Andrew Charlton (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm horrified to hear they don't think the Pacific are our key allies! Certainly the current Leader of the Opposition didn't think the Pacific was one of our key allies when he said into an open mic, 'Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to have water lapping at your door.' Could you think of anything more offensive? Could you think of anything more calculated to damage the relationship we have with these important partners?

The president of Kiribati criticised the remark as 'vulgar'. He said it was 'unbecoming of leadership'. But to be honest, he was being polite—much more polite than the Leader of the Opposition. The Leader of the Opposition's remark was boorish, it was vulgar and, importantly, it wasn't very funny. The serious consequence of this was that Australia lost a lot of support in the Pacific at a crucial time.

No. 2, the second of the greatest hits of the Liberals in power traipsing around the world offending everyone they met. In September 2021, the now Leader of the Opposition, during a visit to India, made some remarks about China. He referred to them as being 'increasingly coercive' and talked about a 'zero-sum mentality'—as if he would know—which earned him a sharp rebuke from China's foreign ministry, which labelled his comments 'extremely dangerous and irresponsible'. Let's remember that we're talking about Australia's No. 1 trading partner. With reckless comments and shooting from the hip, the current Leader of the Opposition caused great offence. And who paid the price for this? It wasn't the now Leader of the Opposition. It was our farmers, our lobster producers, our wine producers, our barley producers. Importantly, the Special Minister of State, Don Farrell, now has to travel around the world fixing up all these relationships, and credit to him for reopening all of those markets.

No. 3, who could forget our friends, the French? Maybe they're not an ally of ours either. Scott Morrison, who decided to cancel a $90 billion contract with France for 12 conventional submarines, did it with great tact, deft diplomacy, by not telling the French and letting them find out in the media! Of course they were appalled. The French foreign minister called it 'a stab in the back'. To make the situation even worse, Morrison lied about it and released text messages from President Macron. President Macron did use great tact. When asked whether Morrison had lied to him, Macron responded, 'I don't think he lied; I know.' Again, this had serious consequences for Australia in the world.

The final one is India. They talk so much about the importance of India, but, when push came to shove and when India was in its moment of need in COVID, what did they do? They implemented a country-specific travel ban. They have never respected Australia's relationships in the world. They did them great damage. (Time expired)

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