Craig Emerson (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Competitiveness) Share this | Hansard source

In relation to the UN Security Council bid, within the bounds of reasonableness we will seek to provide relevant information. I am not by any means persuaded that it is in Australia's national interest to start articulating to the opposition and, through that process, to the Australian people and the public more generally exactly who has pledged what to whom. I am not sure that those countries would necessarily think that was a good idea. If you want to prejudice the Security Council bid—and maybe the coalition does—that would be a pretty good way of going about it. I imagine that some of these consultations and discussions about arrangements would be fairly confidential. So I am not going to commit that we will provide information about conversations that have been held with each and every country in relation to the UN Security Council bid. I would be interested—I have not caught up with the latest—in knowing whether the coalition has an official position of opposing that bid. Certainly, the request for information that is being sought seems to me to be designed to prejudice it.

I was asked whether Australia issues invitations to leaders of other nations to come to this country. Yes, things have moved on; Fortress Australia has been dismantled. That was through the fifties and sixties, when we in this country were very fearful of foreigners. People like Pauline Hanson still are, but I would hope that the coalition is not. Of course, we invite people from other countries to come to Australia.

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