Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australians took a big sigh of relief after the election, and now we're all just taking a big sigh of relief after whatever that was. I'm very pleased to rise to speak on the Foreign Affairs and Trade consideration in detail. This is a matter on which there has been one of the most significant changes since the election: having a foreign minister that actually wants to be the foreign minister, having a foreign minister that is actually engaged in our region, having a foreign minister who turns up and treats our Pacific neighbours with friendship and attention to detail and who works with them and tries to elevate the voices of our Pacific friends.

We understand that Australia's place and role in the region is the single most important thing we can do in Australia's national interest in a foreign policy sense. We know that working with our Pacific island nations to ensure Australia remains the partner of choice and a friend and partner in the dealings of the Pacific islands is the single biggest thing we can do in Australia's national interest. Compare the proactive way in which we engage with respect to Pacific island nations with some of the absolute gutter politics we have seen from those opposite, trying to play domestic politics with Australia's foreign aid. Some of the questions we have heard in question time! Really they should be asking themselves: is it in Australia's national interest to be playing that sort of domestic politics with Australia's foreign policy and international development money? We do not increase Australia's influence in our region by reducing the amount of investment Australia makes in the region. We do not increase our ability to act in Australia's national interest by playing domestic politics with Australia's foreign aid.

I know that there are many people on the other side of the parliament who care deeply about Australia's standing in our region, who care deeply about our relationship with our friends and who care deeply about Australia's role in the Pacific. The question they should be asking is: is the leadership being provided by the Leader of the Opposition, who is willing to play these low political games with Australia's foreign policy and international development, the best they've got? Is that putting their best foot forward? I'm not exactly sure that that is something all of them would agree with. I hope to see them drop those quite unnecessary and low political acts.

The other thing since the election has been the willingness of the now Albanese Labor government to take the real concerns of Pacific island nations around climate change seriously. I note the Minister for International Development and the Pacific is with us in the chamber, and he has been at forefront of working on, understanding, listening to and caring about the serious and existential concerns of Pacific island nations around climate change. This is not a theoretical exercise; this is something they are living each and every day, and it also affects Australia's place in the world and our ability to have influence and be taken seriously at a multilateral forum. We just had a COP in Egypt where Australia was welcomed back into the fold in a multilateral forum because we understand that climate change is something we need to play a leadership role in. That is something that has changed dramatically. We are no longer making jokes about the impacts of climate change on our friends in the Pacific underneath a boom mike like those opposite did once upon a time. We are listening, elevating and working with the Pacific islands. In fact, work has already commenced to host COP31 together with Pacific island nations to elevate the voices, concerns and needs of our Pacific island friends and family.

It's a very different approach to foreign policy. It's an approach where we take seriously Australia's engagement with our region. We want to increase Australia's ability to have our say and put forward our national interest, but that's also good for our friends in the Pacific islands. That's something I care deeply about. I'm proud to be the chair of the Papua New Guinea-Australia friendship group. I'm looking forward to heading to Papua New Guinea in a couple of weeks and meeting with our friends. I'm very proud of the work being done by the government. I ask the minister: does he agree with the work being done by the government?

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