Building Australia's Future in a Changing World

And there is the exciting growth in the number of students who come here from Asia and regional cultural exchanges, for example, Australia Week at the Shanghai Festival two years ago.

As Foreign Minister I've also put an enormous amount of energy into Australia’s key role in the South Pacific. For example:

• With New Zealand, we played an important role in ending the civil war in Bougainville.
• We have helped the Solomon Islands through the Regional Assistance Mission in the Solomon Islands (RAMSI).
• We’re now deploying our police and public servants into Papua New Guinea under the auspices of the enhanced cooperation program.

Elsewhere in the Pacific we're working on improving law and order and on improving governance.

It's core business for Australia - the South Pacific. We've done great things and we've just got to keep the momentum of this work in the South Pacific going. I'm immensely proud of what we've done to solve some of the festering sores of the region, but there is a lot of work still to be done. Incidentally, the Labor Party want to downgrade responsibility for the South Pacific to a junior minister. That’s regrettable.

As Foreign Minister I’ve been through some tough and controversial issues over the years. Some extraordinary allegations have been made against our government; that we're not interested in Asia; that we neglect the Pacific. People can say what they like - but it’s breathtaking.

What we've done has been tremendously exciting for this country and I hope after October 9th we'll be able to continue with this exciting work.