Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This week the World Health Assembly is meeting for its 74th annual session. This week for the fifth year running one nation, namely the Republic of China-Taiwan, has not been invited. This is the result of the continued belligerent bullying by the Communist Party regime in Beijing.

The subject matter of this week's World Health Assembly is how global nations respond to the pandemic. Yet, we have the irony that the nation that gave us the pandemic from Wuhan, possibly from a biological laboratory in that city, is participating yet refusing the participation of a country which has provided one of the best most-comprehensive results in terms of the way in which it's coped with the virus. This is something—

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting—

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members on my left!

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I presume the member opposite—I'll take his interjection—is in favour of the exclusion of Taiwan from the World Health Assembly? Is that the case? Is it the case that a country which has been successful in dealing with this is being excluded from it? As the G7 said, 'Taiwan should be there.' As Australia has said, 'Taiwan should be there.' As Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, said, 'There is no reasonable justification' for Taiwan not being there. The only reason it's not there is because of the bullying of China.