Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In accordance with the resolution agreed to earlier, I move:

That the House:

(1) notes that today marks the 70th anniversary of the alliance between Australia and the United States of America under the ANZUS Treaty;

(2) reaffirms the commitment of Australia to that alliance, recognising its fundamental importance to our nation's security, sovereignty and prosperity, and to meeting the opportunities and challenges of our time;

(3) acknowledges that the alliance has underpinned peace, stability and freedom in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, and that American leadership remains indispensable to the global rules-based order;

(4) acknowledges that next week marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, in response to which the ANZUS Treaty was invoked;

(5) places on record its profound gratitude to the servicemen and women of both our nations who have served together over more than a century; and

(6) acknowledges that the enduring friendship between our nations is underpinned by shared liberal democratic values and principles, and these have been embraced by our peoples across generations.

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Australia, New Zealand and United States Security Treaty, The ANZUS Treaty. ANZUS is the foundation stone of Australia's national security and a key pillar for peace and stability in our Indo-Pacific region and indeed across the world. For seven decades it has underpinned vital military, national security and intelligence cooperation between Australia and the United States, and much more besides. It has been, and I hope will always be, a shared national endeavour, one that has evolved to meet new challenges based on enduring values. The ANZUS Treaty was signed facing the ocean we share on 1 September 1951 in San Francisco. Among its architects, none stands taller than Australia's Minister for External Affairs in the years of the Menzies government, and later ambassador to the United States, Percy Spender. It was Percy Spender's unique foresight and hard-headed realism that helped secure the treaty—just 11 articles and little more than 800 words that have stood the test of time.

Sir Robert Menzies reflected on ANZUS, which I consider to be the greatest achievement of the Menzies government. Towards the end of his prime ministership, he said:

There is a contract between Australia and America. It is a contract based on the utmost goodwill, the utmost good faith and unqualified friendship. Each of us will stand by it.

And so we have—and for more than a century now, even preceding the treaty, from the cornfields of Le Hamel to the unforgiving steep terrain of Mount Tambu in Papua New Guinea, where stretcher-bearer Leslie 'Bull' Allen rescued 12 American soldiers from the battlefield and was recognised for his bravery with the award of the Silver Star. Mates helping mates. This continued in the snow of Korea, the rice paddies and jungles of Vietnam and, most recently, in the dust of Iraq and Afghanistan and the evacuation of Kabul.

Our alliance is based on trust and mutual respect, trust and respect so often forged in adversity—as it was in the Second World War when Prime Minister Curtin, almost a decade before ANZUS, turned our focus to the United States in our most desperate hour. It is an alliance based on a positive vision for our region, for a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific. Our alliance is based on a friendship that has never demanded the silence or, indeed, the censure of its critics; rather, we tend the tree of liberty across the Pacific. Ours is a partnership based on hope and on aspiration. We believe in free nations charting their own destinies, free economies trading fairly and openly, and free peoples embracing the future optimistically.

The ANZUS Treaty breathes and adapts with each passing generation. It has been stewarded by 14 presidents, and 14 prime ministers since Sir Robert Menzies. Our relationship now spans security and defence, diplomacy, trade, intelligence, shared facilities, space and cyber, future defence capability, and the shared and deep ties of people, culture and outlook. It embraces collaboration on new technologies, critical minerals and rare earths, strengthening of our supply chains—trusted supply chains—providing vaccines throughout the Pacific, and meeting the challenges of climate change and the new energy economy. Our two peoples see the world through the same lens.

The treaty we celebrate today has leaned into the world, dealing with it honestly as it is but in the hope of it becoming more as we would like it to be. At the launch of the Defence strategic update last year, I said we live in a region where peace, stability and prosperity cannot be taken for granted. Australia is confronting the most challenging strategic environment we have known in many, many decades. This strategic environment will challenge us, as it will challenge our great friends and partners in the United States and across our region, but our alliance will stand resilient in the face of these challenges as we nurture and refresh our commitment to one another. The ANZUS Treaty states that no potential aggressor could be under the illusion that we as allies stand alone in the Pacific.

Our nation's desire to strengthen the fabric of peace and meet the strategic challenges we face continues to be served by our alliance with the United States and the treaty we entered into 70 years ago today. Together we share hope, we share burden and we share vision, a positive vision. We may not be equal in size, but there is no doubting on either side of this partnership the equality of our commitment, of our resolve and of our dedication to the values that underpin our great partnership. Together we have always supported a world that favours freedom.

Our alliance and America's deep engagement in our region are essential as we look to rebuild from the pandemic and shape a free and open Indo-Pacific that is stable, secure and prosperous. In this mission, Australia and the United States work with friends old and new: our longstanding ASEAN partners, our Pacific family, our fellow travellers in the Quad, the Five Eyes and the g7+. We work together for an Indo-Pacific region where the sovereign rights of all nations are respected, that is free of coercion and where disputes are settled peacefully and in accordance with the rule of international law. For, as President Eisenhower declared:

… one truth must rule all we think and all we do. … The unity of all who dwell in freedom is their only sure defense.

On this milestone, we recall another anniversary. Next week marks the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Our then Prime Minister, John Howard, was in Washington DC—indeed, to acknowledge this very anniversary at 50 years. He saw the smoke plume in Washington as this tragedy struck that nation, but he also saw the great spirit and enduring faith of the American people, and their resilience and their determination. On returning home, John Howard addressed this very House as Prime Minister, saying:

… if our debt as a nation to the people of the United States in the darkest days of World War II means anything, if the comradeship, the friendship and the common bonds of democracy and a belief in liberty, fraternity and justice mean anything, it means that the ANZUS Treaty applies …

And indeed it did. It was the first and remains the only time the ANZUS Treaty has been formally invoked. While ANZUS has only been invoked that one time, the intent of that treaty and the values that that treaty represents have underpinned our deep and enduring relationship with the United States for the past 70 years and will for decades to come.

Last week we spoke in this House about our response to the 2001 terrorist attacks, attacks that shaped much of the following years. Last week the horrific events at Kabul airport's Abbey Gate reminded us again of the enormous price our ally has paid for its role in the world. The United States has so often established the very peace and safety that so many nations shelter under—the remarkable achievement of shaping a postwar world that resulted in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the postwar rules based order, with the Marshall Plan, described by General Marshall himself as a policy 'directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty and desperation'; the rebuilding of Japan, our great friend; and the security umbrella for the development of Asia; the Berlin airlift, which defied Soviet coercion and kept the flame of liberty alive, which eventually saw the wall that would enclose them torn down by the hands of those it sought to separate forever; and the ongoing stand against radical Islamist extremism that blasphemes and perverts that religion and dishonours those who seek to live out their faith in peace.

We must recognise that the peace afforded to so many by the United States, including those who have been quick to criticise them, has so often come at such great cost to our great ally, our friend and our partner. This is something Australia will never take for granted or presume upon. As I have said many times, including on the White House lawn, Australia looks to the United States, but we will never leave it to the United States. We stand by each other together and for the truths we both hold dear. 'In sunshine and in sorrow', as President Johnson said, and, in the words of Sir Robert Menzies, 'warmed by the same inner fires'. May that always be true. Finally, as President Reagan reminded us, let us press on, knowing, as he said:

… liberty is not an inevitable state, and there is no law which guarantees that once achieved it will survive.

Let us pledge ourselves again here, on this 70th anniversary of our great alliance, to renew and modernise our alliance, to continue to be vigilant and strong, to build economic strength for the peace and prosperity for all and for a world order that favours freedom. Whatever challenges lie ahead, I know, and Australians know, that Australia and the United States will go on to meet them with the same courage, the same daring and the same unbreakable bond that has carried us to this day and will continue to do so into the future, a bond sealed by the sacrifices of all who served under our flags of Australia and the United States, whom we honour especially this day and in whose name we rededicate ourselves to the values and freedoms they fought to secure for us to uphold and pursue. May our prayer be as a nation that God continue to bless our great alliance, those United States of America and the Commonwealth of Australia.

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