Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Given Labor's stated support in October last year for Australia's participation in the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, has the government finally come to the table, or is a decision yet to be made? Or, put another way: is the finance minister right or is the foreign minister correct? Or is this just another cabinet leak from a chaotic and incompetent government?

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the Hon. Prime Minister, and he will ignore the debate that was couched in the terms of the last part of the question.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the Leader of the Opposition for this question, because the decision whether or not to enter into formal negotiations for the possible formation of an Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank is an important one. It is an important issue. It should be taken seriously by this government and, frankly, it is right and proper that we should not rush into a decision. We should carefully weigh up the arguments for and against.

But I do say that we already have the Asia Development Bank and we already have the World Bank—important multinational and multilateral entities which are doing good work in our region and around the world. And if we can have a further international entity to work on the infrastructure deficit, which is very strong in our region, that would be a good thing.

We have been talking to the Chinese, who are the proponents of this bank, to try to ensure that it is in fact a genuinely multilateral institution, that it is run in all important respects by a board, that its processes are transparent, that it is genuinely accountable and that it is not controlled by any one entity. Under those circumstances, we would certainly be prepared to join. I imagine that, under those circumstances all nations, including the United States and Japan, would be prepared to join. But these are the questions that we are considering. We will continue to consider these questions, and in the next few days an appropriate announcement will be made.