Marape congratulates new Aust PM

PRIME Minister James Marape has congratulated incoming Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and says he is looking forward to working closely with him.
He also thanked outgoing Prime Minister Scott Morrison for his continued support to Papua New Guinea over the last three years.
He said this yesterday after Albanese led his Labor Party to victory in the national election in Australia.
“Australia and PNG have always been so close to each other and we look forward to strengthening this relationship,” he said.
“Many Australians have had a very close relationship with PNG.
“Our two countries have been close over many, many years.
“Our shared history goes well before our Independence in 1975, the dark days of World War II and even before that to the discovery of the Waghi Valley by Australian explorers in the 1930s, the famous Morobe gold rush and World War 1.
“Australia has always been our strongest supporter as far as bilateral relationships have been thus far.
“We highly value our strong and vibrant bilateral relationship.”
Marape said relationships with Australia had been further elevated with Morrison through more trade, and added that he hoped to see this continue under Albanese.
Marape thanked the Australian Government for direct intervention of K1.5 billion in the PNG budget.
“The Australian Government, seeing the reforms we were doing and seeing our honesty, decided to ensure for the first time that we received over K1.47 billion with zero per cent interest against the lending,” he said.