YouSaid · the spoken record

Penelope Wong

lines on the record: 43
first: 2022-09-24
most recent: 2023-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“We must recognize that many developing countries are inadequately served by too much of the international system — a system that must be reformed as a matter of urgency. And we must take these steps because we need everyone to know that they have a stake in the success of these United Nations — our United Nations. All countries must have a stake in the United Nations Charter and exercise their agency to uphold it. Because in today’s world, there is no zero-sum game. In today’s world, there can never be just one winner. In this age of existential threats, there is either a shared future or no future. We can choose only between shared failure or shared success. Let us all choose success.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“That would address a critical gap in our disarmament architecture, by stopping the production of material needed to create nuclear weapons. Australia is also working with the International Atomic Energy Agency to ensure the peaceful use of technology and combat proliferation and nuclear security risks. Australia wants a world where no country dominates and no country is dominated. We want a world where we achieve our shared Sustainable Development Goals for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. We also see how all of that could be destroyed by crisis, conflict and war. Which path we choose is up to all of us. It is up to all of us to have the humility to listen. It is up to all of us to act — and act urgently — on what we hear.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Communication should never be withheld as a punishment or offered as a reward. Given how conflict could be sparked, there would be benefit in pursuing clearer arrangements among maritime countries — all maritime countries equally — to prevent unsafe actions at sea. And given that it is nuclear weapons that most risk catastrophe, we must work harder to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. Our Government is renewing Australia’s enduring commitment to a world without nuclear weapons. We will continue to work with others to strengthen the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons—the cornerstone of the global nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament regime — despite those who seek to damage it for their own gains. This week Australia joined Japan and the Philippines to urge progress on a fissile material cutoff treaty.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Consistent with that architecture and the need to address the growing risk of conflict. Australia welcomes President Widodo’s statement, as Chairman of the East Asia Summit, noting that the recent leaders’ meeting: “reaffirmed the need for all EAS-participating countries to promote open channels of communication to reduce risks of misunderstanding and miscalculation and prevent conflict in our region.” New measures to prevent great power conflict are an Australian priority, and we hope they are a priority shared by Member States throughout the General Assembly. Strategic trust is clearly in short supply. We would be wise to encourage modest steps, focused on mutual strategic reassurance, military risk-reduction measures and on opening lines of communication at all levels.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We seek to ensure that no State concludes that the benefits of conflict outweigh the risks. And we seek new measures for conflict prevention that reinforce the region’s existing economic and security architecture. The desire for peace is seen across our region. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is determined to develop practical ways to implement the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific and play a leading role in promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in our region. We support its aim. ASEAN is right to affirm that disputes must be resolved peacefully, in accordance with international law. including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. the ASEAN Charter and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“When one adds dangerous encounters in the air and at sea. including between nuclear Powers, we are faced with a combination of factors that give rise to the most confronting circumstances in decades. In short, military power is expanding, but measures to constrain military conflict are not. and there are few concrete mechanisms for averting it. So it is up to all of us to act to deploy our collective statecraft, our influence, our networks and our capabilities to minimize the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation in order to prevent catastrophic conflict. Peace-building today must rise to that challenge. That is why Australia is contributing to a strategic equilibrium — to help to maintain the conditions for peace through our diplomacy, while playing our part in transparent, collective deterrence of aggression.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“one of those close calls spurred the construction of conflict prevention infrastructure between the United States and the Soviet Union: guardrails that responsibly managed Cold War competition and kept it from careering into conflict. Today’s circumstances mean we need to commit anew to building such preventive infrastructure to reduce the risk of crisis, conflict and war by accident. The Indo-Pacific is home to unprecedented military build-up. yet transparency and strategic reassurance are lacking. Tension is rising between States with overlapping claims in the South China Sea. and disputed features have been militarized. And North Korea continues to destabilize with its ongoing nuclear weapons programme and ballistic missile launches, threatening Japan, the Republic of Korea and the broader region.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“However, even with all the conflicts on the United Nations agenda, even as we face the existential threat of climate change, the world faces another existential threat, one risk that is consequential for every Member State. That is the risk of conflict between great Powers. This Assembly of nations knows that strategic competition is not new. Through the course of history, it has played out across the globe. Often small countries, vast distances from major Powers, have borne the brunt of a race for dominance, with legacies of those contests casting shadows across generations. But the modern arms race forever transformed the scale of great Power competition and pushed all of humankind to the brink of Armageddon. In 1962.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Russia mocks the United Nations every day it continues its illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, just as Russia mocks the international community with its cynical games on food security that leave millions hungry, promising grain to vulnerable nations yet at the same time destroying Ukrainian grain silos along the Black Sea coast. The rest of the permanent members and all Member States must be unyielding in their response to Russia’s grave violation of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations. If we waver in our response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we will be validating the most fundamental of breaches of international law. Who might be the next victim of State-based aggression?”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We welcome Fiji’s proposal to establish a new Pacific peacekeeping network to strengthen our region’s capacity and cooperation, just as we welcome the call from African States for United Nations assessed contributions for African Union-led peace support operations. Our commitment to international peace and security is why Australia seeks a seat on the Security Council for 2029-2030. and it is why we pursue Security Council reform. We must ensure greater permanent and non-permanent representation for Africa. Latin America and Asia, including permanent seats for India and Japan. And we must demand more of the permanent members, including constraints on the use of the veto. With its special responsibility as a permanent member of the Security Council.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We look forward to 2025 when Australia will have a seat on the Peace-building Commission, coinciding with the review point for those resolutions. Since the creation of the Peace-building Fund, we have been a consistent partner, and we are a top 10 donor. Our commitment to international peace and security is reflected in our history of involvement in peacekeeping — some 62 operations over more than 75 years. We remain the eleventh largest financial contributor to the overall United Nations peacekeeping budget, in addition to operational support and regional troop training. We support a strong role for regional leadership on peacekeeping.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We are called on to play our part in diplomatic reassurance, economic development and military deterrence, all contributing to keeping and building peace. Australia has always pursued a world where differences and disputes are settled through institutions, agreed rules and norms and not by power and size. We have been active in the United Nations peace-building agenda since its inception, focused on addressing the underlying factors that contribute to conflict. We are proud of our peace-building reform work with Angola in leading negotiations on parallel Security Council and General Assembly resolutions (Security Council resolution 2282 (2016) and General Assembly resolution 70/262) that shaped the sustaining peace agenda.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Therefore, last month, we launched Australian Development Investments, a 250 million Australian dollar impact investment fund to do just that. And we have launched Invested: Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040. responding to calls from our regional partners for Australia to play a bigger role in their pursuit of economic opportunity, development and growth, which will support our shared security and prosperity. All our efforts are aimed at helping countries to build their own resilience and sovereignty to ensure countries are not held back by unsustainable debt. Australia’s investments are a statement of its belief that social and economic progress are preconditions for peace, just as peace is a precondition for progress. Peace is not a gift, and it is never a given.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Therefore, we have instituted a new development policy and rebuilt our official development assistance programme with nearly 1.7 billion additional Australian dollars over five years, providing for ongoing growth over the long term. And we have re-channelled $3 billion of our International Monetary Fund special drawing rights allocation to support vulnerable countries. Therefore, today I call on all developed countries to increase their re-channelling of special drawing rights to boost concessional longterm investment critical to resilience-building and disaster response. Australia also recognizes that the multilateral development banks and bilateral donors need to do more to harness the capital, innovation and energy of the private sector.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Their institutional capacity, their direct contributions and the multiplier effect of those contributions could be propelling the world much closer to realizing our shared development goals. As the Group of 20 Independent Experts Group has highlighted, to transform development, the multilateral development banks will have to transform themselves, and the window for action is closing fast. Australia welcomes the leadership of the Prime Minister of Barbados. Mia Mottley. And we are looking at how we can partner on the Bridgetown Initiative. With 22 of our 26 nearest neighbours being developing countries, we want to contribute to a region where all our countries and peoples can thrive.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The tragic fact is that development gains can be quickly reversed by shocks such as extreme weather events. We still need income measures such as gross national income, but we also need to listen to what many countries are saying about other growing vulnerabilities they face, especially as a result of climate change. Therefore. Australia commends the work of the High-level Panel on the Development of a Multidimensional Vulnerability Index, led by the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and the former Prime Minister of Norway. That is but one tool that can be used to improve what the international development financing architecture delivers for the most vulnerable countries in the world. The world needs more from international financial institutions, especially the multilateral development banks.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“This was a global charter for the whole human family from East to West and North to South. That was 75 years ago. and it was reaffirmed 30 years ago in the Vienna Declaration. Yet today approximately 2.4 billion women of working age do not have equal opportunities, when we know that if we closed the gender gap in economic participation, we would add at least $12 trillion a year to global gross domestic product, in other words, generating three times more than the cost of fully achieving the SDGs. However, to deliver the SDGs we must address systemic shortcomings and funding needs. Small island developing States, including Cabo Verde and Samoa, have advocated for reforms to international development financing to reflect the reality that income per capita is an imperfect predictor of development need.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“All United Nations officials, from the Secretary-General down, must guard against dilution, because the approaching climate tipping point means we simply cannot afford ongoing unsustainable development, nor will we ever maximize our development while leaving people behind or if we pick and choose between universally agreed human rights, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The drafters of the Universal Declaration — people like Bertha Lutz of Brazil. P.C. Chang of China. Minerva Bernardino of the Dominican Republic. H.J. Mehta of India. Eleanor Roosevelt of the United States and Jessie Street of Australia — were all seized of this simple fact: human rights apply equally to all people, no matter who you happen to be or where you happen to be born.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“But we ought not be tempted to abandon some goals so that we might concentrate on others. The great wisdom of the 2030 Agenda is in its recognition of the connection between different aspects of social and economic development and environmental protection — and how. together, they enable prosperity and peace. We all invested years in negotiating this Agenda. It provides an irreplaceable framework for collective global action, and all Member States must protect it and deliver on what we have agreed.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic propelled 124 million people back into poverty, and humanitarian needs are burgeoning. Australia is part of the global response. In the last 12 months, we provided humanitarian assistance for more than 20 crises in which the United Nations requested international support. Those crises are making it harder to achieve our 17 shared Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). but they are not the only reason we are falling short, and many developing countries are rightly frustrated. Through the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the world committed to a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At the halfway point, we have seen stagnation or regression on nearly a third of the targets, and we are not on track to meet any of them.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Australia is supporting the region’s transition to renewable energy, helping countries to build climate resilience and access our increased climate finance contributions. In Palau, for instance, up to a fifth of the country’s energy needs will be provided by new solar and battery storage through our Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific. Australia is sharing our innovations in climate adaptation in the Pacific and beyond. We are supporting improved food security in some of the most vulnerable communities in the world, including with irrigation technology that has improved crop yields and reduced water usage by 30 per cent for farmers in countries including Malawi. Mozambique. South Africa. Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Climate is far from the only crisis the world faces.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Article 1 of the Charter of the United Nations speaks to maintaining peace and security, but there can be no security if the sea itself closes in. That is why the voices and experiences of the Pacific matter. Australia, as a member of the Pacific Islands Forum, believes in Pacific sovereignty and solidarity. The connections between the first peoples of our lands and waters and the peoples of the Blue Pacific stretch back through time. We share the Pacific Ocean, and as custodians of one-fifth of the earth’s surface, we understand our duty to amplify the collective Pacific voice and to act. We are determined to make Australia a renewable energy superpower. Within this decade. 82 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation will be renewable — a huge transformation from the 32 per cent when our Government came to office just last year.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“There are more people displaced, and more people hungry. There is more conflict, and greater risk that a nuclear weapon could be used. The climate is changing faster than our combined efforts to stop it. Already. African agricultural productivity has dropped by a third. Within just 22 General Assemblies from now. more than 900 million additional people in sub-Saharan Africa will have less water than they need. In many countries, including my own. floods or fires have overwhelmed communities. The most tourism-dependent region in the world, the Caribbean, faces the loss of half its tourism revenue because of extreme weather, and nowhere is the climate threat more profound than in the Pacific. Kiribati. Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are only a few metres above sea level.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“We created this institution recognizing that while our interests as countries may differ, we have shared purpose as people, because we can only solve our biggest problems together, because we determined after the last world war to prevent it ever being repeated, and because all of us can see the world as it is and. by listening to each other and by acting together, all of us can choose to shape it for the better. Australia is home to people from all nations of the world, and we draw on the knowledge of first peoples carrying forward the oldest continuing culture on earth. We know that at this time, when its success has never been needed by more of the world’s peoples, this institution and our shared multilateral system is falling short of the commitments we have made together, and we are collectively falling further behind.”
2023-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 78 (2023)
“Being genuinely committed to the United Nations means being genuinely committed to reforming the United Nations and keeping it vital. We know that we will always be better off in a world where rules and norms — whether on trade, the maritime domain or military engagement, on the environment or human rights — are clear, mutually negotiated and consistently followed. History teaches us that the alternative to what we have built here is conflict and chaos — a world where differences and disputes are settled by size and power alone, instead of by agreed rules and norms. Humankind has benefited from the multilateral system. Humankind has benefited from the rules that have underpinned an unequalled period of human development. Humankind will pay the price if we allow it to flounder — every nation and all our peoples.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is up to all of us to create the kind of world to which we aspire — stable, peaceful, prosperous and respectful of sovereignty. That is the very rationale for the United Nations itself. It is up to all of us to ask ourselves how we can each use our State power, our influence, our networks and our capabilities to avert catastrophic conflict. How do we acquit our responsibilities to constrain tensions, to apply the brakes before the momentum for conflict in our region or beyond becomes unstoppable? Australia is resolved to those tasks in all our diplomacy in the United Nations and beyond. It is why we seek a seat on the Security Council for 2029-2030. It is why we seek reform of the Security Council, with greater permanent representation for Africa, Latin America and Asia, including India and Japan.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Aside from terrible damage and the loss of life in Ukraine, Russia’s invasion is compounding human suffering and propelling the global crisis in food and energy security. In my own region, where geopolitical contest becomes ever sharper, we must ensure that competition does not escalate into conflict, because if conflict were to break out in the Indo-Pacific, it would be catastrophic for our people and our prosperity. And with the Indo-Pacific’s centrality to global prosperity and security, the cost would extend far beyond our region and reach into every life. So I say to small and medium-sized nations like my own: We are more than just supporting players in a grand drama of global geopolitics on a stage dominated by great Powers.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In that regard, the world looks to China, a great Power, a permanent member of the Security Council with a no-limits partnership with Russia. Mr. Putin’s weak and desperate nuclear threats underline the danger that nuclear weapons pose to us all and the urgent need for progress on nuclear disarmament. Australia has always pursued a world without nuclear weapons. We will redouble our efforts towards that goal and to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. The death and destruction in Ukraine remind us all how much we have to lose if we fail to protect the Charter of the United Nations. It reminds us that each nation must make its own choices and exercise its own agency. We cannot leave it to the big Powers, and we cannot be passive when big Powers flout the rules.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We cannot accept a situation where large countries determine the fate of smaller countries. That is why Russia’s illegal, immoral invasion of Ukraine cannot be normalized and cannot be minimized. Russia’s attack on Ukraine is an attack on all smaller countries. It is an assertion that a larger country is entitled to subjugate a smaller neighbour to decide whether another country can even exist. It was never intended that the Security Council veto power would be used to enable unchecked abuse of the Charter of the United Nations by the very countries that were given the veto. So it is especially important for countries that play leading roles in international forums and countries with influence on Russia to exert their influence to end that war.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Australia seeks a region that is peaceful and predictable; that is governed by accepted rules and norms, where all our countries and peoples can cooperate, trade and thrive; where our relations are based on respect and partnership and guided by the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific; where all States can contribute to a strategic equilibrium in a regional order in which countries are not required to choose sides, but can make their own sovereign choices. We recognize we must bring more to the table in South-East Asia. That starts with an additional $470 million in development assistance and a forthcoming strategy on economic engagement. We must contribute to the strategic balance of the region. We do not want to see any one country dominating or any country being dominated.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We want to bridge our cooperation across the Pacific and South-East Asia to address shared challenges and to build the region we want. Australia seeks deeper engagement with South- East Asia. It is a region I know well. It is the region I am from. The region is being reshaped, and Australia seeks to work with its partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to shape this period of change together.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“The Australian people want to be better, more involved and more helpful members of the Pacific family. In my first months as Foreign Minister, I have visited six Pacific Islands Forum countries. It is a clear sign of our priorities that, by the end of this year, I will have visited nearly all of them. Australians want to enhance our defence, maritime and economic cooperation with Pacific Island countries because our peace and prosperity are one. And we want to be the Pacific’s partner of choice for development and security. We are increasing our development assistance to the Pacific by over half a billion dollars, and we are working with our Pacific partners to address our shared challenges and implement the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“And while we are playing our part to reduce our own emissions, we are working in our region to support Pacific countries, which have the most to lose from the changing climate. Nothing is more central to the security and economies of the Pacific than climate change. As Pacific leaders themselves put it plainly in the first article of the 2018 Pacific Island Forum’s Boe Declaration on Regional Security, we reaffirm that climate change remains the single greatest threat to the livelihoods, security and well-being of the peoples of the Pacific and our commitment to progressing the implementation of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Australians are part of the Pacific family, and families are about care, love and forgiveness. But they are also about duty and loyalty, looking out for each other and listening to each other.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We have seen major floods in Pakistan and record-breaking heatwaves in Europe and Asia. The alarm bells of climate change are growing louder, including in my own country. Australians are clear that they want urgent and serious action, and they have given their Government a mandate. Among the first acts of the new Australian Government has been to submit our ambitious nationally determined contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and we have just passed legislation that makes those targets law. Our climate policies mean that within this decade, 83 per cent of Australia’s energy supply will be renewable. We want to help the global energy transition. Australia will be a renewable energy super-Power.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“If we are ever to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, which represent our collective vision for minimum living standards for everyone living on this planet, every country needs to do more. Over the coming months, we are designing a new development policy outlining how we will play our part in an era of crisis and how we will help developing countries without driving them into unsustainable debt. The world has experienced disasters and conflict in the past, but the intensity and confluence of today’s challenges in an interconnected world are without precedent. The coronavirus disease has set back development gains. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unleashed further suffering and made it harder for populations to recover from the pandemic. Drought and potential famine plague the Horn of Africa.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“We are alarmed that, for the first time, the United Nations Human Development Index declined for two consecutive years, in 2020 and 2021. The impact of that decline has been most severe on women and girls, with nearly half a billion women and girls now living in extreme poverty. The global food security crisis is increasingly grave. More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every night, 345 million people face acute food insecurity, and 50 million people across 45 countries are on the brink of famine. That is a growing scale of human suffering that threatens untold global instability. Australia is increasing our contribution to development assistance by over a billion dollars.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Evatt also saw economic and social security as the precondition for peace. He pressed the San Francisco Conference to ensure that the United Nations addressed the broadest range of social, economic and human rights issues, saying: “Real stability... can only be achieved by building an organization that will do its utmost to assure the peoples of the world a full opportunity in living in freedom from want as well as in freedom from external aggression.” Some did not want to extend the ambit of the United Nations to economic and social development. On behalf of Australia, Evatt insisted. Again, those are legacies Australia renews today. Despite inheriting the biggest debt in our nation’s history, the new Australian Government is determined to play its part in supporting the development of other nations, particularly in our region.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Evatt did not succeed in his fight against the great Powers’ veto within the Security Council, but he did succeed in ensuring that the General Assembly had the ability to decide its own course and could address any matter that falls within the Charter of the United Nations or the powers and functions of any of its organs. He understood that small and medium-sized countries cannot simply allow their fates to be decided by the great Powers. He understood that small and medium-sized countries must be able to maintain their sovereign choices, protected by a stable framework of rules. He also understood that, in order to maintain those sovereign choices, the small and medium-sized countries of the world, including Australia, must work together. Those are legacies that we renew today. Mr.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Sharing common ground with so many of the world’s peoples means that Australians want to see the interests of all the world’s peoples upheld, along with our own. That aim of today’s Australia accords with the ambition of an Australian who helped shape the Charter of the United Nations, our former Foreign Minister and the third President of the General Assembly, Mr. Herbert Evatt. At the 1945 San Francisco Conference, where the Charter was written, Mr. Evatt challenged the great Powers. They wanted a strong Security Council that had control over the General Assembly. Mr.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“In our Government, Senator Dodson has been tasked with responding to a call from First Nations people for a constitutionally enshrined voice to the Australian Parliament, as well as treaty and truth-telling. With daunting challenges facing the world, we have much to learn from First Nations peoples, both at home and in international forums. Elevating First Nations voices, including right here, has never been more important. Our nation’s history and present show that, like anything human — indeed, like this institution in which we gather — we are not perfect. But we aim ever-higher and we look to make our contribution to the world. Australians see our country as it is and we see our world as it is, and we seek to shape them for the better.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“As Foreign Minister, I am determined to see First Nations perspectives at the heart of Australian foreign policy. This week, I have been encouraged by discussions with other countries on their own journeys. I am humbled to be guided in those efforts by First Nations colleagues. Here in New York, I am joined by Senator Patrick Dodson. To many Australians, Senator Dodson is the father of reconciliation. Senator Dodson is a Yawuru man from Broome, in the remote northwest of Australia. Like many First Nations people, he walks in two worlds — as a Senator and leader in our Parliament; and as an elder, native title holder and ceremony man for his people.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“Equally, the world can see itself reflected in Australia, a nation whose people share common ground with so many of the world’s peoples. It is a nation where half of our people were born overseas or have a parent born overseas. I am one of those people, and the Australian Parliament I serve in is ever more reflective of our modern nation, both enriched by their diversity. That follows the collective decision of the Australian people to turn the page and write a new future for themselves. Newly elected parliamentarians have origins from across the world and indigenous Australians have been elected in record numbers and serve in the Ministry in record numbers. The new Australian Government is determined to make real progress on the national journey of healing with indigenous Australians — the first peoples of our continent.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)
“It is my honour to speak on behalf of Australia in the venerated General Assembly Hall, which signifies so much to the world’s peoples. It remains the only place where the whole world has agreed to come together, recognizing that we can solve our biggest problems only together; recognizing that progress and development are preconditions for peace; and recognizing that, to avoid conflict, we must talk to each other and we must listen to each other. It is my honour to speak on behalf of a country that is home to people from more than 300 different ancestries and to the oldest continuous culture on the planet. Like this Hall, Australia is an assembly of the world’s peoples. When Australians look out to the world, we see ourselves reflected in it.”
2022-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 77 (2022)