Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, member for Chifley. Salamat indeed. Without doubt the most vibrant community on the Northern Beaches is the Filipino community. They are active and engaged in our local community, and, I'm happy to say—although I bear the scars—they have the best celebrations of all the people of all the community groups in our area. There are very few celebrations where you're asked to turn up for just half an hour, just drop in, and six hours later you find yourself up on the stage dancing and feeling worse for wear at the end of it. Fortunately, there is no video of this incident, and if video does emerge I will pay cash to see that it is never published! Making it worse, of course, is the fact that I was absolutely sober and have no excuse for my behaviour on that day.

I'm often asked, 'Where will you find the Filipino community on the Northern Beaches?' The answer is often at St Kevin's Dee Why at 8 am on a Sunday morning. The Filipino community shares some of the great values of so many migrant groups that have come to this country. They have a love of family. As the member for Chifley mentioned, they have a love of education. They understand the importance of thrift and saving. They love this country. Their belief in fairness, justice, and reward for effort is seen in everything that they do.

It is therefore not unremarkable that our two nations would find themselves celebrating today, the 75th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, because our friendship is enduring; it is based so much on shared values as opposed to shared interests. The Philippines and Australia find themselves with a sense of mutual respect and understanding. We're anchored in a shared vision of not only both nations but the region in which we find ourselves and which we share as one that is open, inclusive and therefore prosperous and resilient.

The relationship has been defined by the Filipino spirit of—I apologise up-front for my pronunciation of this—bayanihan and the Australian tradition of mateship. We have stood by each other in good times and bad, beginning with Australia's support for the Philippines' campaign for liberation during World War II. Over the past 75 years, the relationship has gone from strength to strength, built on a strong foundation of people-to-people links. Our historic people-to-people links are exemplified in the following statistics; I think some of these have been mentioned in some of the previous speeches, but they're worth reiterating.

Filipinos worked in the pearling industries in Broome and Thursday Island as far back at the 1870s. Filipino Colombo Plan scholars began arriving on our shores from the 1950s. Thousands of Filipinos have been educated in Australia, and their leadership has contributed to the strengthening of our ties. And 44,000 Filipinos are employed by over 300 Australian companies in the Philippines.

The significant number of Filipinos who have emigrated to Australia since the 1960s now comprise the fifth-largest immigrant community in Australia. They have brought different perspectives, experiences and skills that have enriched the Australian community. Our close bilateral relationship serves us both well as we seek to tackle regional issues and the social and economic impact of the pandemic. The relationship has grown to encompass development and assistance—things like lifesaving work during the pandemic and after natural disasters, constructive engagement on human rights, support for peace-building efforts in Mindanao and collaborative law enforcement efforts to combat online sexual exploitation of children and women.

Our trade and investment links are now deep and broad, resulting in a bilateral trade relationship worth over $6 billion before COVID, which made the Philippines our 19th largest trading partner. At the same time, total Australian investment was valued at over $10 billion. Cooperation and the support of rules based multilateral agencies and the system continue to grow and deepen. Our defence and security cooperation is one of the features of our relationship with the Philippines. There are few nations in our region that we have a closer, more abiding and enduring friendship with than the Philippines, and their community in our nation make a contribution that far exceeds their numbers.

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