Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to join with my colleagues in paying tribute to Singapore's founding Prime Minister and father of independence Lee Kuan Yew.

He was a man who arguably built South-East Asia's most modern city and pioneered what were often considered far-reaching economic policies, and he is now renowned for cementing this physically small country's economy as the powerhouse it is today.

Although I never had the opportunity to meet Lee Kuan Yew, he was a man who I personally admired for his ability to make tough decisions on behalf of his people. He was a man of action who, as the Singaporeans say, ruled with an iron fist. He may have ruled with an iron fist, but the prosperity his people enjoyed throughout his reign as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990, and under his guidance as a senior minister until 2011, is largely unrivalled.

I know with being in Western Australia which is very close to Singapore many Singaporeans call Perth their second home. We often spend time in Singapore. I spent my honeymoon in Singapore and the company I worked for for many years had a manufacturing plant in Singapore and the island was considered to be one of the most crime-free places in South-East Asia. This was all done by Lee Kuan Yew's reign.

One of the things during his reign that have always stayed with me, with his ability to make decisions to assist the economy, was when he made the decision to reduce employer contributions to the country's compulsory savings scheme—which is similar to Australia's superannuation scheme—to counter economic downturns in the mid-1980s and in 1999, during the Asian financial crisis. During the 1980s the employer contribution was 25 per cent, but he saw that under that economy this was creating real distress for business, so he reduced it to 15 per cent. As a result of that decision, Singapore's international competitiveness soared and its people continued to prosper from a sustainable economy, with the country now having one of the world's highest per-capita incomes and its people enjoying first class infrastructure.

It is policy decisions such as this which will now shape the history books of Singapore and which largely speak for themselves in terms of economic strategy and policy but, interestingly, would be largely rebuked here in Australia. Despite this, Singapore is Australia's largest trade and investment partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, and our fifth largest trading partner overall. Each of the two nations has benefited greatly from our strong economic partnership, which was largely founded in the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement and is a relationship our country will continue to build on now and in the future.

In 2011, I was part of the ASEAN delegation that went to Vietnam, Bangkok and Singapore. During that time, we met with many of the Singaporean officials and with the Singaporean finance corporation, which is like their development bank. It was an interesting conversation that we had. Some members of the Labor Party who were with us asked them about their financing of alternative energies or renewable energies, and their response was, 'We won't fund anything that's not sustainable,' so there was a clear message from the Singaporeans in regard to renewable energies.

Lee Kuan Yew remained an influential figure internally with the People's Action Party, which has ruled Singapore since its founding, and across the political spectrum until his death on Monday at age 91 from severe pneumonia. At this time, his son the current Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong, declared a seven-day period of national mourning until 29 March, when Lee Kuan Yew's funeral will be held. My thoughts are with his family and the people of Singapore as they mourn this great loss, for he truly was Singapore's pioneer and will always be admired and respected. I am sure members would agree, no matter where they stand on Lee Kuan Yew's social or political policies, that he was a man who led his country to prosperity and created the great nation Singapore is today. I believe all members will also agree that we too have to finish our time in this place and be able to share the same sentiment that he stated in his last book, One Man's View of the World, which was published in 2013:

As for me, I have done what I had wanted to do, to the best of my ability.

I am satisfied.

With this in mind, I pay tribute to Singapore's pioneer, Lee Kuan Yew, and express my deepest condolences to his family. He will be mourned and he will be missed, but he will also be remembered in the hearts and minds of Singaporeans and people across the world for his service to his country and its people, a legacy that many hope for but few can claim. Rest in peace.

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