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

We are a government that is working to deepen Australia's relationship with the Philippines. The Prime Minister visited the Philippines in September this year to meet with President Marcos. I had the honour of visiting the Philippines to meet Secretary Manalo, which was one of several meetings we've had this year, including a two-plus-two with Minister Farrell in Adelaide. The Deputy Prime Minister has had productive meetings with his counterpart, Secretary Teodoro.

One of the key outcomes of the Prime Minister's visit was the upgrade of our relationship to a strategic partnership, and a key tenet of that partnership is to deepen our strong maritime cooperation. This cooperation recognises that the Philippines is central to maintaining peace and stability in our region. For all of their tough talk, the Liberals had nine years and three prime ministers, and they couldn't manage one standalone visit to the Philippines.