Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

As the Prime Minister has clearly said, we congratulate President-elect Trump on his election victory. The United States, of course, is one of the world's great democracies and Donald Trump supports the alliance we have with the United States. In both Australia and the United States, our security and economic relationship will only go from strength to strength. Personally, I am very proud to be the co-chair of both the Parliamentary Friends of the United States and the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS. In fact, I caught up with Rear Admiral Richard Seif, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet Submarine Force, at the US Embassy this week. I've seen first-hand the interoperability of our AUKUS partners, both with the Marines, with the air force, with the navy—with all elements of our alliance. I visited HMAS Stirling last month in Perth and saw AUKUS partners working side by side to deliver the historic submarine tendered maintenance period of the Virginia class USS Hawaii.

Our government will work closely with the new Trump administration to realise the benefits of our strong security and economic partnership and of course that includes AUKUS. Our Prime Minister has spoken with President-elect Trump this morning, as we heard earlier. As the PM said today:

Our Government will work closely with the new Trump Administration to realise the benefits of our strong economic partnership. The United States has long played a leadership role in the stability and security of the Indo-Pacific. Australia will strive to strengthen the co-operation between our two nations in the region. Australia and America are old allies and we are true friends. … I look forward to working with President Trump and working with him in the best interests of both our nations.

Australia and America of course are old allies and we are true friends. The alliance between Australia and the US has endured for generations, since the darkest days of World War II.

My electorate—Darwin and Palmerston in the Northern Territory—is a focal point of this history, and still today Australia's north is at the heart of our relationship with United States. We have the United States Marines in Darwin every year and we have US force posture initiatives at RAAF Base Tindal in the member for Lingiari's electorate. The Territory has a proven history of hosting and supporting large multinational activities and exercises with our US friends. The US Marine Corps loves Darwin and has been there for more than a decade now. The strategic importance of Australia's north to Australia's defence has long been recognised by government and policymakers but most importantly our US allies. Since World War II, northern Australia has been a critical contributor to Australia's security as part of our Australia-US alliance. Geographically, Darwin sits at the centre of the Indo Pacific, and AUKUS is in both the strategic benefit and in the national interests of Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. That is as much the case today as it was at the start of this week. That has not changed. We welcome the broad bipartisan support that has been demonstrated in the United States for both the alliance and for AUKUS and we can be confident of their support because, as the Deputy Prime Minister has said, we have the voting record. When you look at the way the US Congress voted at the end of last year in support of AUKUS, it was strong across the political spectrum. So we do have a sense of confidence that, going forward, this is a program that will be supported in the United States, as it is in the UK and as it will be here.

Our government, the Albanese government, has restored Australia's international reputation and continues to rebuild our relationships with our key partners. Our government's approach has always been about investing in our capabilities and investing in those relationships. I echo the words of the assistant foreign minister regarding our ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd. He knows the US very well indeed, and we're very lucky to have him there representing us.

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