Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think the member for Melbourne Ports did support it. The interesting thing about the member for Melbourne Ports—and this is very relevant to the Australia-Japan Foundation—is that he is not anti-American. But I am afraid the Left dialogue—and not just in Australia, of course—is a rant against America and anything to do with America. It is one of the reasons I never felt attracted to the idea of joining the Left. There are other reasons as well, like I believe in freedom and the Liberal economic model, not socialism. Anyway, that is a far cry from our relations with Japan.

The last point I want to make is about cultural relations and people-to-people relations between Australia and Japan. It is very important that we continue the task of building those up. I had a very nice moment at the Australian National Gallery on Monday, when I joined the Japanese ambassador and the Chairman of the Australian National Gallery and the chairman of the gallery’s foundation in ‘launching’—I suppose that is the right word—the acquisition by the gallery of two absolutely superb 16th century Japanese screens. To the very small number of members here, I encourage them and the parliamentary secretary to go and have a look at these screens. They are absolutely superb.

I made the point in my speech there that we have got over the pathetic argument that Australia had about whether we should engage with Asia, who engaged with Asia best and all that sort of stuff, which we had to weather through the early to mid-1990s. We have grown out of that as a country. Our engagement with Asia, with our neighbourhood, is the most natural thing in the world, as it should be. We are doing extraordinarily well through free trade agreements, through broader trade and economic relations, through our membership of the East Asia Summit, APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum, and through all manner of different links between Australia and Asia. But I do not think in Australia we have a strong enough understanding of or feeling for Asian cultures, which are diverse. There is no such thing as an Asian culture. I think it is enormously important for us to develop an understanding of Japanese history and Japanese culture.

I commend the Australian National Gallery on building up its Asian collection. It is good to see this acquisition that has been made with the financial support of a very generous Adelaide businessman, Andrew Gwinnett, a very good man. This is relevant—and it is a good point to finish on—to the Australia-Japan Foundation because it promotes cultural and people-to-people links, which supplement and enhance the more traditional diplomatic links that we have with Japan. I hope that, as a result of the passage of this bill, we will be able to continue to use the Australia-Japan Foundation to enhance that aspect of our relationship. I thank members for their support of the bill and for the very interesting contributions that they have made to the debate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

See this speech in context