House debates

Wednesday, 16 October 2019

Governor General's Speech

Address-in-Reply

5:45 pm

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

I want to thank the people of the electorate of Solomon—the great people of Darwin and Palmerston—for their continued faith in me, for re-electing me as their representative in this House for the second time. Of course I thank my family, whom I love so much, for all their unwavering support: my wife, Kate, our daughter, Sally, and our son, Frank, or Frankie—our children are relatively young—seven and 5½—who put up with a lot with me being away. Kate does an amazing job with the family and I am very grateful for everything they do, and for their love and support.

I want to thank the campaign team, who did an incredible job. I thought we ran a fantastic campaign. I won't go into that much detail about the campaign except to say I'm very proud of the campaign we ran and proud of the team and their efforts. I thank all the volunteers and everyone who, in some way—big or small—helped us to secure the seats of Solomon and Lingiari, and an NT Senate position for Senator Malarndirri McCarthy. I also want to thank my amazing staff. In the 2016 election I had no staff, but a great campaign team. I want to thank my staff for continuing to give great service to the people of Darwin and Palmerston, and the Territory more broadly.

I want to thank my Labor colleagues and our shadow ministers. I particularly thank our former leader Bill Shorten and our former deputy leader Tanya Plibersek, who responded to our requests for stimulus for the Northern Territory, and I thank those who made those decisions to back the Northern Territory. They understand that in the Territory we have to overcome severe infrastructure and service deficits. I also want to thank our new leader, Anthony Albanese, for his commitment towards developing north Australia and for visiting the Territory as one of his first acts as opposition leader.

I want to thank the members of the broader Labor movement in the Northern Territory who worked for the election of a Labor government. We were unsuccessful, but they worked hard to help us to secure a better future for Territorians. I'll continue to work hard to hold the Morrison government to account on the commitments and promises it made to the Territory during the campaign—it must be said that they were all too few—and I'll continue to advocate for the proposals that Labor put forward, which were good policies. I think we put forward a great suite of policies that were going to be so fantastic for the Territory, and I think my re-election and Warren Snowden's re-election show that the ideas and the policies that we had for the Territory were supported overwhelmingly by Territorians.

I also want to quickly acknowledge the other candidates who stood for election. It does take a lot of courage and commitment to stand for parliament, and I acknowledge all of the work that they put in. In particular, I want to recognise Mrs Kathy Ganley, the Country Liberal candidate, but also the other candidates—Tim, Raj, Lorraine and Sue—who all worked hard. We disagreed at times on policy issues, sometimes robustly, during the campaign but I want to acknowledge their strongly held beliefs and their work towards getting the support of the electorate. I hope that we can all work together for the good of the Territory in the coming years. For my part, I will continue to work very closely with my Territory Labor colleagues—Warren Snowden, the member for Lingiari, and Senator Malarndirri McCarthy—as well as with the new Country Liberals senator, Dr Sam McMahon. I've already been able to spend some time with Dr McMahon talking about what the Territory needs and trying to get her support for getting some interest in the Territory from the current federal government.

I'll of course continue to represent all my constituents, whether they voted for me or not, to the best of my ability over this term of parliament and into the future. In my first speech in the House of Reps I spoke about where I came from and my love for the Territory. Now, three years on, in this new parliament I want to outline a bit about where we are, where I see our place in the world and what is going on around us in the Indo-Pacific region. I want to talk about the very serious need for us to plan and act in order not only to realise all the opportunities but to prepare ourselves as a nation for the intensity that will be part of the Indo-Pacific, this part of the globe, in the coming years.

From Darwin and Palmerston, the capital of northern Australia, we have a particular view of the world—the view north into the Arafura Sea and beyond. I have significant experience—in some countries more than in others—and a deep interest in the Indo-Pacific, and I am very proud that Labor leader Anthony Albanese has given me the responsibility of leading Labor's regional trade taskforce. I'll be working to encourage our neighbours, like Indonesia, to do more business with us, particularly with Territory and northern businesses but also with businesses around our country.

The massive markets to our north are vital to the future of the Territory. Our close proximity is obviously an advantage. But the big Australian markets to our south also need to be developed so that Territory producers of excellence can find more business partners in the south as well as in rapidly growing countries to our north. Darwin is obviously an important strategic location for our nation in the Indo-Pacific region. I'll continue to work on getting the Morrison government to fully recognise the importance of our strategic location, both for trade and for defence.

We're very conscious of our place in the world. Remember, Mr Deputy Speaker, that within the living memory of some Territorians we have been attacked from our north. We are very aware of the crucial importance of the northern capital of Australia, Darwin-Palmerston, and of greater Darwin and the Territory, to the defence of Australia. I'll be urging the government to live up to its commitment to invest in our defence infrastructure in the north. We need it for our defence and also because it is important not as a prime motivator but as an important job generator for our wonderful Territorians. For example, Labor went to the election proposing a shiplift for both military and civilian ship maintenance, and the federal government has been making rumblings about supporting this project. The NT government have confirmed that they will go ahead with the project, even without the $300 million of real money that federal Labor was committed to. As I've said to the Treasurer and to the Minister for Resources and Northern Australia and to the Prime Minister, we need a commitment of real dollars for this nation-building project. That would be far better and far more productive than a NAIF loan if that were ever to eventuate.

As I mentioned, I have a strong interest in Australia's bilateral relationship with Indonesia. As Paul Keating put it, our strategic bread is entirely buttered in the Indonesian archipelago. Indonesia has had and still has challenges, but I think it's fair to characterise Indonesia today as a vibrant democracy that fiercely values its independence. Indonesia has been a unique and important influence in my life. Not only did I learn the language whilst I was with the Australian Army stationed in Perth but, during Exercise Kangaroo '95 in the Northern Territory, I jumped out of a perfectly good Royal Australian Air Force Hercules aircraft with Indonesian paratroopers. And, at times, whilst travelling through Indonesia, I have met and conversed with TNI, Indonesian National Armed Forces, personnel about a number of things, including access to the East Timor border for the restoration of East Timor's independence. It was great to join the defence minister, Senator Reynolds, recently for the 20th anniversary of the INTERFET going into East Timor, restoring order with international partners, and it is great that East Timor—Timor-Leste—and Indonesia enjoy great relationships, as do we with both nations.

Clearly, Indonesia is critical not only to Australia's security but also to its economic prosperity. Labor has been the party with the vision to understand the enduring importance of Indonesia to Australia's national interest and to regional and global stability and prosperity. We are proud of the role that Labor has played to foster and positively influence Indonesia's development during a challenging journey of reform in recent decades. Paul Keating, for example, built the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, APEC, into a body guiding the overall development of free trade and practical economic cooperation in the region, with Indonesia an important member. Last term, I was honoured to lead an ALP international delegation to Jakarta, where we met with all the major political parties, former President SBY and former foreign minister Marty Natalegawa. That was a great opportunity to meet with so many important stakeholders in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. Australia's respect for Indonesia and our commitment to strengthening the relationship were central messages that I conveyed during that visit.

I think we need to commit to ensuring that our words and our actions in the future demonstrate that Australia respects the Republic of Indonesia. Don't get me wrong, Mr Deputy Speaker: we must talk straight, as we have done, but we must consult. There are so many areas where we could strengthen cooperation within Indonesia for our mutual benefit, from business, countering transnational crime, defence cooperation, humanitarian and disaster relief, and sporting and cultural exchanges, just to mention a few. Paul Keating's first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Indonesia in April 1992, and it was very heartening to see Labor leader Anthony Albanese visit Indonesia as his first overseas visit as Labor leader to discuss our important partnership. I was very proud to join him and our shadow foreign minister, Senator Penny Wong, on that visit.

In terms of our national defence, the reality is that we need to be more self-reliant, with a larger, more capable ADF, Australian Defence Force, that is able to participate in more contingencies simultaneously.

Paul Dibb, the respected defence analyst, has said that China's military presence in the South China Sea has brought its capacity to project military power 1,400 kilometres closer to Australia's northern approaches. He says that Australia's strategic geography as a pivot between the Pacific and Indian oceans is now assuming much more strategic relevance, and this means we have to revisit the disposition of our forces and their capabilities in the north and west of Australia. We need national leaders with vision, who understand our region, our challenges and our rightful role as guardians and protectors of our people and our continent. We need leaders with vision that see our role in forging more cooperative and respectful protection of our region.

As we come to the current statement of Australia's defence policy, the 2016 Defence white paper, much of what is set out in that policy document is largely sound and valid. It states that the Australian government's highest priority is to be the safety and security of the Australian people and the defence of our territory and our interests. Of course, that is paramount for us all. The white paper identifies the strategic changes facing us as a nation, and sets out a program of regeneration and re-equipping of the Australian Defence Force, together with the required projected costings and budgets.

What are these strategic challenges? We're well aware that we're in uncertain times. There are a number of strategic challenges facing us as a nation. I was very pleased last week to join with an ASPI event on the Quad, where strategic thinkers from Japan, Indonesia, the United States and Australia gather to talk about some of these strategic challenges. Many of those are detailed in the white paper, and there has been an acknowledgement in recent times that some of the uncertainties and challenges in our region have sped up.

But, regardless, I think that with the timetable for different strategic challenges we all need to understand that there are a number of areas of significant concern to us, whether they're in the rules based order or in future tensions through trade wars, or strategic competition or in the South China Sea, which most of our exports must travel through. The United States will continue to be our most important strategic partner, that's true, but we also need to think about our current strategy and where we're placing ourselves for the future. That's why I say again that we need to make sure we've got our settings correct.

Federal Labor, in the lead-up to the last election, committed to a force posture review. Modern warfare requires the coordination of land, sea and air; intelligence and electronic warfare; and cyber and space capabilities so that the ADF, as a joint force, can apply more force more rapidly and more effectively when it's required. The white paper said that more emphasis will need to be given to this joint force. What is now apparent, three years on, is that this is what the ADF must be: a joint force, able to apply and deploy its various capabilities as the situation demands. As we heard at Forces Command last week, the Army is becoming increasingly good at teaming and reteaming. We need to do that as an Australian Defence Force. We need to do that as a nation. Our industrial capacity, severely weakened by the current government's goading of the vehicle manufacturing industry to leave our shores, has left a gap. We need to ensure that we have the right industrial settings for the defence of Australia, for more self-reliance. The Northern Territory—Darwin and Palmerston—plays a massively important role. I'll continue to make sure that our electorate does its part.

Comments

No comments