Remarks at APTC Walu Bay, Fiji

Alex Hawke: Thanks Soli [Soli Middleby, CEO APTC], I appreciate the opportunity for my first visit. I’ve only been in this role for about seven months. I’ve heard about all the great work that is done in the APTC throughout the Pacific and we are very proud as a country to be investing in training and skills in the Pacific. You’ve got a great set up here, I think you know.

The skills you are getting are world leading skills and qualifications. That is really important for your futures. In Australia we’ve got a huge shortage of all of the skills you’ve just qualified in. I would say that in almost every country in the world there is a huge demand for the qualifications that you’ve got. So you can’t underestimate how valuable what you can do is to the whole world. So well done, congratulations.

To the trainers, well done as well. Really professional group of trainers; people who know what they are doing. Knowing how to deal with engines, systems, all the work that you do here is really important in this day and age, and I think you are going to have great careers and lots of opportunity in front of you.

I know you have good jobs here in Fiji, Samoa, and Kiribati. But when you also have the opportunity, you are welcome as well, you’ll probably see Australia as well coming through one of our labour schemes at some point helping out there. Lots of opportunities to unlock for you. We are very proud to invest in you, invest in skills, and hopefully see some great development for your careers and your families and your future, so well done.

And to the people that have been here a long time, ten years, thank you. Thanks for all the work you have done. You must have trained a lot of those 15,000 people yourself — you didn’t train all 15,000 <laughter> we’d have to give you a special presentation if you did. But it is a lot of people coming through here and all of them get a great qualification recognised around the world. We’ve got a very high standard in our qualifications so you should be very proud of the qualification you’ve got, so well done. Well done Soli and well done to the APTC. First one I’ve seen, I think I’ve seen the best one in the Pacific, so well done.