Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Flynn always enjoys himself. Many of our friends like the UK, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, France, Italy, India and Singapore backed the bank months before this government resolved their own internal conflicts on it—that is a fact. Labor thinks that Australia needs to embrace a vision that extends well into the future and we need to solidify our place in the Asia-Pacific regional economy. That is what this bill is about.

Labor will support the legislation before the House today. We welcome those opposite in their late conversion. We supported it long before the government did. We support committing $930 million to the AIIB. We see our nation crucially as a part of Asia into the future and this will be aided by our involvement in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

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