Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance) Share this | Hansard source

We have, however, very important relationships to pursue with a whole range of other countries in our region. We have a significant need to enhance our relationship with ASEAN, and I do not think this needs to be a matter of partisan controversy in this country. Everybody in Australia knows that there is no sensible way forward for Australia without good relationships with the countries of ASEAN. I was very disappointed with the early years of the Howard government and its relationship with some of those countries but, by the end, I think we were on a trajectory that was consistent with that which the previous Labor government had and which all governments should maintain.

I am not going to say they did everything wrong. I think they started badly with China and I think they started badly with ASEAN, but by the end they had got back on a trajectory which I thought had some merit. There is absolutely no sign that it is in any danger. There is absolutely no sign that there is some concern in the countries of ASEAN that Australia is not enthusiastically cooperating with them institutionally through the Secretary-General of ASEAN, with whom I have had the opportunity to have meetings directly and who I think is offering very significant possibilities for enhancing Australia’s participation in the region and for strengthening the role of ASEAN in the region—which I regard as an unqualified plus.

There is no sign that the governments of Singapore or Malaysia think that the Australian government is not actively engaged in their concerns. And we do have an opportunity, which the previous government did not have, through no fault of theirs, to enhance our relationship with Thailand because the military government has gone and democracy has been restored. We have the capacity to re-establish that relationship and we are actively engaged in that process. So to say that those relationships are on a downward trajectory is entirely a hallucination. There is no evidence for that whatsoever. These are governments with whom we have a very good relationship and with whom we intend to maintain a very good relationship. Most of them are ones where the relationship is already good. In some instances, as with Thailand, for reasons that are understandable and were inevitable, they are going to be substantially improved. However, with regard to the Pacific, we have also been left a record of chaos and resentment which has been substantially improved by the direct intervention of the Prime Minister.

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