Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

George Herbert Walker Bush, otherwise known as George Bush Snr, was the 41st President of the United States of America. He held that role from 1989 to 1993. He died at 94 years of age on 30 November—a great innings. His marriage was also an epic innings: he was married to Barbara for 73 years. She passed earlier this year.

President Bush had a reputation as a decent and honourable man. He enlisted in the US Navy on his 18th birthday, in 1942. The Second World War was underway. He became a naval aviator. As we heard, his aircraft was downed and he was recovered by submarine. After the war he was very successful in the oil business in Texas and entered politics as a member of the House of Representatives for the state of Texas. He was an ambassador to the United Nations and a director of the CIA.

President Bush visited Australia in 1991 to 1992 and addressed a joint sitting of this parliament. He said that that year, 1992, marked the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. He said:

We remember the courage and the fighting skill of the Australian and American naval forces. Their valour spared Australia from invasion and stemmed the tide of totalitarianism.

In Darwin, in my electorate, we commemorate the Battle of the Coral Sea every year at the USS Peary memorial.

In that same speech, President Bush went on to say how Australia and the United States had stood together in several conflicts since World War II, particularly mentioning the then very recent First Gulf War. He said:

In the Persian Gulf we stood together against Saddam Hussein's aggression. Indeed, the first two coalition partners in a joint boarding exercise to enforce the United Nations resolutions were Australians from the HMAS Darwin and Americans from the USS Brewerton.

I was speaking to one of my constituents in the last couple of days about President Bush's passing. I often like to convey, through this parliament, the sentiments of members of my electorate. One of them said that his memory of President Bush was of his 'calm, measured, impeccable response to the Kuwait invasion', and that George Bush Sr was 'a true statesman'.

One very positive outcome of our continuing friendship with the United States has been the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, which was founded in 1992 by Phil Scanlan with the support of then President Bush. I was privileged to participate in the most recent dialogue, earlier this year, visiting President Bush's home state of Texas—Dallas and Fort Worth—and then going on to Washington, DC. Darwin is the capital of the north—the military capital of the north, if I can say so—and home to the US Marine Rotational Force, which, on rotation, is presently about 1,600 marines but is expected to grow.

We find ourselves in different strategic circumstances to those faced by George Bush Sr and his generation; however, there are some similarities with the circumstances in which the former president lived. Heightened tension between the US and China, and some geopolitical turbulence in the Indo-Pacific underscore not only the critical importance of our alliance with the United States of America but also the importance of that alliance as it pertains to our security and prosperity. Our strategic environment will continue to be shaped, even as this great generation passes on, by our relationship.

Can I just say in closing that I think one of the legacies post the Cold War is the creation of the 'coalition of the willing', which I think was one of the greatest examples of statecraft. Former President Bush Sr did not overreach but worked with the international community to set an optimistic tone for how we would go forward in multilateral ways to make the world a safer place. I think it is important that we pause to remember George Herbert Walker Bush Sr, 41st President of the United States. May he rest in peace with Barbara.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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