Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to speak in favour of this motion this morning, because Australia's ties with the Philippines are incredibly strong and important. That's true on a national level, but it's also true on a local level. I want to start by acknowledging my own electorate's ties with the Philippines and those of Filipino heritage who have decided to call North Queensland their home. Filipinos make up 1.2 per cent of the population of the city of Townsville, which is slightly higher than the regional Queensland average of one per cent. In fact, the first Filipinos to come to Queensland came via North Queensland: the Manila men, who worked as pearl divers in the Torres Strait Islands. Over the years, waves of migrant Filipino workers have flowed through critical industries such as mining, engineering, health services and the digital economy. Today there are more than 50,000 Filipinos in Queensland and a Filipino student population of more than 4,000. Queensland hosts the third-largest Filipino community all over Australia.

Not only does the Filipino community make an important contribution to our economy but it also makes an important contribution to our community. That was evident to me personally earlier this year, in June, when I had the privilege and the pleasure of being at the official opening of the Filipino Festival day in Townsville. This fantastic event is run by the Filipino Australian Affiliation of North Queensland, which has a proud history of more than 38 years representing the community in Townsville. I want to pay tribute to Ms Hamilton, the president of the affiliation, for all her hard work on the festival, which was a great display of arts, culture and cuisine. These local community connections are the sort of things that our fantastic diplomatic relationship over the years has helped foster. There is a lot of goodwill between our countries and our people, so it's great to be able to be a part of that and mark the 75th anniversary of these relations in this place this morning.

The relationship between the two countries extends right back into the Second World War, when Australians and Filipinos fought side by side in the 1944 and 1945 campaign that liberated the Philippines from Japanese occupation. The relationship was important then, as it is now. The Philippines occupies a strategically important position in South-East Asia, and we share common security interests. We established a joint declaration on the comprehensive partnership in 2015, as we share common perspectives on many regional economic and security issues. We have significant defence and security cooperation, including on counterterrorism, maritime security capability and domain awareness, as well as joint exercises and growing cooperation on cyber affairs and critical technology.

We know that terrorist organisations are based in the southern Philippines, including some with links to the Islamic State East Asia. We remember, very tragically, how several militant groups joined forces to launch attacks in May 2017. This took a tragic toll. By September 2017, the conflict had displaced around 350,000 people and resulted in the deaths of more than a thousand. I've seen firsthand the effects of what terrorist organisations are capable of in the Middle East, and I know just how destructive these groups can be. So it was appropriate that we, as a nation, increase our support for counterterrorism capacity building. That is mainly delivered by Defence and the Australian Federal Police and other security agencies, and many have served in the Philippines from the 3rd Brigade based in Townsville.

Our two countries have cooperation in multilateral forums, particularly through ASEAN. Most recently the relationship was further solidified through the development of the Philippines-Australia Plan of Action 2021-2022, to reflect the current dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region and more mature bilateral relationships. The plan of action identifies existing and new forms of cooperation to broaden the bilateral relationship, including Australia's support for the country's COVID-19 response and contribution to their economic recovery. This plan covers trade, industry and investment, development cooperation, education, skills and more. I want to touch on some of the defence and security cooperations. It will be important for the bilateral joint defence cooperation committee to continue to meet annually to discuss defence cooperation, mutual strategic interests and challenges, information sharing and planning, and both parties will benefit.

The Australian-Philippines relationship is incredibly important. On this day, the 75th anniversary, there's a lot to celebrate and look forward to in the future.

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