Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for his question, and I do acknowledge his serious interest in and focus on national security and foreign policy. Particularly at these times, I think it is a good thing if we have people from different political parties and across the chamber who actually take a serious interest in these matters.

Senator Fawcett has asked a number of questions about this, and I would make the first point about ministerial representation. It's pretty disappointing, isn't it, when that is the basis of a question and where the opposition—on the one hand, Mr Dutton complains about the Prime Minister going to international events, and then you come in here and complain that I've actually turned up in the Senate to answer questions as opposed to going to this event. The opposition really can't have it both ways. You can't say, on the one hand, 'You're doing too much travelling, Prime Minister,' demand parliamentary accountability and then have a go at us for deciding that we probably should make sure we attend parliament.

As is appropriate in such circumstances where parliamentary duties have prevented Australian ministers from attending—and obviously Senator Payne well knows you can't attend everything—we have asked our high commissioner, Mr Smith, who is obviously a former defence and foreign minister. I also provided a message to the conference.

I'm coming to the quantum.