Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, in a very short period of time, I will be heading to Laos to attend meetings of ASEAN and the East Asia Summit. While there, I will be meeting with Chinese Premier Li, building on the patient, deliberate and calibrated work that this government has done to stabilise the relationship with China. There will also be bilateral meetings, including with Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Luxon of New Zealand, Prime Minister Chinh of Vietnam and President Yoon of the Republic of Korea.

As well, I will be meeting for the first time with new prime ministers. I congratulate Prime Minister Ishiba on his election as the Prime Minister of Japan. That is a critical relationship. I rang him and had a good conversation with him initially. The relationship with Japan is not just an economic one; it's increasingly one that's important for our national security cooperation well. I will also be meeting the new Prime Minister of Thailand, Prime Minister Shinawatra, as well as having other meetings with leaders from our region.

The nations of South-East Asia combined will represent the fourth-largest economy in the world by 2040. South-East Asia is Australia's second-largest two-way trading partner. Half a million jobs in Australia are linked directly to trade with South-East Asia, and it is home, of course, to a market that is 10 times bigger than Australia's. South-East Asia is where Australia's economic destiny lies, yet less than four per cent of Australia's international investment goes to South-East Asia.

One of the meetings that will be held on Friday morning will be led by Nicholas Moore, the former head of Macquarie Bank who has done an extraordinary job as our Special Envoy for Southeast Asia, producing the Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 that outlines the opportunities that are here in Australia for Australian business with businesses in each of the ASEAN nations. It follows the successful summit and business meetings that we hosted in Melbourne in March. This will be an important event and will be attended by other businesses as well. The important hosting of another event is one that Prime Minister Ishiba of Japan is hosting about how our economies move towards net zero together and the cooperation that the Japanese Prime Minister is interested in developing with hydrogen and other areas that we have discussed. I look forward to the importance of that.

National security in our region is obviously critical, and we remain concerned about the events in the South China Sea. I'm sure I will discuss that with the President of the Philippines Bongbong Marcos, who we hosted here in Parliament House earlier this year. That is increasingly an important relationship for us.

I thank all of the DFAT people who've assisted with this visit. I note that Nicholas Moore is someone who is a very successful businessman. He is not remunerated. He's not doing this out of any personal interest. He's contributing back to Australia, an Australia that's been good to him. It's a great example of philanthropy, if you like, through the human capital being produced that he's engaged. He's been there; he's visited every single country in ASEAN. He's been there in advance of the visit, organising Friday's forum. I think it is a great example of someone from the private sector making a contribution to public life, and I thank him for it. I look forward to a successful summit being hosted over the next two days.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, we wish the Prime Minister safe travels to a very important gathering of countries and leaders with whom we share a common interest and a desire to see the best for our region. I echo the comments in relation to Nicholas Moore, with whom we worked very closely on matters relating to PNG when we were in government. He did an exceptional job for his country and, as you say, Prime Minister, giving back to a country that has given him so much. The strategic relationships, the trade and all of the issues raised by the Prime Minister are very important, as part of those discussions, and we wish him well in his trip in our country's name. Perhaps on the sidelines, Prime Minister, you'll take the opportunity to trumpet the government's world-leading NBN program!