Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on the recent visit to Australia by the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice? How important is it to the United States alliance with Australia, and are there any alternative views?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest. As suggested in his question, Condoleezza Rice, the United States Secretary of State, made what I think could only be described as a very successful three-day visit in the course of this month—her first visit here as the Secretary of State. She came with President Bush earlier as the National Security Adviser. During her visit here, Dr Rice was able to meet with me as her Australian counterpart, with the Prime Minister and with members of the National Security Committee of the cabinet. By the way, she also met with Mr Bob Hawke, the former Prime Minister, and had a discussion with him.

During her visit we were able to talk about China, as was highly publicised at the time, and about Indonesia. We emphasised during those discussions the importance of a constructive United States relationship with Indonesia and that, particularly in the context of the American view—and quite correct, by the way—of the importance of democracy in human rights around the world, Indonesia is a shining example of a country which is Muslim and democratic. The success of Indonesia in recent times is an important part of the global argument for democracy and freedom.

During the visit we also convened the first ever trilateral strategic dialogue with Condoleezza Rice, the Japanese foreign minister, Taro Aso, and me. This was a historic development in the relationship between our three countries. It was an opportunity to talk about counter-terrorism and about proliferation and non-proliferation issues. It was an opportunity to talk about some of the regional issues and questions about Iran, North Korea and, very importantly, Iraq and Afghanistan, because our countries all have an involvement in those issues. I think that the visit underlined not only the closeness of the relationship between the Australian government and the administration of the United States but also the tremendous value that this very close alliance has for Australia, for our engagement in the world and for enhancing the influence of Australia around the world.

As to whether there are any alternative views, I remind the House of something I reminded the House of on a number of occasions—that a strong anti-American and anti-alliance sentiment runs through the Labor Party. The Australian National University’s candidate study of candidates for the last election showed that only 40 per cent of Labor candidates thought that the alliance was very important to Australia’s security, and 31 per cent had little or no trust in the United States coming to the defence of Australia.

The former Leader of the Opposition, Mark Latham, made it clear that he saw no value in the alliance, and frontbenchers in the Labor Party pretended they did not know that was his view during the time he was Leader of the Opposition. Of course they knew it was his view. He was appealing to that very big component of the Australian Labor Party which is deeply opposed to the American alliance.