>> and now for the main event. it's my honor to welcome our first speaker and distinguished guest, the australian prime minister, malcolm turnbull. mr. prime minister, thank you for joining us today and providing an opportunity to continue a dialogue aboutpr howe can all work in partnership to grow our economies to gather. for those of you who do not know, the prime ministers address is especially timely. 2018 marks 100 years since our two countries became allies in world war i. since 1918 our relationship has grown beyond just military alliance. globalization has allowed our states and citizensob to vote collaborate across a range of initiatives and/or trade those investments to increase, despite distance and time zones. i have perfect opportunity opportunity to visit australia in 2016. during this trip i saw firsthand a significant cultural and economic ties between our two countries. i speak for all of us, mr. prime minister, when i say governors are ready to elevate this important partnership and hear from you on how we can better our bilateral cooperation the next 100 years of mateship. as i i said last night, once a mate, always a mate. so my fellow governors, ladies and gentlemen, please join in giving prime minister turnbull a warmnt welcome. [applause] during this trip i saw firsthand >> thank you very much nga vice chairman steve bullock. governors of the united states of america my trade ministers steve ciobo, our australian premiers and chief ministers, our ambassador joe hockey. chief executive of the nga, scott patterson. friends, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. it is a great honor for me to be here at the heart of the american federation. i want to thank you for your hospitality as we thank president trump and first ladyy melania trump and for the very warm welcome and hospitality accorded lucy and me during our visit. now both our countries are federations and indeed our federation and our constitution were in no small measure inspired by yours. it's why some political scientists describe our system of government, which is a parliamentary system as you know, as being washminster a combination of washington and westminster. it works very well but as i said to some of you last night i don't know whether this is true here but complaining about the australian federation is like complaining about switzerland's mountains. so work with it. and we're joined by our counterparts, your counterparts the premiers and chief ministers of our states and territories. now our two nations are federations of great states and each is so much greater than the sum of the parts. as it says on the great seal the united states, on the scroll carried in the beak of the american eagle. e pluribus unum, out of many, one. and looking around the room i am struck by the sheer diversity of ties that bind our two countries. governor herbert of utah where an australian mining company rio tinto's kennecott bingham canyon mine has generated more exports income and employment than anyre other private sector operation. and chairman sandoval, in your state, australian graduates are setting up an unmanned aerial vehicle delivery service through a company called flirtey working with the university of nevada. they've made the first regulator approved deliveries of emergency medical supplies and retail goods for 7-eleven and i'm told they're working with nasa to sort out the details of air traffic control. now as you said, governor, ourai relationship as proud and independent federations really came of age 100 years ago on the battlefields of the western front in world war i.ds you can read in the letters and diaries of our battle hardened soldiers, our diggers, how they marveled at the arrival of the sammies as they called them with their enthusiastic faces and extraordinary looking equipment. and your sammies did not take long to win respect and admiration from the australians. they fought their first true offensive together with australian troops at the battle of le hamel.he at the time this was arguably the most sophisticated joint operation in history involving air drops, artillery and a linet of british tanks. it was the first time american soldiers had served under foreign command in an offensive operation and under the leadership of our greatest general john monash. monash planned for them to take the village of hamel in 90 minutes. they did it in 93 minutes and he chose the fourth of july to do it. america's decisive intervention in the great war marked its arrival as a global superpower with both moral and realist global interests. president woodrow wilson proclaimed this was the war too make the world safe for democracy. a doctrine of principled realism. the battle of hamel was a turning point that put the german army on the defensive right up until armistice day and for our two nations it was the beginning of a hundred years of mateship. a hundred years in which we fought alongside you in every significant conflict forging unbreakable trust through the act of defending each other's liberty and guarding each other's backs. we think of the personal bonds that were formed as a million american troops crossed our shores during world war two. layers upon layers of institutional ties that have been forged and strengthened since we sealed our alliance with the anzus treaty of 1951. in more recent times, in the skies over syria our combat pilots have fought together under the leadership of american commanders with the shared objective of defeating islamist terrorism. we've been side by side in afghanistan for 16 years, our longest military commitment, and in marawi, in the southern philippines, our forces provided game changing support to the armed forces of the philippines to subdue an isil backed insurgency in that city. and every day our intelligence agencies are demonstrating the deepest possible commitment to each other by sharing sensitive information saving american and australian lives. just last year in sydney, our intelligence agencies, our respective intelligence agencies and police working with our friends in israel, enabled us to disrupt an isil plot to bring down a passenger aircraft.n an a380, hundreds and hundreds of people would have died. i can tell you that our intelligence cooperation with the united states and other partners save lives right around the world where isil has had similarly dark intentions. that's what the alliance means today. it is a means for maximizing our maneuverability and independence not constraining it. networks of personal trust strengthened and expanded over generations and all underpinned by the deepest possible alignment of shared political values and this is the genius that really unites our two nations. we define our national identities, australia and the united states, we define our national identities, not by race or religion or ethnicity bute rather by commitment to shared political values of freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, mutual respect. patriotism is not tribalism or nationalistic chauvinism, it's not about demonstrations and power and prestige and subjugation.no as george orwell so brilliantly observed in 1945 true patriotism is a shared commitment to a way of life that is guaranteed by the institutions of democracy and the rule of law, institutions which are accessible to all. but as governors bullock andle sandoval and i were discussing earlier, rarer around the world than you might think. now since the second world war the united states has spread these liberal norms and principles to build an international system which has tempered the exercise of raw power and guided global cooperation. this remarkable system which obliges nations big and small to play by those rules and to respect each other's sovereignty has enabled our collective security and prosperity for the' entire post-war period. the extension of the systemm after the cold war ended has enabled the greatest burst of economic growth, innovation and human advancement the world has ever seen. australia has supported and reinforced and occasionally led this process at every step of the way. but we know we cannot take any of it for granted. our path the indo-pacific region has enjoyed so much peace and prosperity for so long that there are some who forget that none of it would have been possible without the sheetav anchor of american commitment and strategic power. and that commitment is as important now as it has ever been. american commitment has come at a cost, paid in blood and treasure, and we understand that the american people expect others to pull their weight, as we do and always have. t my government is investing inn the largest revitalization of our armed forces, in the air, on the land and on the sea, in the cybersphere in peacetime history. our defence spending is on track to reach two per cent of gdp by 2020. and in these uncertain times we should all be thinking about what more we might contribute. and we acknowledge the sense of frustration felt by many americans that not all countries are contributing to efforts to reinforce and strengthen the open trading system that the united states has helped create for our collective benefit. we have no objections to wtour consistent enforcement actionsns against behavior that flouts and thereby undermines agreed international trade rules. we want to work with you to improve the wto and make it a more effective forum for driving trade reforms and ensuring full compliance with the rules. and we will maintain a dialogue on how our respective systems protect technologies and facilities integral to national security while ensuring our markets remain open and transparent. now the rules, the norms, the institutions that enable freedom security and opportunity have been painfully difficult to build. but easy to break. at the shangri-la dialogue in singapore last june, i warned that we cannot allow the framework of international law to be undermined. in november, i outlined an ambitious trade policy agenda and committed our nation, unreservedly, to the principles of open markets, economic freedom and the rules-based trading system. we entirely understand and respect the president's decision to honor his election pledge to withdraw from the trans-pacific partnership. but prime minister abe of japan and i were determined to keep that project alive and the tpp-11 will be signed next month in chile. we do not expect the united states to return to the tpp any time soon. but by keeping this important trade pact on foot we have created a live option which would otherwise not exist for a negotiated u.s. return in a possibility which the president himself has referred to. late last year, my government released a foreign policy white paper which commits us to a far more active role in shaping the future of our region. we'll work with all our partners and friends to promote an open, inclusive and prosperous indo-pacific in which the rightu of all states are respected. and on december 7, i introduced into our parliament far reachine reforms to protect the integrity of our political processes from foreign interference. now whether it is terrorism, transnational crime or foreign interference the primary responsibility of government, all our governments, is to secure the safety of our people and our way of life. security and freedom are frequently presented as binary opposites as if there exists a universe which you could have one without the other. these two principles are not mutually exclusive. they can be, in fact they must be, mutually reinforcing. the question is not what freedoms to forego for security, it's what security is required to enable our freedom. maintaining our security ensures we do not have to close our borders to people, capital and ideas but rather the very opposite. maintaining our security allows us to sustain the enormous benefits that flow from our openness to the world. now our shared commitment to open markets, transparency and the rule of law has generated an enormous reservoir of trust between our businesses, consumers and regulators and trust enables commerce to flourish. we like your movies, services and capital equipment so much that our bilateral trade accounts are tilted deeply in your favor. in fact we haven't turned a bilateral trade surplus with the united states since president truman, before i was born not that anybody's counting. american companies that count for fully one quarter of all foreign investment in australia they're contributing to thefu greatest jobs surge in our history with 403,000 new jobs added last year in australia. and it's a similar story on the side of the pacific. we've just watched the u.s. economy add 2.2 million jobs last year. unemployment is as low as it's been since the year 2000. around 180,000 american jobs are the result of australian 2 investment here. the bluescope steel group, for example, employs around 3,000 people across the united states. while austal, australia's premier shipbuilder, employs over 4,000 americans and its investment is growing all the time. it was an honor yesterday and a symbol of our alliance when the president announced that the united states navy would name a future littoral combat ship, to built at the austal shipyard in mobile, alabama, the uss canberra. the american and australian economies are thus helping each other to thrive. you know, i will speak for all of the australians when i say this. we find it impossible not to be constantly inspired by the restless energy of the american people. always reaffirming the power of optimism, resilience and aea relentless curiosity to find a new way and a new idea. we both know that innovation is the key to productivity which enables economic growth and more and better paid jobs. innovation and science are key elements in our economic strategy. your governor from north dakota, of course, was until recently chairman of an outstanding global australian technology business operating here in the united states and of course right around the world. so you understand that we have the same commitment to enterprise but your example is always an inspiration to us. so many of the technologies that have transformed our lives, and so quickly, from gps to social media to the hyper platform that has enabled them all, the internet, was developed and commercialized here in the united states. australia has made great contributions from wi-fi to the technology behind google maps. it's a long list, but the united states remains unrivaled when it comes to commercialization and innovation. pundits, of course, have been warning, they are very fond of dark predictions as you know - they've been warning that the us is running out of oil for nearly 100 years and yet thanks toto innovation in horizontalhu drilling and fracking and of deepwater exploration, u.s. oil production has nearly doubled in the past decade. i commend the nga's focus under governor sandoval on the role that state governments can play in preparing the workforce for innovation and transformation. the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the national governors association and the council for the australian federation which is your counterpart will deepen collaboration in this and other areas. new rounds of company tax cuts in both countries will lead to more investment, which in turn will mean more and better paid jobs. the imf has lifted its global growth forecasts after the trum administration cut the u.s. company tax rate to 21%. and we cannot deny the need to be competitive increases the urgency with which we aretr pursuing similar tax cuts in australia.sl in australia we are presentingg legislation to reduce taxes for all businesses to 25%. we've already achieved a reform, bringing tax down overtimeio to 25% for businesses with turnovers up to $50 million a year. that's not a huge business i might add at $50 million a year but those businesses employ half of the private sector workforce in australia. but we need to go further as you have done. now the flow of investment and technology is not just one way, far from it as you know. our $200 billion defense capability bill is driving a new generation of australian defense technology enterprises to integrate into the supply chain of us primes like boeing, raytheon, lockheed martin and northrop grumman. we want the integration of our defense industry supply chains to match the interoperability of our armed forces. so i'm encouraged to see that australian companies have been awarded over a billion dollars in contracts to supply components for the worldwide strike fighter program delivering 2,400 jobs. those figures should double within five years. our target is to become a top 10 defense industry exporter. i know state business leaders in this room are looking to leverage the trump administration's commitment to infrastructure and so are our business leaders. clearly our infrastructure companies thrive in this system of transparency and impartial rules that they enjoy each other's countries. companies like ifm in indiana, transurban in virginia, lendlease all across the united states. i'd like to see us and australian infrastructure companies working together in other countries too. in places like southeast asia and the pacific islands where there is enormous need for high quality bridges, highways, ports, rail and telecom. for this to work, however we need to get on with the post-war project of shaping an environment in which the most competitive and rule abiding companies can succeed. we all know that investing in smart infrastructure projects can drive a regional economy. a bridge to a port which connects to hundreds of other ports creates much more than the sum of its parts and in many cases government backing will be vital. t a good example is our recent commitment to build an underseal telecommunications cable which will ensure connectivity and bring new opportunities for our neighbours in papua new guinea and the solomon islands. our vision is for a singlen inclusive free trade zone of the indo-pacific. a region integrated under a common set of rules and norms that connect us all to one another and which will drive growth and job creation. it's vital that strategic competition does not createio rival economic blocs. we look forward to partneringic with all countries including the united states, japan and china on those infrastructure projects that meet the criteria of transparency, fairness, accountability and market need. that's also how we constrain large states from imposing arbitrary barriers and engaging in economic coercion against the small.y security and prosperity, they go hand in hand, but we need to shape the rules that are necessary to make this happen. we need to level the playing field for private sector companies, update the rules of the digital world and ensure greater transparency andct stronger rule of law in a world which is often short of both.an and that's why, as i said, we backed the trans-pacificft partnership so strongly not just because of the market access it delivers, which is very beneficial, create jobs and investment but because it creates the rules of the road we need to match the economic journey we are embarking on. now governors, honored guests, it has been all too easy for the rest of the world to take america's exceptional contribution for granted. if your long and hotly contested debates prompted partners around the world to take greater responsibility for their security and prosperity then c they've served a useful purpose. i know it's fashionable to call the passing of american leadership and condemn democracy into a fate of inexorable decline. let me tell you that's not what i'm hearing from our trusted partners in our part of the world. nor is it what the trump administration is engraving into its most important policy statements. your national security strategy, and its organizing doctrine of principled realism, is a manifesto for upgrading a liberal rules based system note breaking it. your national defense strategy signals a reinvestment in american hard power and the alliance system which amplifieso its reach. president trump's nomination of admiral harry harris asas ambassador to australia underscores this message. american leadership in the world is in our interests but it is in yours too. i stand with generations of american leaders and seen its global alliance network not as a burden but as a force multiplier that first and foremost has enabled american prosperity and security. as president trump himself reminded us. america first does not mean america alone. now so much has changed in the last century in the last hundred years of mateship. we are after all living at a time when the pace and scale of change is without precedent, and i don't doubt that this will continue in the next century but our alliance, our partnership, our mateship. whether it is a century ago or a century hence will remain built on a foundation of shared values which are timeless but never more timely. values as australian as they are american. freedom, democracy, the rule of law and the spirit of enterprisp which they enable. thank you very much.er [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning again, everyone. please give the prime minister another hand for that spectacular speech. [applause] >> the prime minister has graciously agreed to take a few questions, and i have the privilege of asking the first question, mr. prime minister. you spoke about in your speech, given your focus on innovation and your tenure as prime minister, and that being the topic of my nga chairs initiative i would ask how the united states and australia could be partners in innovation. how can we prepare for the disruptive technologies and how did he reshape our economies together both at the national and subnational level? >> well, thank you very much. i think government obviously has to lead by example. it is very critical that we do that. i think we need to ensure that everybody understands that in this age, as i said of change, which is unprecedented both in its scale and its place is worth reflecting on that. how so many of the technologies which have been so transformational are yet so recent.. it's the scale and the pace of change that has no counterpart in her history. so that means given that reality, that environment, we can't change, we have to make sure that we make it our friend. in other words, we have to make volatility ourwe friend, not our foe and that means clearly the job -- [inaudible] important, the job you start when you get out of school or college may not be it for the rest of your life, 20 years time. you've got to be able to keep retraining, rescaling that is critically important. we have to ensure that the growth we get, the advantages we get from technology do not leave individuals or regions behind. i think that's got to be the key focus but we have to recognize the tenor of the times in which we live. and even if we don't like them, recognize we can't change them and say how can we work this to our advantage? >> thank you, mr. prime minister. governor bullock as the second question. >> thank you. picking up on exactly where you are in thing, that transformative technologies create so many opportunities for our states and our nation's. there's also challenges both socially, economically and security wise. how is australia, or i guess addressing some of the challenges, be at work force or beat the things that are happening where on the one hand, we have transformative technologies but on the other hand, there are folks that feel like they are being left behind? >> thank you. my mic with a working for. there's no substitute for strong economic growth. that's themi first point. i said the pace and scale of change is with the president but there have been big technological changes in the past. if we go back when hundred years ago when our soldiers were fighting together in france, the very large percentage of americans were engaged in agriculture. i'm not sure what the percentage was but a very substantial percentage. nowadays, it's only a few% as it is and australia. that's come about because of technology. so all of these changes occur but you need to have strong economic growth to create the new opportunities. this is where frankly trade is been very important as the premieres here know, particularly annastacia palaszczuk from queen's landing and mark mcgowan from western australia. we had a huge commodities boom, once in a generation. i think premier from leicestershire mark mcgowan said once in a lifetime.yb maybe. hopefully you have a long life and you will see another one. the point was, however, that caused a great boon and there were transitional adjustments there. some regions were hit very hard. having saidvi that, because of e opportunities for all of the free-trade agreements we have created, we've seen stronger growth in our regions and that has been i h think that is been one of the features that has perhaps cushion the impact of what otherwise would of been a very hard landing. so having many strings to your bow, having a diversified economy is particularly important. >> thank you, mr. prime minister. i have the next question which is this. i have the second question, and with regard to president trump, he started a national conversation with regard to infrastructure and i think i speak for all of the nation's thernors we all appreciate fact, in the premieres, that infrastructure is a constant challenge with regard to mobility and safety for our constituents. i know that given that's a conversation in australia as well, how do you work with the premieres with regard to infrastructure and what is the approach that is happening in australia? >> undress all the premieres and chief ministers will agree, the federal government works with them on infrastructure entirely to the absolute satisfaction. [laughing] never have complaint.au in fact, as i said last night we have meetings every couple times a year called coag meetings, council of australian government meetings between the premieres in chief ministers and the federal government. we find these meetings so much fun that we decided to go on this trip together and hang out even more. but look, okay, let me answer the question in a way that i think you may find helpful. firstly, our premiers and chief ministers have enormous expense in this area. i was looking directly at gladys berejiklian, the premiere ofal w south wales. there is an enormous infrastructure boom going on in new south wales, the new south wales government and, of course, our predecessors, liberal premiers mike baird and barry o'farrell really set in train a big infrastructure commitment in new south wales, which is of course where lucy and i live as well. other premiers have made great achievements as well. a lot of experience there. historically, the federal government has made grants, you know, just literally written checks for contributions to roads. so there's some roads that unsuspecting in queensland recently in annastacia palaszczuk state where the federal government is contributing 80% of the cost, others were contributed 50% of the cost and so forth. but we have to get smarter about the way we invest in infrastructure. we have had a practice which ambassador hockey started when he was our commonwealth treasurer, federal treasurer, of encouraging states to recycle assets and to sell state-owned assets. dan andrews from victoria recently sold a port at a very good price. and recyclables assets, sell them, and then deploy the money into new infrastructure. the state, the government is often very well-placed to take the construction risk and then having got an asset building underway, to then be able to sell it to pension funds and funds that are looking for that kind of reliable return. i think we also have to do more to capture valley. toll roads are fairly straightforward. from a a financing point of vi. we have a lot to learn and australia and in manyto respects the experiencero in america is very instructive, on how to capture valley out of rail. we have to r start looking at urban rail, rail general as the property deal. and develop the means to capture some of the value or the appreciation of value to real estate that is occasions by the construction of the rail. some of your cities have been very innovative in doing that. we've been looking very carefully at that. in other words, we need a lot more infrastructure. we need to be smart about how we go about it. we need to look at every angle, and one of the reasons, that's one of the reasons i set up an innovative project financing unit in our own federal government, getting to make sure that we do everything we can to get the g maximum dollar invest, stretching the taxpayer dollar as far as we can for the benefit of infrastructure right around the country. >> there were individual states, that lists each state leader and a governor has a keen or intimae understanding of the statesun relationship with foreign countries. as an example i know between 2016-2017, australians visiting montana increased 41%. i'm hoping in 2018 that will double, so i'd like to invite you there. but also we know what our trade relationships are, like how much state dollars in montana, both exports we had tors australia, d imports. recognizing that trade policy is set at the national level, but it's the local communities for the sub nationals that really see the on the ground impacts of trade policy. how can your perspective can we i guess better help local communities understand impacts of trade policy and what this does for us? >> into p governor. i think the challenge for us as leaders, as political leaders in particular, is to ensure that the lower, the easy lure of protectionism doesn't overtake us.. look,th the way we make the case chemistry is we just say look at the evidence, 403,000 jobs last year, largest growth in our history. fact. 16 months of continuous monthly jobs growth, the longest for at least 40 years plus. i don't think we found a time when there's been a longer continuous jobs growth. all of that is supported by having bigger markets, greater opportunities. now, again, we don't presume to give -- we're happy to share our experience. we certainly don't presume to give advice. all of the leaders here, michael gunner and andrew barr and the premiers i mentioned, we're all flat out managing our own states and territories and responsibilities but, you know, we're happy to offer you this. i think you have to just make the case that trade, more trade means more jobs, more investment, more exports. if you look at the northern territories experience, i mentioned chief minister gunner a moment ago, a massive investment there, u.s. investment and japanese investment in the oil and gas business, particularly in the lng business, has created thousands of jobs and high-quality jobs. it'sis exporting, yes, it's trae but you can see the opportunities are there. if you look, go back to queensland where i was recently giving a speech in original city to the west of brisbane upon the great dividing range, dutiful city, and it at the heart of the darling downs which iss a big agricultural area. it is a new airport recently built there by the private sector, by the wagner family, and that is not exporting the produce of the darling downs to put it on the dining tables of asia. some of the best produce in the world. why are we able to do that? because of those free trade agreements. the tpp will enable us to do more of it. that's what we've got to do. we are a medium-sized, open economy. trade is good. it means more jobs, more investment for us and that's how we promote it, but other than offering our example we don't presume to give you political advice. .. gov. sandoval: thank you so much for being with us today. before you head back on the long journey back to australia, we are excited to have you preside over the signing of a memorandum of understanding between subnational leaders of our two great countries. we will go stages we reset for that and we will be back with you in a moment. again, give a big hand for the prime minister. give a big hand to the prime minister. [applause] trend time -- [inaudible conversations] ♪ [inaudible conversations] ♪

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