Jessica Collins (NSW, Liberal Party) | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The Vanuatu-Australia Nakamal Agreement is a very important one. I think we all know that the Pacific family is important to us. We are part of the Pacific family, and it is important that we get this right. The Australian government has finally got this very important deal across the line, and I do commend them for that. We should respect the longstanding tradition of being bipartisan in the Pacific. It is a significant agreement, and we should be stepping up our relations. But I will take the opportunity to also put on the record the coalition's track record in the Pacific, because we heard from the government this week some pretty outrageous claims, some hyperpartisan claims—quite frankly, claims that I think can damage our relationship in the Pacific. In just 18 months it could be that Labor's no longer in government and the coalition is. If our government is going around the Pacific being salacious about the coalition, that does not help our future relations at all. So I'm going to take the opportunity to put some of our initiatives on the table.

The coalition introduced the Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific—one of the world's worst acronyms, AIFFP. That is a really important financing facility for the region, with billions of dollars in grants and loans to help get important infrastructure projects off the ground. We also expanded Export Finance Australia's funding in the Pacific, another important source of funding for the region.

The Seasonal Worker Program, which eventually was replaced by the PALM scheme, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, is one of the most important pieces of foreign policy that we have in the region—