James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Next year marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our country and the Philippines. But in fact we have a connection to the Philippines going back well before then, particularly during the Second World War, when General Macarthur left Mindanao Island for Darwin and flew down to Alice Springs—there was no railway in those days. From Alice Springs he took the train. It was at a small town in the mid-north of SA, Terowie, that two Advertiser journalists were able to rendezvous with him, where he made the famous comment to those journalists, which ended up in a headline in the AdelaideAdvertiser: 'I shall return.' That turned into a famous catchcry of the general. Of course did return in 1944 and went on up to Japan. As an allied commander my grandfather served under him—quite a way under him, I might add. He made an enormous impact and was very significant in the liberation of the Philippines.

Our relationship with the Philippines emanates not just from the diplomatic relationship from 1945, but before. They are a very important ally to us to this day, of course, being a member of ASEAN, a very important trading partner.

I had the pleasure of travelling there on an Australian Political Exchange Council visit in 2011. It is a beautiful country with great opportunity. There have been many challenges in their past, there are currently challenges and there will be into their future, but they are a very important partner for us. We are seeing more and more as new challenges arise in our region that we want strong relationships with all those nations, particularly the South-East Asian nations. So our relationship with the Philippines is very important.

I commend the member for moving this motion, because some of the things that are alleged to be happening in the Philippines are very concerning. He gave a catalogue of issues to do with workers' rights and general freedoms in the Philippines, particularly the freedom of the press, which are universal values that we all share across all sides of the chamber. He also mentioned the ILO, and I would like to take the opportunity to say that there's never been a more important time to embrace international organisations, the international rules based system and international law. In this country at the moment we are finding, with some of the trade challenges that we have with partners like China, that it is so important that there are structures that we can engage in to have fair rules based dispute resolution mechanisms and a fair playing field for everyone concerned.

Without digressing from the Philippines topic, there have been governments—not just the Philippines but others—in recent times that have been rather negative and critical, even mocking, of some of these international institutions. That has been regrettable but, hopefully, there is a sense of renewed optimism at the value of and need for these institution so that, when we have disputes and concerns amongst other nations—particularly those nations in our region—whether they are trading partners, trading competitors, security partners and so on, we have the right mechanisms to resolves those while preserving a peaceful framework.

I am very concerned about a number of the reports that we read in Western media about the Duterte regime and some of the ways in which they are governing their country, and particularly the way in which they are undertaking judicial processes or perhaps, as is reported and alleged, the lack of due process in judicial processes not just in the areas that the member has raised but also in the so-called crackdown on the drug trade and some of the claims about extrajudicial action against people indiscriminately—or, in fact, discriminately, I might correct myself in saying—where allegations are that, for reasons nothing to do with reported drug activity et cetera, critics and opponents of the regime are being targeted. We as a nation support democracies. We support human rights and people's freedoms. That includes those that the member has outlined in moving the motion but also other universal human rights that we always as a nation should stand united in proclaiming and defending. We have to be prepared to call out our concerns and take all action that is available to us when these reports come to us, no matter where these nations are, who they are, how powerful they are or how important our relationship is with them. I am very proud of the long history of our relationship with the Philippines. We are adult enough to be honest with friends, as we are in this case and should continue to do into the future. (Time expired)

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