George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Chifley and the member for Werriwa for bringing this very important motion to the parliament. It is very important to acknowledge the relationship between Australia and the Philippines reaching this milestone. There is a special connection between Australia and the Philippines. I note that the Philippines is the only Christian country in Asia. That is not to make a sectarian statement; it is to acknowledge that both of our countries have a system of laws, customs and traditions that are really based on Judaeo-Christianity. I think that has gone a long way to serve us as very close friends. Forgive me, Filipino members in the audience here, for my Tagalog, but, 'Magkaibigan tayo, mga kaibigan para sa pitumpung taon.' 'We are friends for 70 years'.

As the Chair of the Australia-Philippines Parliamentary Group in this parliament, it is my great pleasure to speak on this motion. Since I have been here we have had two ambassadors that I have conversed with regularly, former ambassador Belen Anota and, now, Her Excellency Mrs Minda Calaguian-Cruz, who is in the chamber. I also acknowledge the Consul General, Nina Cainglet, and other members of the team, certainly the family of Minda, and particularly Jim San Agustin, whom I have had a few dealings with as well. I want to acknowledge the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo 'Rody' Duterte—Digong, or 'The Punisher', as he is sometimes known. I think he is one of the great world leaders, very strong on the issue of drugs. I know that is controversial, but it is a problem in their country that he is certainly dealing with in a way that, it seems, the Filipino community over there support.

I note that Belen Anota, the former ambassador, visited Mackay at my invitation back in July 2015. There she met the Filipino Australian Community Association of Mackay and District Incorporated. It was a great event. The president of the association is Enrique Neri, and a lot of the people associated with that group are good friends of mine. A very strong supporter of mine, a person I am happy to say is a good friend, is an elder of the Filipino community in Mackay, Mar Gorian. Also I want to mention Daniel Vinzon, Tony Dela Cruz and Edna Walpole, who are all spectacular leaders of their community.

I have visited the Philippines many times. On the last occasion over there I met with our ambassador, Amanda Gorely, and visited the Congress. I got an audience with the Speaker, 'Bebot' Alvarez, and we had an excellent conversation about the relationship between our parliaments and between our countries. I also got to meet with the chair of the National Defense and Security Committee of Congress, Amado Espino—and I will mention a bit about him and that conversation later.

Before that, I also met up with our political counsellor over there, Richard Rodgers, in our embassy. In the previous Congress we went to meet 'Sonny' Belmonte, who was the former Speaker there. Along with that I have engaged with Gawad Kalinga, a very big charity organisation in the Philippines, and was pleased to meet with Tito 'Tony' Meloto, who is a great advocate for the poor in that country. His philosophy of making capitalism—enterprise and entrepreneurship—work for people in poverty is something we could all learn from.

In the conversation I had with current speaker Alvarez we did talk about the situation which has blown up in recent times in Mindanao. There is a very big problem in the Philippines with Abu Sayyaf and the rise of the extreme Islamist tendencies within Abu Sayyaf, and it is playing out in Marawi in a terrible way at the moment. We think of them all at this point in time. There are air strikes on the city that are reinforcing what the Philippines armed forces are doing on the ground. Australia provide some support with its defence to the Philippines on this front, but in the conversation I had with Speaker Alvarez I said I think there is more that we could be doing. If our government moved to support troops on the ground to assist the Filipinos in their fight, certainly that is something I would be very supportive of.

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