Duncan Kerr

Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea is, by any measure, one of our deepest and most enduring. PNG is an important friend and neighbour to Australia, and we connect on many different levels--but especially through people-to-people links formed over many decades through family ties, business, education, and on the sporting field.

Through its extensive networks in Australia , the PNG Association of Australia has been integral in maintaining these people-to-people links.

This Association also plays a key role in educating Australians about our vital relationship with PNG, particularly through preserving for future generations important connections and historical materials relating to PNG…

The bilateral relationship which this Association embodies, and which we're celebrating today, is one of remarkable vitality. Our respective societies are bound together by ties that far transcend the government-to-government contacts that I'm now engaged in.

As neighbours, we enjoy not only a tremendously strong sense of shared history, but, dare I say, an equally strong sense of a shared future. That future will depend on people like you.

Source: 'Australia and PNG: New Beginnings', Speech by The Hon Duncan Kerr SC MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs, PNG Association of Australia, 7 December 2008 Sydney