Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

No, zero impact on our relations. Seriously, zero is the answer. It won't have any impact on our international reputation or our reliability or our stability as a supplier of, amongst other things, gas. I've followed the INPEX story in Australia very closely for a long period of time, since my great friend Mr Paul Henderson shook hands with Mr Kitamura all those years ago to start the process of building one the great Japanese investments in this country. To sit and watch those gas ships go out of Darwin harbour, on their way to supply something like 10 per cent of Japan's gas needs, is a wonderful thing. I can recommend it to anybody.

I've met with the gentleman that you referred to, and I have met with Mr Kitamura. In fact, I had the privilege late last year of awarding Mr Kitamura an Order of Australia at the Australian embassy in Tokyo. We're a democracy just like Japan, and companies in Japan can express points of view that don't always agree with the government of the day or, in fact, other— (Time expired)