Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Pacific Banking Guarantee Bill 2025. This bill is designed to ensure that Australian banks remain engaged in the Pacific financial sector, thereby preserving Australia's strategic presence in a region where China's influence continues to grow. By maintaining essential banking services for trade and remittances, the objective of the bill is to prevent further isolation of Pacific nations from global financial systems and help safeguard regional prosperity.

We all want to see a safer Pacific and strong, soft diplomacy ties to it. But clear oversight and transparency measures are needed, because the bill creates an ongoing risk to the taxpayer, with the potential for open-ended liabilities if claims on the guarantee arise. While the coalition will not oppose this bill, referring the legislation to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee is crucial, as this will help identify any necessary amendments and ensure robust protections are in place for Australian taxpayers.

The coalition's track record in the Pacific includes delivering record levels of aid, establishing diplomatic missions in every Pacific Islands Forum country and strengthening maritime security and labour mobility programs. In contrast, the Albanese government's approach appears reactive and has even been blindsided by China's growing presence in the region, highlighting the need for more proactive, long-term strategies. Balancing strategic objectives with fiscal prudence is vital, especially since the bill could expose taxpayers to geopolitical and commercial risk if not properly regulated. A robust national security stance underpins all Pacific engagement, and the coalition's record shows that only a comprehensive, whole-of-government approach can maintain Australia's leadership in the region.

The Albanese government want to deflect the blame for their failures in the Pacific onto the coalition. This government just can't face its own failures. The fact is that, while contestability in the Indo-Pacific has been intensifying for some time, it is under this government's watch that China has been able to extend its influence in our region through a series of security, economic and other agreements with Pacific island nations—some of which, media has reported, have blindsided the government. This has happened while the government, with few exceptions, has not been able to finalise a raft of agreements it has sought with the Pacific island partners. What the Albanese government's record in the Pacific shows is that it is not up to the strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific. The Albanese government is weak on national security, and only a Dutton Liberal-National government can ensure that Australia is a natural partner of choice for our Pacific family.

The facts show that the coalition delivered record aid into the Pacific in our last budget: some $1.85 billion—$750 million more than in Labor's last budget, which only provided $1.1 billion. In 2021-22, total support to the Pacific, including loans, was $2.7 billion and included security programs, health and financial support. Under the coalition, Australia became the only country to have diplomatic missions in every Pacific Islands Forum country. The coalition doubled the lending capacity of the AIFFP from $1.5 billion to $3 billion, including climate-resilient infrastructure, for the assistant minister opposite, and clean energy projects like Palau Solar, the Tina River project, and off-grid solar in PNG.

The coalition increased our Pacific climate finance to at least $700 million in 2020 to 2025. The coalition's $2 billion Pacific Maritime Security Program delivered 14 out of 21 Guardian class patrol boats, upgraded wharf infrastructure and supported aerial surveillance. The coalition took a whole-of-government approach to supporting our Pacific friends and partners by (1) training defence and security personnel from the Pacific—that's what the coalition did; (2) providing maritime safety security assistance; and (3) implementing a very successful labour mobility program, which Labor has diminished by bowing to its union masters. Those are facts.

In government, the coalition provided-record levels of development assistance to the Pacific and Timor-Leste. We budgeted for an estimated $4.55 billion as official development assistance in 2022-23, up from an estimated $4.46 in 2021-22, an increase under the coalition in our term in government. This included an additional $460 million in official development assistance in 2022-23 for temporary and targeted measures, responding in particular to COVID-19—that global pandemic that those opposite may remember—such as $281 million to address the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 in the Pacific and Timor-Leste, $98.3 million for vaccines in the Pacific and South-East Asia, $61.5 million to support economic recovery in South-East Asia, $13.6 million for Pacific labour mobility and $5.7 million for an ASEAN comprehensive strategic partnership.

We resumed indexation 2½ per cent on the baseline ODA budget in 2022-23, which will see the ODA budget increase over the forward estimates. Our ODA was complemented by a comprehensive package of support to the Indo-Pacific region. This included budget support—Indonesia's $1.5 billion, PNG's $1.14 billion, Fiji's $168.5 million—security assistance and vaccines. Nearly 33 million doses were delivered out of the 60 million committed by the end of 2022. So the Liberal-National coalition had a good record in the Pacific with our neighbouring friends and partners.

In soft power and strategic diplomacy, we increased scholarships to the Pacific with nearly 69,660 Australian students through the New Colombo Plan, and we increased the number of students we sent to gain experience in the Pacific by over 60 per cent. Despite COVID-19 challenges, we resumed Australia's award scholarships in short courses to 27 developing countries with 2,075 granted in 2021-22, including 484 for Pacific scholars, with 4,429 Pacific scholars through Australia's award since 2015—PNG, Solomon Islands and Samoa as top participants. We contributed some $5.4 million over 2017 to 2022 to develop the next generation of women Pacific leaders through targeted workshops and network delivered intensive leadership and mentoring for 126 women from 10 Pacific countries connected with 141 Australian mentors and a range of Pacific leaders.

Again, to close, referring this legislation to the Senate's Economics Legislation Committee is crucial, and the coalition looks forward to supporting that committee process.

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