Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

With the passing of Lee Kuan Yew aged 91, the world has lost one of its most enduring leaders and Australia has lost a good friend. Lee Kuan Yew was Prime Minister from 1959 to 1990. He was the father of modern Singapore. He took an island state of 710 square kilometres, with a population of 5.4 million people, with no natural resources, no natural allies and a diverse ethnic population, and turned it into one of the most prosperous and dynamic countries in the world—and, in his words, 'Singapore went from third world to first'. To illustrate this point, as the Prime Minister told the House, in 1965 the GDP per head in Singapore was one-third of that in Australia. Today, the GDP per head in Singapore is twice that of Australia.

Today Singapore, under Lee Kuan Yew's son, Lee Hsien Loong, is one of Australia's closest partners. The two-way trade is $30 billion, and Singapore is the fourth-largest source of investment in our country. Three hundred thousand Singaporeans visit Australian shores each year, and an equivalent number of Australians visit Singapore each year as well. One hundred thousand Singaporeans have studied in our universities; and, together with Malaysia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, Singapore partners with Australia in the Five Power Defence Arrangements.

It is also true that Australia, over the years, has had its disagreements with Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew, preferring that its government exercised less control—or, as The Australian recently described it, Lee Kuan Yew's 'stern but benevolent leadership'. We also did not quite appreciate at the time the description of Australia as potentially becoming 'the poor white trash of Asia'. But, in the end, Lee Kuan Yew's record of leadership clearly spoke for itself. With his guiding hand, Singapore has bloomed and provided an important road map for a number of other tiger economies in our region.

It is important today that we thank Lee Kuan Yew for his strong leadership. We honour his memory and we celebrate the important strategic partnership and friendship Australia enjoys with modern Singapore.

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