Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

The fourth of July next year will mark the centenary of the Battle of Hamel in the First World War. It is the battle in which American and Australian soldiers first fought side by side. It was a critical battle in the fight against Germany on the Western Front, and it had enormous strategic influence in terms of the course of the First World War. In terms of our relationship with the United States, it was the beginning of a joint military history between the two nations which has persisted through every major conflict from that day right through until the present, when Australians are working alongside United States forces in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.

The conflict in the Battle of Hamel, interestingly, took place under the command of an Australian, General Sir John Monash. It was in honour of the Americans he was commanding that he decided to make the day of the offensive in the Battle of Hamel, 4 July, American Independence Day. Next year will represent a centenary of that history. It is being commemorated by the Australian Embassy in the United States and in Washington as a centenary of mateship. I feel proud to wear the centenary of mateship badge today. That will be a significant moment in the relationship between our two countries.

The motion speaks about the political engagement between our two countries, which has been very significant over the journey as well. I was pleased to be able to add my small contribution to that last week, when I was in the United States visiting representatives of the US government in Washington and Honolulu. Prior to that I visited the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, where Australia's 72 joint strike fighters are currently under construction. I had the honour of being able to sign the sixth of our joint strike fighters that we are procuring from Lockheed Martin with significant Australian involvement. I was able to visit Mobile, Alabama, where Austal, a great Australian shipbuilding firm, based in Perth, is making combat ships for the US Navy. It was an extraordinary thing to see how impressive that shipyard was and how significant the projection of the Australian defence industry brand is, both in Alabama and in the United States more generally, by virtue of the work of Austal. Nearly 4,000 to 5,000 people work in that shipyard.

I was able to meet representatives of the Pentagon, in the administration itself, in the Congress, in the CIA, as well as having a number of round tables in Washington. Coming through Honolulu, I had the great honour of being able to meet Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of Pacific Command, which is the largest of the combatant commands of the US—its geography, of course, includes Australia and is a very significant part of our national security framework.

I want to take this opportunity to thank those at Lockheed Martin and Austal for facilitating my visit, and all of those at the Australian embassy in the United States and the United States embassy here in Australia for helping with the program, particularly Jeff Robinson, the consul general in Honolulu. Andrew Shearer, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, who will be familiar to people in this building, hosted a roundtable for me there. My good friends Matthew Freedman and Marty Russo did a great job in introducing me to a number of people in Washington, and Ashley Townshend from the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney also played a very significant role in the trip.

We have shared values with the United States—shared values of democracy and the rule of law and we seek to bring the rule of law to the global community. That is perhaps the most significant of all the shared values we have. We also have a very significant shared defence industry. Australian Air Force planes are being constructed in Fort Worth; American navy ships are being designed in Perth. It says everything about the significance of the relationship between our two nations, which on 4 July next year will indeed celebrate the centenary of mateship.

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