Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I can absolutely assure Senator Griff and the chamber that these two things are not mutually exclusive and that that is not the approach that the government is taking. It's not an either/or approach. In fact, we are doing both. For example, any reference to the record of the AUSMIN meetings of the last two years, both 2020 and 2021, provides a very clear indicator of the government's commitments and ambitions in that regard. As you say, the defence minister has spoken of those in his recent comments. We will work closely, as I said, with those counterparts in the region: with ASEAN; with our Quad partners; with our Five Eyes partners; with the European Union, particularly given their Indo-Pacific strategy released recently. I was speaking to the new Canadian Foreign Minister last week in relation to the work that Canada is also doing in this area. Australia is not the only country by any stretch, by any consideration, who is facing these issues and addressing these issues head on.