Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

What an extraordinary performance this has been on behalf of the government in relation to the taking note debate. The best that they can say about this situation is that it is finished. In response to a question by Senator Coonan, Senator Evans said that the matter is closed. He repeated once again the point that the Prime Minister has supposedly made: that the comment was never made. This is an important issue because it points to the traducing of a fundamental and longstanding principle by which governments have conducted their international relations for several hundred years. And this is not just any relationship that we are talking about. We are not talking about Canberra’s relations with just any country in the world; we are talking about Canberra’s relations with our most important security partner. We are talking about Canberra’s relations with our most important ally anywhere in the world. The Howard government spent 11 years building intimacy, closeness, cooperation, confidence and trust in this relationship. Within less than 12 months in office, we find not just any minister but the Prime Minister involved in a scandal which undermines the importance of that relationship.

After this incident, why would any government anywhere around the world have confidence in having or trying to have a confidential relationship with anybody in Canberra. They would know that, were they to have a conversation with the Prime Minister or, for that matter, any one of his ministers, there would be every likelihood that that would be prepared to leak the contents because it served their own sleazy political purposes—that the Prime Minister or any of his ministers would be prepared to compromise the essence of an important and fundamental relationship just to serve some perceived local need that they may have.

I doubt that there is one person who joins the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as a recruit who on walking through the door on day one does not know that one of the fundamental principles of international affairs, one of the key elements of governments having trust in one another, is that diplomatic communications should be private and confidential. There would not be a person in that new group of recruits who walks through the doors of the Department of the Foreign Affairs and Trade, even before they take their seat at a desk in the department, who would not know that this is an elemental part of conducting Australia’s international relations.

Last week Greg Sheridan pointed out in an article in the Australian Literature Review that the Prime Minister came to office with more experience in foreign policy and international relations than any other Prime Minister to date. We can contest the virtue of that particular argument but he is probably right—because we know that this Prime Minister has spent almost half his professional life engaged on Australia’s service in international diplomacy. He knows the protocols. He knows the conventions. He knows the essence of conducting confidential relationships with other governments. He knows the importance of maintaining the integrity of that confidentiality. He also knows that, when that confidentiality is breached and that trust is gone, it is not recovered in a hurry; it is not recovered in an instant. You have to work hard at building these relationships.

We know how hard we have to work at that relationship with Washington. We know that the relationship that has existed between Australia and the United States for over 50 years is unique in terms of intelligence, security and those fundamental things on which governments trust each other. We had that relationship with Washington. We now have a situation where, in the future, those in Washington will be asking themselves whether or not they should be having these conversations with Australia. They will not just be asking questions about whether they should be having those conversations on the telephone; they will be asking questions about whether or not they should be having those conversations with our diplomats abroad and in Canberra. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.