Defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea has not been signed

Minister for Pacific Affairs, Pat Conroy, has told Melissa Clarke on Afternoon Briefing the delay is nothing more than a logistical issue.

Transcript

00:00The Papua New Guinean Cabinet was scheduled to consider the treaty on Monday.

00:07Unfortunately, most Papua New Guinean ministers had already left Port Moresby to go to their

00:13home provinces to celebrate Independence Day, and that meant that they didn't have quorum

00:17to consider the treaty.

00:18So this is a process delay rather than anything else, and as I said, we had both Prime Ministers

00:23standing up today saying the word to her agreed, and that our first alliance in over 70 years

00:29will be soon signed and soon come into force, which will bring the people of Papua New Guinean

00:35Australia closer together with a shared security future.

00:38Today's a good day for Australia's security and our place in the Pacific.

00:42So you're 100% confident that this will be signed off by PNG's Cabinet and will get through

00:48the Parliament after that?

00:50Well, it's important that we respect the sovereignty of both processes in both countries.

00:55Ultimately, both sides need to ratify this in Parliament as well, which is the case for

01:00all treaty processes.

01:02But I am confident, Prime Minister Morappe was very strong in the press conference and

01:06in the communique that this alliance will be agreed to.

01:11And I think there's strong support in the Papua New Guinean system for this, and Prime Minister

01:16Morappe was very confident, and I share his confidence.

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