Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The honourable member for Melbourne Ports is something of a peculiarity in the Labor Party. I would not accuse him of this, by the way. But I think most members of the Labor Party are of the Left, and for the Left the United States is the great Satan. You can imagine what is said about the United States at Labor Party branch meetings—things such as, ‘Anybody associated with the United States is bad,’ or, on noticing that the Japanese have a security treaty with the United States: ‘Whoops! The Japanese are a bit suss. Maybe we will not support a free trade agreement with Japan.’ I do not know.

The member for Rankin indicated that he thought that preferential trading agreements started world wars and that it was not a good idea to have a free trade agreement with Japan. I do not agree with that. I think it is a good idea, and we are making good progress in getting that to happen. If Australia took the view that we would not negotiate free trade agreements in Asia, that would lead to a very substantial disengagement of Australia from Asia. The Labor Party have this kind of fetish about saying, ‘We are the party most committed to engagement with Asia,’ but they do not want to negotiate trade agreements.

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