[Acknowledgments omitted]

I want to begin by congratulating the Australia-China Business Council for all their hard work over the past year and for holding what I’m sure will be another very successful Canberra Networking Day.

I know that for over 50 years, the Council has played an important role in the Australia-China relationship.

And that China’s growth story has been a crucial driver of prosperity in Australia, in our region and in the world.

And we know this has never been straightforward for business.

Before I come to some of the remarks I was going to make, one of things I talked about in opposition was the importance of the polity – so parliament, leaders, business, and the community more broadly having a deeper understanding of China and I want to acknowledge the role that you all play in enabling that.

So as I said the China growth story has been a crucial driver of our prosperity and the worlds prosperity.

And we know this has never been straightforward for business.

Especially in the last few years, when China’s doors were closed to many of our exports.

So what you have seen from us since we were elected has been a concerted effort to restore dialogue within the relationship with our largest trading partner.

And this was something that we considered very closely in opposition, particularly at the time given the political debate, and it was something we implemented in government and that we continue to implement.

We have pressed China to lift impediments on around $20 billion of Australian exports, less than $1 billion of those impediments remain.

We continue to encourage the earliest possible resolution of the remaining trade impediments, obviously they include Australia’s rock lobster industry and red meat establishments.

While we have worked to see impediments resolved, we know the reality is that this relationship will continue to face challenges.

For example, Australia will continue to raise deep concerns about China’s destabilising activities in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

Dr Yang Jun will continue to be an important priority for our government, as will be accountability for grave human rights violations.

And the risks of economic coercion that you are all too familiar with are still there.

Geopolitics is ever more entwined with economics, and this will only get harder.

We face a vast increase in industrial subsidies in major economies; a restructuring of global trade from the net zero transformation.

Australia as you all know built our prosperity in great part, because we are a trading nation.

Our great trading nation has to grapple with a world where trade can be a vulnerability as well as an opportunity.

And the whole country, all of us, government, business, the workforce – we have to manage these risks together.

We can’t imagine challenges away nor can we make apologies for standing up for our national interest.

What we can do is what the government is doing.

We can work with our partners in the region to protect the international rules and norms that we rely upon, which deter conflict and underpin our security and prosperity.

With this in mind, there are a few key ways our government has changed direction from the previous government.

One, we have sought to be calm and consistent in our efforts to stabilise the relationship with China.

We have sought to bring a mature approach to the table, we have sought to be open to dialogue and a constructive conversation, rather than picking fights or blowing up relationships.

We know we have differences, we believe it is in Australia’s interest to navigate those differences wisely.

Secondly, we’re focused on diversifying Australia’s trade and investments, so we are more economically resilient.

That matters for the nation and for individual businesses.

Australian businesses know the threat to our resilience of having too many eggs in one market.

We live in the most competitive region in the world. This offers us enormous opportunity – but it also offers an equally large exposure if we fail to seize it.

Thirdly, we’re contributing to a region in balance, using all arms of national power.

Something I have spoken about for many years now. To think about how we engage we can engage in the world, not narrowly, but think about all arms of national power as a way in which we engage and seek to progress and advance Australia’s interest and protect Australia’s interests.

We are doing the work that should have been done to make sure we remain the partner of choice in the Pacific.

We are increasing our diplomatic, economic and defence engagement with Southeast Asia, with Japan, with India, with the Quad and through AUKUS.

And we are engaging with China, we are doing so without compromising on what matters to Australians.

This is how we help shape the region according to Australia’s interests, rather than simply allowing the region to be reshaped around us, because it is being reshaped.

China will do what great powers do – it will continue to assert itself, it will continue to assert itself in reshaping the region and the world, in ways that do not always accord with our interests.

China’s size and weight make it central to global challenges, from climate change to health.

I know today you will be discussing many matters including on how to work together on these issues – particularly the transition to net zero.

That’s not just a whole-of-government effort, that’s a whole-of-nation effort.

Many of you were involved in Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia in June, the first visit to Australia by a Chinese Premier in seven years.

Prime Minister Albanese and Premier Li agreed to take forward practical cooperation in a range of areas, including climate change, education and the arts.

And this has continued – with Minister Bowen last month in Sydney hosting the Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change, and the Treasurer heading to China for the Strategic Economic Dialogue in a few weeks. Both of these engagements and conversations are happening for the first time in seven years.

What does all of this mean?

What I say to you is this is all of us living up to what you have heard us say many times – we will cooperate where we can, disagree where we must, and engage in the national interest.

I wish you all the best for your discussions today.