The Hon. Stephen Smith MP

Australia and Poland have strong people-to-people links, with over 160,000 people of Polish ancestry living in Australia. A large number of those people came to Australia in the post World War II period as well as in the 1980’s following the imposition of martial law. The Polish community has made an important contribution to Australian society.

This afternoon Poland’s Minister for Labour, Ms Jolanta Fedak, and I signed the Australia-Poland Social Security Agreement. This agreement will provide improved access to pensions by allowing people who have lived part of their adult lives in both Australia and Poland to claim pension entitlements from both countries.

Poland, the largest of the new European Union (EU) member states, is a valuable partner for Australia. My visit reflects Australia’s commitment to engaging more closely with the EU and its member states. This morning I met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Rados³aw Sikorski. Our discussions focussed on shared interests, including our mutual commitment to Afghanistan. Poland has more than 2,000 personnel in Afghanistan.

We also talked about our cooperation on other issues of global concern, including disarmament and non-proliferation. Both Poland and Australia are active members of the Proliferation Security Initiative and we look forward to continuing this important work together. Minister Sikorski updated me on developments in the field of European security, including the joint Polish-French initiative to develop closer defence relations between the EU and NATO, European missile defence, and EU-Russia relations.

As well, representatives of the Australian business community briefed me on their trade and investment successes in Poland.

The Hon. Stephen Smith MP

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, which began with the Third Reich’s attack on Poland in September 1939. I visited the Warsaw Ghetto where so many Jewish people suffered terribly during the war. Later in the day, I laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw in memory of the 46 Australian war dead who died in World War II and were buried in Poland. I also visited the Warsaw Uprising monument.

Source: Foreign Minister

THE CEREMONY OF SIGNING THE AGREEMENT

Moderator: Welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen. We have a double occasion to meet with you here now. The first one was the meeting between the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Mr Radoslaw Sikorski and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, Mr Stephen Smith.

We are opening our meeting in the presence of Ms Jolanta Fedak, Minister for Labour Policy who, together with Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Stephen Smith will sign a social security agreement.

I will now pass the floor to a representative of the Labour Ministry who will tell you more about the agreement which will soon be signed.

Labour Ministry Representative: Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the pleasure to welcome you to the ceremony of signing of a Social Security Agreement between Poland and Australia as well as an Administrative Arrangement enabling the Agreement to operate. I would now like to ask both Ministers to sign the Agreement. Following the signing ceremony, the Ministers will deliver short statements. Thank you.

(Ministers sign agreement)

Moderator: The floor goes first to the Minister for Labour and Social Policy.

Minister Fedak: Minister, dear guests, the Agreement we have just signed is based on international standards in the area of social security. Its provisions create a basis for coordination of social security systems legally binding in Poland and Australia, providing a guarantee that the change of place of residence or work between Poland and Australia will not negatively impact the citizen’s situation in terms of their social security entitlements.

The Agreement we signed today first of all meets the expectations of the Polish community in Australia who pointed out two basic problems resulting from the lack of such an agreement. One of these problems was the lack of provisions allowing for the summing up of insurance periods in Poland and Australia as a basis for defining relevant pension entitlements.

The second was the lack of facilities allowing for receipt of Polish pensions by persons living in Australia. I am glad that thanks to the Agreement we have signed today, and to its provisions on the summing up of insurance periods and free transfer of pension entitlements, will solve these problems so important to the Polish community. No doubt this will be a notable benefit for all. I would also like to express a hope that besides the above mentioned social impact of the Agreement, its entering into force will bring positive economic results and will influence the development of economic cooperation between Poland and Australia.

The principle of one part of legislation contained in the Agreement is particularly important. It eliminates the need to pay social security contributions twice and thus creates favourable conditions for business entities in Poland and in Australia when working on the territory of the other country.

Together with the Agreement, an Administrative Arrangement related to the operation of the Agreement has been signed today as well. I think that the significance of this document cannot be underestimated. The Arrangement, as an executive act to the Agreement, sets out principles for proceedings with the realisation of obligations resulting from the Agreement. It also names institutions responsible for realisation of its provisions. It contains very practical instructions, such as: which institution in which case should be addressed, and what documents need to be provided in order to obtain the right to a social security entitlement.

The Arrangement will in a significant way make it easier for all interested persons to make use of the somewhat complicated provisions contained in the Agreement. In the end, I wish to thank on my behalf, as well as on behalf of those who are awaiting the Agreement, the Polish and Australian negotiation teams. Thanks to their involvement, the signing of the Agreement was possible today. I think that client satisfaction is an expression of thanks for all the hard work involved in bringing the negotiations to the end so quickly and thus enabling the Agreement’s signing today.

Moderator: We shall now continue the second part of the press conference related to the meeting of Foreign Ministers of Poland and Australia. First, I give the floor to the host of today’s meeting, Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, please, Minister.

Minister Sikorski: I wish to say it was a great pleasure and honour to host my Australian colleague. We meet absolutely too rarely on this level and therefore, with great pleasure, I have accepted an invitation to visit Australia. Although we are countries as remote from each other as possible, we are countries with important links. It is not just the presence of numerous Polish Diaspora in Australia which is evidence of the fact that Australia offered shelter to our countrymen when they needed it after WWII or in 1980s, but we are also countries linked by values.

This is reflected in the way we vote in multilateral institutions, but also in the way we conclude alliances and what kind of friends we have. We serve arm to arm in Afghanistan, our relations with the USA are very important relations for both our countries, and for me personally the exchange of views on developments in Asia was invaluable. I informed the Minister on Poland’s views as far as developments in the EU are concerned. We have committed to a closer cooperation also in such areas where we need each other. Poland and Australia have plenty of coal but Australia is more advanced in technologies that allow to use that coal without environmental pollution, and so here I see opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation. Once again, I wish to thank Minister Smith for his visit.

Minister Smith: Minister, thank you very much for this kind introduction and your kind hospitality. This is the first visit by an Australian Foreign Minister to Warsaw since 2002. And the last Polish Foreign Minister to visit Australia was in 2003. So, this is far too long a period which is why I’ve been very pleased to invite you to visit Australia and very pleased that you have accepted.

Australia and Poland have longstanding warm, friendly and productive relations. And the Australian-Polish community is over 160 thousand strong. There were many migrants following the war and more migrants following martial law in the 1980s. So we have strong people-to-people links, but more importantly, strong shared values. Our commitment to democracy; our commitment for respect to human rights.

And as the Minister has said, we find ourselves so often taking similar or the same views in international institutions, particularly the United Nations. But we both believe there is much more we can do in encouraging Australian investment in Poland and encouraging trade between our two countries.

We had a very good and productive conversation about the challenges facing both Australia and Poland, in particular Afghanistan, and I benefited very much from the Minister’s assessment of a range of security and economic issues as far as Europe is concerned. I very strongly believe that there are areas that we can considerably enhance our engagement, particularly on issues like energy and clean coal technology.

And today I’ve been very warmly welcomed by the Australia-Polish community and it will also encourage business activity between Australia and Poland. So Minister, thank you very much for your warm hospitality and, Minister, I look forward very much to see you next year in Australia. Thank you.

Minister Sikorski: One of the decisions we have made was that the little wine cellar at the MFA will be supplied with wines from Polish Valley in South Australia which makes ones of the best Australian white wines.

Minister Smith: And also wines from Western Australia.

Moderator: We now open the floor for your questions.

(Two questions to Minister Sikorski related to Polish domestic policy and planned reshuffle of Cabinet)

Associated Press: What do you expect from the visit of Joe Biden planned for late October?

Minister Sikorski: The visit has been confirmed only yesterday but the United States are, as I have already mentioned, an important ally for both Australia and Poland. There is nothing extraordinary in the fact that the Vice-President will visit our region, I stress, not only Poland but also Romania and the Czech Republic. The more so that it will be the first visit of such a high-ranking representative of the new US administration and in the time of making as important a decision as the one on a new configuration of the anti-missile shield as well as on other aspects of the strengthening of Polish-American relations, in defence in particular. I expect these issues to be the most important points of our discussion.

Moderator: If there are no more questions, I wish to thank the Ministers and media representatives for their attention.

[END]