Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Monday I was delighted to help launch Friends of our Pacific Family, and I want to acknowledge the role of my co-chair there, the member for Shortland, in doing so. We were joined by the Prime Minister; the Leader of the Opposition; a number of ministers, shadow ministers and parliamentarians from all sides of the chamber; a parliamentary delegation from Fiji led by the Hon. Alexander O'Connor; diplomatic representatives including the ambassador for the United States and the high commissioner for the United Kingdom; and a number of church leaders and other civil society groups. I think the turnout we had at the launch event on Monday is a testament to how warmly and enthusiastically the government's 'Pacific step-up' has been embraced.

My first overseas posting as a diplomat was to Papua New Guinea—to Bougainville, for that matter. I've been involved with multiple step-ups we've had in the Pacific, from the Bougainville peace process in the late 1990s to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands which we sent in in 2003. As the Prime Minister said on Monday, the reasons we're so committed and so involved in the Pacific are multiple. We do, indeed, owe the people there a great debt for the service they provided to us during the Second World War. It's true that our security and our prosperity is inextricably linked with theirs; it's in our interests. But it is also very much because of the ties that bind us. As the Prime Minister is fond of saying, 'We are family, and families look after one another.'