Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Cash has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today, which has been circulated and is shown on the Dynamic Red:

The need for Prime Minister Albanese to prioritise Australia's alliance with the United States given Australia faces the most strategically challenging environment since World War II.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

The need for Prime Minister Albanese to prioritise Australia's alliance with the United States given Australia faces the most strategically challenging environment since World War II.

At a time of global uncertainty and growing conflict but also a growing list of issues in the Australia-United States relationship, now is a time for the Australian government to be building our influence in Washington—not diminishing it, as has now been done. We need to make it clear that Australia stands with the country, the United States of America, that has long been a key foundation of our security and has been and continues to be the leader of the free world to which we, as Australians, proudly belong.

The Australia-US alliance in 2025 needs to be stronger than ever, not put on the backburner, as Mr Albanese, as the Prime Minister of Australia, has so shamefully done. In fact, a respected commentator recently posed this question: is Anthony Albanese actually trying intentionally, for reasons best known to himself, to diminish if not undermine the US-Australia alliance? You only need to go to his bizarre speech for the Curtin oration recently, which has been described as a 'look away from America' speech. That must have the heads scratching in Washington.

Australia's alliance with the United States has underpinned our national security and anchored our stability in our region, in particular, for over 70 years. At a time when our prime minister continually warns Australians that we face the most dangerous strategic environment since World War II, the Australia-US alliance remains vital. What is baffling, however, is that despite the Prime Minister's words he is not prioritising the Australia-US alliance. As I said, we need to make it clear—and I can tell you, on behalf of the coalition, we are making it clear—that we stand with the country, the United States, that has long been a key foundation of our security and has been and is the leader of the free world.

Our alliance is built on shared values, democracy, the rule of law, freedom of navigation and the belief that peace, which is what we all want, is best preserved through strength, forged in war, tested through the Cold War tensions and proven time and time again. From Korea to Vietnam, from Afghanistan to Iraq, our partnership with the United States has endured. Through the ANZUS treaty, our nations have made solemn commitments to each other's defence. In a dangerous world, our security depends on deep, active engagement with our closest ally. The alliance has evolved with each new challenge. Today it goes beyond defence of the great nation of Australia. It extends to cooperation on technology, intelligence and economic security. None more important than the AUKUS agreement, a legacy of the former coalition government. AUKUS strengthens Australia's technological edge and our ability to deter threats in an increasingly volatile region.

China's rapid military build-up and its unclear ambitions in the Indo-Pacific are real and growing threats. In the face of this, Australians expect their prime minister to lead, yet Anthony Albanese has shown weakness where strength is needed, complacency where urgency is demanded and silence where clear leadership is required. It has now been 260 days, or over that, since the United States election, and our prime minister has failed miserably to secure a face-to-face meeting with President Trump. Leaders from Europe and the Indo-Pacific have moved quickly to directly engage with the president. They are acting to protect their national interest. Our prime minister remains absent.

This failure on our prime minister's behalf has real consequences. There are no firm assurances on AUKUS, the most significant national security partnership entered into in generations. There has been no progress on lifting steel and aluminium tariffs that are hurting Australian exporters and putting thousands of jobs at risk. The Albanese government must face reality, and it must prioritise Australia's alliance with the United States.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Motions like this one show that the bottom of the barrel at the Liberal Party has not only been reached but well and truly scraped. There is something absolutely absurd about the suggestion that the United States alliance is not a priority for this government or for the Prime Minister. It's a mischievous suggestion but it is without foundation. To see that, we only need to look at the substance of the relationship across key areas.

The first thing I'd like to talk about is the 2024National defence strategy. It was released in April last year and it dealt with Australia's defensive priorities in the long term. It realigns certain aspects of how our defence posture will be structured, and it repeatedly affirmed the centrality and importance of the United States relationship. And that's a defence strategy that is under the Albanese Labor government, and that's a defence strategy that was, among others, authored by the Deputy Prime Minister, Richard Marles. That defence strategy stated:

Our Alliance with the US remains fundamental to Australia's national security. We will continue to deepen and expand our defence engagement with the US, including by pursuing greater scientific, technological and industrial cooperation, as well as enhancing our cooperation under force posture initiatives.

We recently saw the cooperative war games exercise under Talisman Sabre, an example of the strength and closeness of the relationship in the defence context, which has been maintained and indeed, in aspects, strengthened by this prime minister and this government.

Australia's alliance with the United States is fundamental to our national security and the ADF's capacity to generate, sustain and project credible military capability. That includes projecting that credible military capability in our region in order to preserve those things that Senator Cash referred to—democracy, the rule of law, a rules based order and freedom of navigation. The US is also a key part of other aspects of our defence infrastructure in the region—the AUKUS treaty, the Five Eyes process and the Quad initiative. It is disappointing on this side of the chamber, however, to see that the Liberals still haven't listened, and they remain committed, or at least willing, to put political interest above national interest in this context. This is a topic on which I think it should be fairly obvious that there is bipartisan agreement—the centrality of the United States alliance to Australia's strategic influence in the region and to the stability in the region more broadly.

But, when it comes to the individual attacks on the Prime Minister, they are, again, without foundation. The Prime Minister has visited the United States five times since he was elected. We have continued to engage with the United States at all levels. Senator Cash mentioned tariffs. President Trump announced what he was going to do on tariffs, and a number of countries have had tariffs put upon them. But the government's decision to not put tariffs on American goods shows a focus on the national interest, a focus on ensuring that prices in Australia don't go up for Australian consumers.

At a broader level, it was not just the Prime Minister; it was Foreign Minister Penny Wong who was in Washington, DC, for the second time this year to participate in the Quad Foreign Ministers' Meeting recently. It's the comments and statements by Defence Minister Richard Marles. In Western Australia, it's the ever-growing presence of American submarines, sailors and soldiers as part of ongoing military integration through the AUKUS initiative. So, when we take a big step back, what we see is that there has been no deprioritisation of this relationship; it remains fundamental.

Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! It being 7.30, the time for the debate is interrupted by the adjournment hard marker, and I'm required to put the question on the urgency motion.

Question agreed to.