Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Acting Prime Minister. What is the importance of a person honouring their word in managing our international relationships, our national security and governing Australia?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. On Tuesday, the Leader of the Opposition said on indulgence:

I want to offer very strong words of support to the Prime Minister.

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We wish the PM every success in the trip because it is important for our country's future, and we stand ready to support the outcomes of the statement the Prime Minister referred to as well.

As our Prime Minister embarked on an important series of engagements in the Indo-Pacific, the sentiment was welcomed. But, within one day, yesterday, as Hansard now records, the Leader of the Opposition was mocking the Prime Minister for going on this very trip. This is the starkest insight into the attitude which, in government, saw those opposite completely trash our international relationships, leaving Australia's global standing in the worst position that it has ever been in. It saw the stopping of trade and the loss of thousands of Australian jobs, which this government has had to rebuild. The constant addiction to low-rent politics is why we saw a revolving door of defence ministers give rise to a lost decade in defence policy, but they still had the time to use the Australian Defence Force to cut an ad to raise money for the Liberal Party.

But what yesterday revealed the most was the character of the Leader of the Opposition. Yes, there was the trademark anger, the want to wreck. But what we now know is that the value of the Leader of the Opposition's word lasts for precisely 24 hours. What he says today is literally meaningless tomorrow. When the Leader of the Opposition says that there is an issue above politics, what the Australian people now know is that he's only ever about the politics. In that, as his position as the leader of his party actually denotes, he is the genuine heir of the Morrisonian legacy. Australians cannot trust this man to act in their interest, but they can rely completely on the fact that no matter what the stakes, he will always act in his own personal interest.

For those of us who are a part of the Albanese Labor government, it is genuinely the great privilege of our lives. But that privilege is grounded in our having the opportunity to be in the service of the Australian people, and in that the Albanese Labor government is completely committed to working for Australia.