Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam President, and congratulations.

On behalf of the Nationals, I would like to contribute to this condolence motion and associate our party particularly with the comments by the Leader of the Government in the Senate and the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Shinzo Abe was a man who fought for a safer, more secure region in the world—a great champion of democracy, of freedom and of growing friendship between Australia and Japan. It was a great honour for all of us to be invited to the Japanese embassy over recent weeks, since his shocking assassination, to sign a condolence book, which I hope many of us took advantage of, given the deep and abiding friendship between our two countries.

The chronology of his life has been delivered already, but, for the Nationals, there is a deep and abiding relationship with the people of Japan that stretches more than six decades. The assassination of former Prime Minister Abe in Nara earlier this month was therefore a terrible shock, but, afterwards, a cause for some reflection on this man's remarkable achievements as a statesman and a friend to Australia. I would like to recount the events surrounding the biggest political risk to the former Country Party leader John McEwen's career in establishing a trade deal between Australia and its former enemy Japan in 1957. The co-signatory to that deal was Prime Minister Kishi, grandfather of the late Prime Minister Abe.

With the wartime memories of the prisoner-of-war camps in Changi and the Burma railway still raw and real in the minds of many Australians, McEwen's diplomacy helped seal a deal that contributed to postwar prosperity for our two countries that has largely continued, albeit with some notable disruptions, to the present day. But it could have been disastrous, and the Australian Prime Minister of the day was very clear with the National Party leader at that time, that any downside to the deal was going to land at McEwen's feet. The wonderful historic symmetry of that deal was completed 57 years later when Prime Minister Shinzo Abe himself signed an economic partnership agreement with another Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott.

When Shinzo Abe's time arrived—his father was also Japan's foreign minister—he was prepared to embark on his own far-reaching ambitions, domestically but also for the entire Indo-Pacific region as well. Some of his domestic efforts were successful, others not so much: 'Abeconomic' strategy to beat deflation and revive economic growth, along with introducing structural reform to cope with a fast-ageing, shrinking population. Abe tried to boost the country's dwindling birth rate by making workplaces more family friendly.

But, on the international stage, the former Japanese Prime Minister agreed to another audacious act of international diplomacy, which was to commit his country to a submarine partnership with Australia—this, from a former enemy country which had sent submarines into the heart of Sydney Harbour during World War II. As we now know, Abbott and Abe's submarine partnership did not eventuate, and yet another far more important legacy was secured by the late Japanese Prime Minister. Shinzo Abe was both the architect and the father of the Quad. Australia, together with India and the US, are allies in the Quad alliance, alongside Japan, a grouping that will help balance power-sharing in our region over coming decades.

Much has been said, and much will be said, about the achievements of Shinzo Abe. His lifetime of service showed each of us that our times as politicians are not merely for the present, or the day-to-day conflicts, but that we can all be audacious and aim to leave a legacy for our nation's future. Our sympathies to his family and the people of Japan. We hope we all learn from his leadership for a safer, more peaceful and prosperous world. Sometimes that means doing very brave things.