Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As I was pointing out last night, a wonderful opportunity exists for the role that Australia can play in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Back in promoting development within the Pacific region. The Pacific is one of the areas in which living standards are at their lowest and nations are failing to meet their Millennium Development Goals. The power of infrastructure is to connect communities, to provide that has put links, the telecommunications hardware, the roads, the electricity and the power and energy supplies to leak communities. In doing so boost living standards. That is something that Austria can play an active role in through the Asian Infrastructure Investment Back. This is something that the Chinese government is acutely aware of. The Chinese investment in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in the Pacific. In November 2013, Beijing announced a new assistance package for the Pacific islands, potentially worth more than US$2 billion. The package is made up of two loan facilities for use in infrastructure development, of up to US$1 billion each.

Already Chinese development aid associated with infrastructure in the Pacific has had some challenges. There have been issues associated with projects that have not been of great value to Pacific communities, particularly in terms of combating policy and eradicating disease, providing education facilities and boosting living standards. There are been issues associated with a soft loans and increasing levels of indebtedness. Anything that improves transparency and accountability of investment in the region is something that should be encouraged, particularly in respect of China's involvement. That is an area where Australia can play an active, cooperative role with China. These factors point to the need for more multilateral coordination and commercial discipline for infrastructure projects in the region. For Australia, China's development assistance should be viewed not as a threat but as an opportunity. Australia's dominance in the Pacific region means that we are in a strong position to work with China for the sake of good development outcomes and to strengthen our bilateral relationship.

Joining the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is a no-brainer for Australia and will provide opportunities for a greater role in shaping and encouraging sustainable development in our region. That is why Labor announced many months ago that, were we in government, we would sign up to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and why we welcome this government's eventual agreement to this. This is a positive economic development. In our view it took far too long. Thankfully, the government has seen the light, and we can now start working with broader Asia and, in particular, with our most important trading partner, China, in developing this great new multilateral financial institution for our region.

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