Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to follow the member for Sturt, and it is a pleasure to speak on this motion relating to the Australia-Indonesia Treaty on Common Security, also known as the Jakarta treaty, which was officially signed on 6 February to strengthen ties and to bring peace and stability to our region. As someone who has worked in the private sector across the Asia-Pacific region before coming to this place, particularly focusing on areas like national security and defence, I've got a strong interest on this topic. As someone who represents a regional community and who is proud to belong to a region that grows, makes and manufacturers green and clean produce that's known across our region, I'm also pleased to speak on this issue.

The sustained prosperity of Indonesia holds immense importance and benefit to our region. Australia's got a deep connection to Indonesia as one of our nearest neighbours. Of course, Indonesia is the largest country in South-East Asia by population and geography. The deep ties that we're able to forge through cooperation on key issues across defence, security and trade are in the Australian national interest.

I think it's also worth noting that today is the 30th anniversary of the election of the Howard government. Preceding this treaty, of course, there were a number of significant milestones in the Australia-Indonesia relationship, and they include the significant funding following the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, a historic $1 billion in aid provided by the Howard government for reconstruction; counterterrorism cooperation, particularly in intelligence-sharing and law enforcement; and also the strong personal relationship between Prime Minister Howard and President Yudhoyono that formed lasting and binding ties between our two countries.

I also want to reference the report by Nicholas Moore which was released not too long ago. Nicholas Moore is the Australian Special Envoy for Southeast Asia, and his landmark report is titled, Invested: Australia's Southeast Asia economic strategy to 2040. I commend the DFAT and Austrade officials who I know worked very hard on this report, which goes into some commendable goals, with 75 practical recommendations grouped into four pillars around raising awareness, addressing the lack of market knowledge and declining regional literacy; removing blockages, reducing trade barriers and harmonising standards; building capability, ensuring both regions have the skills to pursue those opportunities; and deepening investment to promote capital flow and economic growth. I think there have been a number of milestones put forward, including investment deal teams—specialists embedded in regional hubs like Jakarta, Singapore and Ho Chi Minh City to identify and facilitate those investment opportunities—and the $2 billion Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility and the Australia Southeast Asia Business Exchange, a program to boost two-way trade and support for Australian exporters.

Now that we're a year and a half to two years on from the release of that report, it is important that we see further progress pursued by this federal government, as this will also benefit regional communities like mine, particularly in the agribusiness and SME space. We have a great ecosystem of SME businesses in regional areas like mine in states like Victoria. They don't often do a whole lot of different things, but they can do one thing very well and specialise on that in components manufacturing and in new technology, and they are looking for improved and efficient markets to export those products—to export that expertise. Victoria is also a very large exporter of education. We've got some excellent education providers. It's important to our regional economy. For Federation University, just outside of my electorate of Monash, those linkages to South-East Asia are particularly important. So the South-East Asia economic strategy is a good start. There are some commendable ambitions linked in there, but I want to see those continued with action as well.

See this speech in context