Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe our nation's greatest challenge is not COVID-19 but resolving the China question and pursuing peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. We know that the international political economy is amidst a period of heightened uncertainty, and the strategic challenges we face as a nation are as great as we've seen for generations. But our end goal is clear: it is peace; it is stability; it is an Indo-Pacific free from coercion; it is a region in which nations, economies and people can be free, where sovereignty is respected, where individuals can trade and speak freely, where international laws prevail. No matter what future scenarios people paint or strategies they put forward, a constant has to be the primacy of our relationship with the United States and the relationships they have throughout the Indo-Pacific. Indeed, today we celebrate that relationship with the United States as we mark 70 years since the signing of the ANZUS Treaty—a treaty that not only underpins our relationship but is an outward expression of that which binds us, which is our values and the value of freedom. God bless Australia, God bless the United States of America, and God bless the relationship between our two great nations.