundamentally safer.