Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the House on recent developments in countering terrorism in the region, and what lessons can be drawn from these developments?

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 for his interest. I was in Manila last week at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference, the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Regional Forum. A significant focus was counter-terrorism and three or four issues came out of those meetings. The first was that all the delegations recognised that we must have tough laws to counter terrorism effectively. To use a phrase that the House will have heard in recent times, it is better always to be safe than to be sorry. The second issue is that this government has focused on building bilateral links with ASEAN countries in the area of counterterrorism. No link is more important than the bilateral memorandum of understanding on counterterrorism that we signed with Indonesia and the subsequent Lombok Treaty signed by the Indonesian Foreign Minister and me in December last year. That has underwritten excellent work in the field of counterterrorism undertaken by Australia and Indonesia with consequences that have been very important to the security of this country.

Honourable members may not know, but the opposition says that we should downgrade bilateral relations and upgrade multilateralism. That is the opposition’s hypothesis. Members opposite say that we should place greater emphasis on the United Nations and less emphasis on these bilateral relationships. With the greatest of respect to the United Nations, I do not think that as an institution it would have been able to do anything like the work we have been able to do bilaterally with Indonesia in South-East Asia.

My third point flows from my second point. I do not mind saying this in the teeth of what Mr Beattie said about the Australian Federal Police, but I think the Australian Federal Police have done an outstanding job. I know that honourable members opposite do not agree, but the Australian Federal Police have done an outstanding job in countering terrorism in South-East Asia. It is my view that the work of the Australian Federal Police in South-East Asia on counterterrorism has saved many lives. These people deserve more respect than being called Keystone Cops. It surprises me that the Leader of the Opposition is not big enough to stand up to the Premier of Queensland and say that he completely rejects that analysis. That is a shame, because if Labor wins the next election this country will have a Prime Minister who has not repudiated those appalling remarks made by Premier Beattie. 

My final point is that since 9-11 this government has invested a further $450 million in counterterrorism measures. The Labor Party, in the form of the honourable member for Melbourne’s 2 March press release, says that it will cut $32 million from the part of my department’s budget dealing with counterterrorism.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

I would be quite happy to have a policy debate with the Labor Party on these issues. The best that the Leader of the Opposition offers is not a policy debate of substance but a T-shirt competition and some sort of stunt on cyberspace. I think this country deserves a Leader of the Opposition with substance, not stunts.