House debates

Tuesday, 16 March 2021

Questions without Notice

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue

2:04 pm

Photo of Julian LeeserJulian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister please update the House on how the Morrison government is building relationships with our regional partners in order to create a peaceful, stable, prosperous and resilient Indo-Pacific?

Opposition Member:

An opposition member interjecting

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

The interjection was, 'How's that working for you?' For Australia, it's working for us pretty well. On the weekend, for the first time, the leaders of the four most significant liberal democracies in our region, the United States, Japan, India and Australia, came together at a leaders level to champion the cause of liberal democracy in the Indo-Pacific, to secure an open and free Indo-Pacific and to ensure that we can work together as four liberal democracies, as we have sought to do now for many years at other levels, to bring peace and stability to our region and, most importantly, to do that through the prism of the ASEAN nations with our great friends in Indonesia—another great democracy in our region—Malaysia, Singapore and so many others.

As President Biden, Prime Minister Suga, Prime Minister Modi and I gathered together, we focused on the practical challenges that our region faces, not just the defence, security and stability issues but, of course, the important responses to the global pandemic, particularly as it is impacting on our region and particularly so now as we see the rapid increase in cases to our north in Papua New Guinea. Over the last many days I've been involved, together with the minister for health and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in addressing the increasingly urgent situation there and directly engaging with the Queensland Premier to that end.

The Quad is a force within the Indo-Pacific to promote peace and stability, to ensure that all countries of the Indo-Pacific can move forward in peace and prosperity, working closely together with each other with practical initiatives. It demonstrates that liberal democracies provide the answers to the significant challenges that the world faces, whether it's responding to climate change, whether it's responding to the COVID-19 pandemic or whether it's responding to the issues of developing critical technologies for the future, and the benefits of those technologies can reach all the citizens of our region and can be adopted in a peaceful way. This is a project that our government has championed. This is a project that had fallen into disrepair previously, and I'm pleased that our government over successive years of active diplomacy and with the great support of President Biden has seen the Quad leaders initiative become a reality. This has been one of the most significant issues—

Ms Madeleine King interjecting

Photo of Tony SmithTony Smith (Speaker) Share this | | Hansard source

The member for Brand will cease interjecting!

Photo of Scott MorrisonScott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | | Hansard source

for Indo-Pacific security that we have seen in decades, and it speaks volumes to the approach the government is taking to secure Australia's interests, to keep Australians safe by working hand in glove with the liberal democracies of our region to ensure that we indeed advance Australia fair.