Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Isn't it a marvellous privilege to be in this building and to deal with the liberties and freedoms offered by Australia in a Western democracy based on Judeo-Christian principles? You might not be Christian—you don't have to be—but those are the principles residing underneath our democracy. So it's of massive concern that we saw the display of military might at the recent anniversary parade in China. It was a display of military might for projection and offensive purposes. Of course, we must take into account what that means for us. Of massive concern was the assembled coterie of people from totalitarian regimes and dictators. We see, with Premier Xi Jinping, the instrument that has brought about such things as the takeover of the South China Sea, the removal of rules based law, incursions against the Philippines, disputes with Japan and spies in Australia. This is the new world order.

Vladimir Putin was there—Vladimir Putin, who is of course responsible for the invasion of Ukraine and the arbitrary moving in of forces, for which thousands have now died dead. Kim Jong-un, also supporting Vladimir Putin, puts his own people into destitution as he develops nuclear weapons. This is a very bad coterie. There was Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran. We've had the Iranian ambassador deported from Australia for what was, in essence, a terrorist attack on a Jewish synagogue.

Another major concern at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was the disgraceful attendance of Antonio Guterres in the midst of all this. He talked about principled leadership; what he expecting to find it there? At the parade, there was also the disgraceful appearance of Dan Andrews. What is also a massive concern is where Australia is. Our prime minister has not yet met the US president. AUKUS is still under review. In terms of the Quad, the attendance of Narendra Modi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation does not augur well for us. Our debt is now $961.4 billion. Australian government securities outstanding is heading towards $1 trillion. And what is our focus in Australia in the midst of this? We're focused on the weather. We're focused on net zero. We're focused on climate policy. We have seriously lost our way, and we have lost our political mind. If we don't pull ourselves back into gear, we have the potential to be put under the stress of the loss of our nation.

See this speech in context