Julia Banks (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is Singapore's National Day. It is held today, 9 August, in memory of Singapore's freedom from Malaysia in 1965. There are well over 1,000 constituents in my electorate of Chisholm whose birthplace and whose heritage hails from Singapore. I have not only travelled to Singapore as a tourist but many times have travelled and worked there during my business career, having worked as an Asia-Pacific senior counsel and head of corporate affairs for companies that base their Asia-Pacific headquarters there. From a personal perspective, I have long admired Singapore's culture and its people for their kindness and creativity and for our fond and close friendship and association with Australia. Singapore is Australia's fifth-largest trading partner and foreign investor.

Having been in this role as the member for Chisholm for just over a year, one of my greatest honours was to be part of the 45th Parliament's warm welcome of Singapore's Prime Minister Lee, who's played an integral role in harnessing our relationship. Australians share many common human qualities with Singaporeans, notwithstanding that we are countries with different cultures and traditions, particularly because our respective countries focus on rules based trade to deliver more jobs and higher incomes for our people. The Turnbull government's Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement, our China-Australia Free Trade Agreement and other agreements with our Asian neighbours ensure unprecedented economic integration with our Asian neighbours and cement the Turnbull government's focus on and support of businesses across the spectrum, from small to medium to large businesses, to ensure growth and jobs and a strong economy for future generations of Australians.

The Turnbull government, unlike Labor, are not antibusiness. Rather, we believe that these free trade agreements are underpinned by our natural partnering relationship with our Asian neighbours and foster further trade and investment, helping Australia and our Asian neighbouring countries to seize the economic opportunities for our growing region. Undoubtedly this harnesses the innovation and enterprise of the countless small businesses and business operators in my electorate who are supported and embraced by the Turnbull government. Like many of migrant heritage, many in my electorate speak a language other than English in the home. The other key language in Singapore is Mandarin. For all those of migrant heritage in Chisholm, like me, our pride in our migrant heritage remains in our heart and our spirit.

On this, Singapore's national day, I would like to acknowledge that Singaporeans and those of Singaporean ancestry in my electorate, and across Australia, play an integral role in the reason why Australia is the third most multicultural nation on earth. As Prime Minister Turnbull said at the time of Prime Minister Lee's visit:

We are, after all, quite natural partners—highly sophisticated, educated and multicultural societies with open economies.

Not just to Singaporeans, but to all Australians of my electorate in Chisholm, one of the most diverse electorates in Australia: being an Australian of ethically diverse background remains in our heart and spirit, whether that is Singaporean, Chinese, Greek, Italian or any other ancestry.