Good evening, everyone.

I am delighted to be here alongside the Premier of the Government of Western Australia, Roger Cook, to co-host tonight’s dinner.

I join the Premier in welcoming guests from Australia:

• Western Australia’s state minister for Mines and Petroleum, my very good friend, the Hon David Michael, and
• Australia’s Ambassador to Japan, Mr Justin Hayhurst.
• Our Consul General to Osaka Margaret Bowen
• The Commissioner General for Australia to the World Expo Nancy Gordon.

And I welcome our friends from Japan, the host country of the 2025 World Expo.

Senior Japanese business leaders.

I have met many of you and thank you for being here tonight.

I visited the World Expo yesterday and again today. I have never been to an Expo before – and I can confirm – I am a big fan.

I am very honoured to be here in Osaka, at the World Expo representing the Australian Government at this remarkable global event.

My congratulations to all involved from Osaka and from the organisers across the host country, Japan.

It is truly a tribute to the wonderful hospitality of Japan that you have attracted over 20 million visitors from around the world to be a part of a World Expo.

I visited the Australian pavilion for the first time yesterday.

The immersive experience is quite remarkable and has brought Australia’s unique wildlife - and of course our spectacular natural environment – the land, sky and sea country - here to Osaka and directly to the over two million visitors from around the world that have travelled through the Australian Pavillion.

When I first saw the Australian Experience yesterday, I was a little overwhelmed – the beauty of our country, and all its dreams, somehow captured here, so far away from home.

I want to thank those who created this art and brought it to the world. It really is a gift. Every Australian can be proud of what has been created here, to tell our story.

In the display, Australia shares with the rest of the world, the beauty and depth of Australia’s First Nations peoples. Custodians of the oldest continuing culture on the face of the earth, Australia’s first peoples have lived and created heritage and culture on the continent for over 60,000 years.

Our national geological survey organisation, Geoscience Australia, that forms part of my Resources Portfolio, pays tribute to their ingenuity over the millennia by always observing that our First Nations Peoples were the first miners, mappers and navigators of the vastness of Australia.

It is with the generosity of spirit of the Australian Aboriginal people that the Australian Government shares their stories and songlines with the world here at the World Expo, in Osaka. And I thank them for sharing so much.

We have shared other things here over the past six months – Four & Twenty Meat Pies; lamingtons, innumerable flat white coffees, and crocodile rolls. And yesterday, I see Apple Pies have made an appearance. Bluey and Bingo, our great export of a family of Queensland Blue Heelers.

I am yet to see any vegemite sandwiches though.

I congratulate Japan on the remarkable achievement in staging World Expo 2025, and everyone involved in making this magnificent event such a success.

I have enjoyed my interactions with Myaku- Myaku over the last year, and I will miss seeing the little critter around the place.

Congratulations too to everyone who has worked so hard on the Australian Pavilion.

In particular, thanks to Nancy Gordon, our Commissioner-General for World Expo – for leading a team committed to bringing Australia to the world.

And what a remarkable marvel you have created.

Partnership in resources

I’ll turn now to reflect on another important partnership: the resources industry that is so central to the enduring ties between us.

Japan is one of Australia’s most trusted and valued trading partners

Australia’s relationship with Japan dates to the late 1800s.

Back then, Japan began importing Australian coal and wool, and the first Japanese immigrants came to Australia to work in a variety of jobs.

Most went into back-breaking and risky jobs in sugar cane farming and pearl diving.

In Western Australia, the contribution of the Japanese to the pearl diving industry lives on through memorials and museums in the historic town of Broome.

Sadly, many paid the ultimate price in what is an exceptionally dangerous business of extracting the beautiful Australia South Sea Pearls – known as the best pearls in the world and the hallmark of the pearling industry in Broome.

Commencing in the 1890s, the Japanese cemetery in Broome is the largest Japanese cemetery in Australia.

It is worth a visit – and I have spent much time there, wandering through the distinctive obelisks marking the last resting place of the many Japanese people that have lived in Broome. It is a great tribute to them that the local community respectfully cares for the cemetery.

And famously, Broome has for 55 years celebrated “Shinju Matsuri” – the Festival of the Pearl. Every September, the community celebrates the pearling season, the safe return of the pearl divers and the diverse multicultural community that makes Broome so special.

Australia and Japan have a history of working closely together and doing business.

Western Australia has been at the heart of this partnership.

Japan's appetite for iron ore boomed in the 1950s, underpinning a rapid increase in steel production that positioned Japan as one of the world’s top three steel producers.

Back then, Japan bought iron ore from India, Malaysia, Canada, the United States, Chile and Peru – but not from Australia.

Australian authorities remained convinced there were only limited reserves, and that those reserves needed to be kept aside for Australian steel production.

But when that embargo on iron ore exports was finally eased, and eventually scrapped in the early 1960s, things changed.

In October 1967, Dampier, a tiny Western Australian town was not yet featured on most maps. Just one year later, after the Dampier port opened, Dampier was suddenly handling more cargo than either Sydney or Melbourne.

And its only cargo would be iron ore, destined for Japan.

And destined to make the steel that built so much of modern Japan.

In a tradition that continues to repeat itself today, it was the leadership and determination of political leaders from Western Australia that made this possible.

Sir David Brand, as the WA Premier working with Sir Charles Court as WA Minister for Development and the North West did not let up on their campaign to convince the Federal Government of Australia that the ban on iron ore exports must be lifted – so Japan could rebuild, and Australia could grow economically and industrially.

Sir Charles Court, of course, was also instrumental in promoting the North-West Shelf gas project, which remains important for supplies of LNG into Japan.

Brand and Court both worked hard to build strong and enduring personal relationships with Japan’s business and political leaders.

Those relationships were based on trust and a shared commitment to values such as the rule of law, democracy and peace and stability.

Those shared values remain at the heart of the Australia-Japan relationship.

And resources and energy remain at the core of our economic and trade partnership.

Iron ore and coal continue to support Japan’s steel sector and industrial competitiveness.

We are an important and long-standing supplier of natural gas to Japan, supporting this nation’s energy security, Japan’s path to net zero, and Japan’s industrial base.

We welcome and respect highly Japan’s foundational investment which has helped build Australia’s LNG sector into a global powerhouse.

Australia has been and will remain a trusted, stable and reliable exporter of energy to Japan, and a dependable investment partner.

Importantly, new chapters of our economic relationship are emerging and emerging strongly.

Critical minerals and rare earths

Firstly, there is the critical minerals and rare earths sector. These elements are crucial for low emissions technologies and essential for both of our countries to drive toward net zero. And they are absolutely critical to the technology we need for military defence purposes.

Australia’s abundant reserves of critical minerals and rare earths, coupled with our world leading resources industry, and our strong history of working together, means Australia is a natural partner for Japan, in the important goal of creating alternative supply chains for the commodities we need to power the future, and provide our security.

Japan has already made significant investment into the rare earths sector of Australia.

Thanks to Japan’s strategic investments,  Lynas Rare Earths is now the world’s largest producer of rare earths outside China.

And Japan is making new investments in WA resources projects including Ardea’s Kalgoorlie Nickel Project and Tivan’s fluorite project.

There’s also the very promising agreement between Liontown’s Kathleen Valley project in Western Australia  and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation, to explore the feasibility of developing a lithium supply chain between Australia and Japan. Minister David Michael and I were both at the recent opening of Kathleen Valley – a world first in the underground mining of lithium.

Encouraging and nurturing more investments of this nature is essential. After all, investment is integral to our partnership and shared future in the Indo-Pacific.

Australia’s Critical Minerals Strategy aims to encourage investment in critical minerals and rare earths, and to ensure Australia can build our sovereign capability to process those minerals for the benefit of the Australian people but also for our partners in the region.

An integral part of this support is our commitment to create an Australian Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve.

Currently under design, our Strategic Reserve will mean Australia can better deal with trade and market disruptions from a position of strength.

We know these minerals are subject to price manipulation and that western producers are all too often priced out of the market, or that rare earths and critical minerals are subject to arbitrary export bans or controls.

Japan knows this better than any other country, having been at the coal face (so to speak) of intensive supply disruptions of rare earths.

Both of our countries believe open, transparent and diversified markets are good for producers, for investors, and for the ultimate consumers of the modern technology we enjoy.  

But as a government, we also need the tools to be able to react to, and counter, market manipulation that is damaging to our emerging industry. Australia’s Strategic Reserve will be a national asset, formed with a combination of offtake agreements and strategic stockpiling, that can build a more reliable and predictable market in these essential products.

That will be of benefit to Australia, but importantly, it will benefit our trading partners that know the great value of the commodities this industry produces.

It will give confidence to our critical minerals sector – and all those that seek to invest in it, while developing secure supply chains with key international partners.

And the Australian Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve will enable novel means of investment into a sector that faces so many challenges in an opaque market that is subject to damaging and destructive manipulation.

I am committed – the Australian Government is committed – to pursuing the development of a rare earths processing industry to diversify global supply chains: for our clean energy future but also because these commodities are essential for defence technologies.

Defence industries

Which brings me to the second area of industry in which Japan and Australia are increasingly very important to one another: strengthening ties on defence and regional security.

This year we saw the largest ever Japanese participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre.

And last month, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, announced that Australia had selected the upgraded Japanese Mogami-class frigate for the Royal Australian Navy’s future fleet of general purpose frigates.

And to emphasise – while this was a decision based on choosing the best ship for Australia’s capability needs, it was also a momentous moment for our relationship.

For Australia and for Japan.

But in particular for Western Australia.

While the first three Mogami’s will be built in Japan, it is our government’s intention that the remainder will be built in Western Australia.

This enterprise will transform the shipbuilding industry of my home state, and we will be doing it together with our very great friends in Japan.

Back in March, I was really thrilled to visit and tour the JS Noshiro, a Mogami class frigate, at HMAS Stirling – the largest naval base in Australia, not very far to where I live. The sailors gave me this pin. It is really delightful, and I was honoured by their effort and thoughtfulness.

The JS Noshiro was a deeply impressive naval vessel, and I am glad to be here today, knowing that in future, ships of the stature and technical capability of the Noshiro will form part of Australia’s defence in future years.

Conclusion

Australia and Japan have powerful reasons for working closely together.

Our economies complement each other like few others that I can think of.

We have shared security and strategic interests. Trust and interdependence between us will be increasingly essential in a contested Indo-Pacific.  

And most significantly, Japan and Australia share a friendship that is only getting stronger and closer.

Put simply: we are important to one another.

And we must cherish that and never forget it.