Sam Rae (Hawke, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Why is engagement in our region important for a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and how is the Albanese Labor government contributing to this?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Last weekend, at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, I met with Lloyd Austin, the United States Secretary of Defense, and I remarked to Lloyd that, in the last two years, of all my counterparts he is easily the one with whom I have met the most. At one level that's unsurprising, given the significance to Australia of America as our ally. But, when you consider that I would be just one of many defence ministers around the world who would make the same observation, it says a lot about America's continuing presence, about the remarkable role which Lloyd Austin is personally playing and about the impressive way in which the Biden administration is managing America's place in the world.

Today we commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the most momentous day in the entire history of human warfare. On that day, Australians and Americans stood side-by-side, as we have in every conflict since the First World War. In April 1945 we also stood side-by-side as Australia sent a delegation, led by Frank Forde and Doc Evatt, to the peace conference in San Francisco which established the United Nations. Having endured the greatest calamity ever, this meeting—one of the most important meetings of all time—was underpinned by an abiding commitment that, in the future, disputes between nations should be resolved not by reference to might and power but by reference to a set of rules: the global rules based order.

Since then, as we have stood with America in conflict so too we have stood with them and others as guardians and protectors of this global rules based order. In Singapore on the weekend this was the topic, because the global rules based order today is under more pressure than it has been at any point since the end of the Second World War. In all our meetings with the United States, with our partners in ASEAN, with Japan and Korea, with our friends in NATO and with China as well our message was clear and simple: the global rules based order remains today, as it was imagined in 1945, the greatest hope for enduring human security, because the global rules based order provides full sovereignty to all nations, large and small, not just great powers. The global rules based order is at the heart of Australia's strategic interests, and the maintenance of this order must continue to be the single most important contribution that all of us make to global peace.

Andrew Hastie (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I thank the Deputy Prime Minister for the update from the weekend. Unlike the Greens, the Labor Party and the coalition share a common belief in our relationship with the US and we're going to work together to uphold it, so I thank the Deputy Prime Minister.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll just remind the member for Canning that it's not necessary to add partisan remarks on indulgence.