Dear Hon Mark Furner, Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries and Minister for Rural Communities; Mr Joe Kelly MP, Acting Speaker of Queensland Parliament; Mr Peter Russo MP; Mr John-Paul Langbroek MP; Professor Colin Mackerras AO; Mr Michael Choi, former MP; Mr Michael Ma, President of Queensland Chinese United Council，

Dear guests and friends,

Welcome to the opening ceremony of the China-Queensland Friendship Photo Exhibition. I would like to thank the two ‘Friends of China’ MPs for co-organizing this event with the Chinese Consulate-General in Brisbane.

China and Queensland enjoy a long history of friendly exchanges. Last month, I went to Balonne Shire to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the St George Chinese Community Memorial at the local cemetery. In 1848, more than 300 Chinese made their arduous journey to Darling Downs from Xiamen to look after sheep. Even Queensland wasn’t been established. With only one-way tickets, they never returned to homeland and were eventually laid to rest by the Balonne River. The early Chinese settlers, including the first batch from Xiamen, made significant contributions to the development of Queensland’s agriculture, farming, horticulture, water management, etc. For example, since Chinese pioneers established much of the banana plantations in Queensland and lots of bananas are grown in this state, Queenslanders earned the moniker ‘Banana Benders’. Those Chinese farmers in Queensland were also the first to introduce the cultivation of rice, corn, peanuts, pineapples, mushrooms and so on. As Chinese Consul-General in Brisbane, I have visited Cairns, Townsville, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Brisbane and other places and saw traces of Chinese participation in early days in local development.

Last year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the establishment of China-Australia diplomatic relationship. Over the past 51 years, despite twists and turns, both sides keep to the overriding trend, seek common ground while resolving differences, make remarkable achievements in various fields and deliver huge benefits to both countries and their peoples. The theme of this photo exhibition is ‘the Partnership, Legacy and Outlook’. China and Australia have strengthened economic and trade ties and maintained rapid economic growth. At a time when the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century and faces a range of global challenges, as the theme of this exhibition says, we need to work together to uphold the principle of mutual respect and mutual benefit, and take concrete actions to promote the sound and steady development of China-Australia comprehensive strategic partnership.

Since last year, China-Australia relations have been stabilized and improved, with dialogue and exchanges increased in various fields and at different levels. Leaders of the two countries reached important consensus on improving, upholding and developing bilateral relations on the sideline of the G20 Summit in Bali of Indonesia. The mutually-beneficial and win-win economic and trade cooperation between China and Australia has yielded fruitful results and is poised for bright prospects. Under the guidance of the important consensus reached by the leaders of our two countries at the Bali Summit, China-Australia relations are steadily turning for the better as our economic and trade cooperation made remarkable achievements. Last year, China-Australia goods trade reached 284.6 billion AUD, and Australia's goods trade surplus with China reached 61.3 billion AUD. The economies of China and Australia are highly complementary, and the Australian business community is full of expectations for the future of China-Australia economic and trade cooperation, saying that China’s economic recovery is ‘a great opportunity for Australia’ and ‘China will only become more important as Australia's preferred trading partner’.

The exchanges and cooperation between China and Queensland have a solid foundation, broad prospects and great resilience. Today, Chinese investment and businesses in Queensland continue to grow, covering energy, coal, agriculture and animal husbandry, planting and service industries. Sub-national cooperation between China and Queensland keeps moving forward, as sister-states and sister-cities continuously develop their relationships with more and more diverse forms and rich contents, yielding stronger cultural exchanges and economic cooperation. Queensland has many overseas Chinese and students, who play a bridging role in promoting China-Queensland friendly relations and pragmatic cooperation. They support and are benefited from China-Australia friendship. The Chinese Consulate-General is willing to continue to work with the Queensland government and people from all sectors to take China-Queensland cultural exchanges, trade and practical cooperation in all areas to a new level and strengthen the foundation of China-Australia friendly relations.

To make this exhibition a success, we collected a wide range of photos from our sister-states and sister-cities as well as the public, and carefully selected more than 300 pictures reflecting the outstanding achievements of bilateral friendship and cooperation in various fields, memorable stories and wonderful moments. We hope to strengthen emotional links between the two peoples by exploring historical and cultural ties, so that mutual respect, mutual benefit and win-win become values shared by both of us. Through these pictures, we go back to the moment when the two governments signed an agreement, witness various practical cooperation projects making positive progress, appreciate our natural beauty and cultural traditions, and get touched by smiling faces of our young people when they communicate with each other, etc. We hope that by holding this exhibition, we can make our friendly voice heard and encourage more people of the two countries to care about and play roles in maintaining China-Queensland friendly relationship. We hope to actively promote China-Australia and China-Queensland friendship and carry forward the friendly ties from generation to generation.

Not long ago, Mr Hua Yuan, Vice Mayor of Shanghai, visited Queensland and was warmly received. He renewed a Sister State Agreement with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Premier Palaszczuk has expressed her willingness to visit China and attend the CIIE, and we will actively provide assistance in this regard. Tonight, ‘Friends of China’ MPs will also host the reception of parliamentary friends of People’s Republic of China in the Parliament. This would be the first time to resume the event since the COVID-19 pandemic. We appreciate that the Parliament and the government of Queensland can take this positive step to develop relations with China, and offer an important platform to enhance exchanges between the Parliament and the Chinese community.

At present, international passenger flights continue to resume and more Chinese people are ready to travel overseas. On 10 August, China resumed group tours to dozens of countries and regions, including Australia, to make it more convenient for Chinese tourists to travel overseas. On 17 November, China Southern Airlines will resume non-stop flights to Brisbane. We look forward to welcoming more Chinese visitors to Queensland and more Australian friends would visit China.

The improvement of China-Australia relations and the post-pandemic economic recovery have created a conductive environment. I hope that the two sides will seize the opportunity to build on the momentum, actively promote bilateral exchanges in traditional fields, and strengthen cooperation in emerging areas such as tackling climate change, developing new energy and hosting Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympics. We should enhance cooperation, carry forward friendship and forge ahead to bring more benefits to our people.

I wish the China-Queensland Friendship Photo Exhibition a complete success!