Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

As Prime Minister of this great nation of Australia, I regard the relationships that we have as being very important and an important part of my undertaking as having the great honour of having been sworn in as Australia's 31st Prime Minister. One of my priorities upon being sworn in was to repair and improve relations internationally, right around the globe. That is something that I have done. If you look at the relationship with the United States and the United Kingdom, they are two historic relationships that have been important for us—the United Kingdom of course for a long period of time, given our history, and the United States particularly in the wake of John Curtin's correct and courageous decision to put the national defence of Australia first during World War II and the important alliance we have had with the United States of America since then. That relationship is a relationship not between leaders; it's a relationship between people and between nations. It's one that is very important and enduring and will continue to be into the future.

At the same time, we've repaired our relationships with countries like France and with other countries in Europe. We've got as good a relationship as we have ever had with the ASEAN nations; a priority has been our region. Hosting the ASEAN-Australia Forum in Melbourne in March and seeing the leader of every ASEAN nation come personally and participate fully in that forum was very positive. Similarly, our relationship with the Pacific Islands Forum has been so important as well.

I note that, coming up, we will have CHOGM, hosted in Samoa. That will be an important time for us to renew our relationship with Commonwealth nations. In addition to that, in a short period of time we will welcome the Premier of China to Australia. We'll make announcements at appropriate times about that. That will be a positive thing, given that China is our major trading partner and given the important regional relationships. We do have strategic competition. We are attempting to manage that competition in Australia's national interest, always speaking up for our national interest. We'll continue to do that in a mature way that represents our nation's interests. (Time expired)

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