Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McKenzie for her question and her interest in matters Pacific. Australia's engagement in the Pacific is one of our highest priorities. As I've said on different occasions, after the defence of Australia, the stability and security of our region is our highest priority. The Pacific Islands Forum is the pre-eminent political body in the Pacific region. It brings together heads of government to address those shared challenges. As we know, in the Pacific we work best when we work together, as we did in RAMSI, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands.

The 48th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting enabled Australia to advance some of our collective efforts addressing climate issues; preparing for natural disasters; managing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing; improving economic opportunity in the region; and addressing old and new security challenges, including transnational crime, disease outbreaks and cyberattacks. These are the shared challenges that our neighbourhood faces, and it's important that we address them together.

The theme of this year's Pacific Islands Forum was Blue Pacific, and we focused on oceans and issues related to economic returns from fisheries. The Pacific Islands Forum aims to encourage more effective and stronger coordination in our region, through our Framework for Pacific Regionalism. At last year's Pacific Islands Forum, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull indicated that we would be stepping up our engagement in the Pacific, and we are delivering on this commitment in terms of security, labour and pharmaceutical MOUs that were signed. The nature and the complexity of the challenges that are faced in the Pacific show the diversity of the engagement that we have— (Time expired)