James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Returning to the peripheral and substantive manners—

Honourable senators interjecting—

The CHAIR: Senator Wong and Senator Whish-Wilson—order!

Thank you, Chair, I appreciate your assistance. Returning to the substantive matters: I was going to the four car companies which were manufacturers in Australia—Mitsubishi, Ford, Holden and Toyota. I acknowledge that Senator Ayres is right: Holden and Toyota did make the decision and did announce their decision to cease manufacturing in Australia under the first term of the Abbott government. However, as Senator Ayres should know and may have forgotten—or has chosen to forget—the departure of Mitsubishi was announced in 2008 under the Rudd government and the announcement of Ford's departure from manufacturing in Australia was in 2013 under the Gillard government. So two of the four Australian car manufacturers announced their departure under the Rudd-Gillard government, not under this government. To attribute the blame to this side of politics for those events is, I think, curious.

Turning to the more substantive matters raised in Senate Ayres's contribution about this question of ministerial accountability for decisions made: I appreciate the perspective raised by the opposition and some crossbench senators on this question. But I do observe that in our system of government ministers are accountable to this parliament and governments are accountable to the people. If the opposition or any other member of this place is curious about a decision that the minister has made, if the minister does indeed make a decision to cancel an agreement, then they're free to ask the minister about that in this chamber. I look forward to them doing so if indeed that is the case. Ultimately, the government is accountable to the people for the decision it makes.

I was reflecting on a contribution that Senator Rice made in this debate last night. She made the good point that, sadly, it may not be the case that Senator Payne will be foreign minister forever. I hope it is for a very long time, but one day perhaps she will be succeeded by another foreign minister. It may be Senator Wong who replaces her one day as foreign minister. It may be Senator Ayres or it may be Senator Kitching, given their interest in these matters. But, speaking as a Liberal senator, I will sleep very soundly at night knowing that it may be Senator Wong who retains this power in the future. I would much rather Senator Wong have this power to make this decision and much rather she exercise her judgement using this power and the judgement of the federal government on questions of national interest and foreign policy than any state premier, Labor or Liberal—let alone any local council mayor or any vice-chancellor. That's because I know that ultimately she will be informed by the best advice and the best expertise here in Canberra and because, fundamentally, I don't think there is a really profound difference on foreign policy across the chamber. Fundamentally, I think we substantially agree.

So I'm not troubled as Senator Rice is by the fact that the foreign ministry may change hands one day. I trust that an elected government and the person they choose to appoint as foreign minister will exercise that choice carefully and that any decisions they make will be subject to the scrutiny of this parliament and the Australian people.