1. At the invitation of Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of Australia the Honourable Anthony Albanese MP paid a State Visit to India from 8 to 11 March 2023. Prime Minister Albanese was accompanied by Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator the Honourable Don Farrell, Minister for Resources, the Honourable Madeleine King MP, a high-level official delegation and a large business delegation. Prime Minister Albanese visited Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi on his first bilateral visit to India.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: There are three issues that I'll raise this morning. Firstly, today is International Women's Day and I'm very proud to lead the first Australian government ever made up of a majority of women. 54 women in our caucus of 103 members. And it's no accident that the government has already made significant reforms to advance the interests of women and therefore advance the interests of Australia. Paid Parental Leave legislation passed this week.

NAT LOCKE, HOST: Welcome to the studio the Prime Minister of our fair country, Anthony Albanese. Welcome back.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here. Nice intro music. The anthem, how about that?

SHAUN MCMANUS, HOST: It is. Standing to attention for you, Prime Minister.

PRIME MINISTER: Except you're not actually standing.

SHAUN: I should have. I do apologise.

Good evening, everyone.

Khem cho.

I am very pleased to be here in India.

It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge that Deakin University will be the first overseas university approved to establish a branch campus in India.

It’s a great honour for Deakin University – and for Australia, too.

The campus will be built at the new GIFT district not far from here, and will offer students the opportunity to study cyber security and business analytics with Deakin.

PRIME MINISTER: Today is a very busy day, where I’ll be here in Ahmedabad, then to Mumbai, and then to Delhi. It's a day of three parts as well, a day where we begin by celebrating the cultural links between Australia and India with a visit for the opening of the fourth cricket test, which is celebrating as well 75 years of test cricket between Australia and India, going back to when Donald Bradman was the captain of the first Australian cricket team at that time. And it will be a real opportunity for, once again, to cement those relations.

JOHN GRIMES, CEO SMART ENERGY COUNCIL: Prime Minister, welcome and we're absolutely honoured by your presence today. This is a really important initiative. This is Australian industry, Australian business and research, actually collaborating with the fantastic, massive market of India to develop the smart energy industry that's going to power the Australia economy and the Indian economy in the future. We have 34 companies, Australian companies, represented on this tour today, today is the first day.

Can I welcome our guests, my fellow Australians who are here in very large numbers, but thank our Indian hosts for the very warm welcome that we've had here.

I feel as though I've been in India for some time, but we did arrive just a few hours ago, yesterday. But we have done an enormous amount, and this morning, myself and Prime Minister Modi have shared an intimate occasion with 100,000 people at the magnificent stadium there in Gujarat.

Distinguished guests from the Indian food and beverage, film, tourism and hospitality industries.

Namaskar.

Good afternoon, everyone — it’s wonderful to see you all here.

Thank you to Don Farrell, Australia’s Minister for Trade and Tourism, for bringing us together— and Austrade and the Australian Food and Wine Collaboration for showcasing such an outstanding selection of Australian products.

Distinguished guests from the Indian food and beverage, film, tourism and hospitality industries

JOURNALIST: Prime Minister, should the $3 million super earnings tax changes be indexed to stop it capturing hundreds of thousands of Australians in a decade's time?

ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Look, we've made it very clear what our position was yesterday. This will impact less than half a per cent of the population who are superannuants, impact less than 80,000 people. This is a sensible, modest change being put forward in order to make the superannuation system more sustainable. And what's more, it will come in after the next election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will travel to India from 8 –11 March at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Prime Minister’s visit to Ahmedabad, Mumbai and New Delhi will further deepen our strategic, economic and people to people ties with India, a close friend and partner to Australia.