Warwick Stacey (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister. Now that the Prime Minister has returned from his jetsetting to communist China, can you finally confirm what day, week, month, or even if it will be this decade that the port of Darwin will return to Australian control and out of China's hands?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you for the question, Senator Stacey. I will just take issue first with the characterisation at the top of your question. It is a serious part—

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's a fair description.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to take the interjection, given what has happened in the China market for people you say you represent, Senator McDonald, since we were elected. But what I would say to the senator is that China is a great power in the world and in the region. There are many areas where we will not agree, but it is the right thing for the—

Honourable senators interjecting—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Wong, please resume your seat. Order! Before I go to Senator Stacey, this is his first question, and the level of interjection was disrespectful. Please allow the senator to ask the question and hear the response in silence.

Warwick Stacey (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A point of order on relevance. The question was very specific about the return of the port of Darwin to Australian ownership.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stacey, there was a preamble to your question which the minister is entitled to respond to. There were also interjections—I have asked people not to interject—which the minister is also entitled to respond to. I have asked for silence, I expect silence and I call the Minister to continue her remarks.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Actually, Senator Stacey, I was responding to the first part of your question, so I respectfully suggest that I was being relevant. You were dismissive of the Prime Minister's trip to China, and I was saying to you that whether or not we agree with many of the positions of the People's Republic of China—and we don't; we have areas of fundamental disagreement—they are a great power in the world and in our region, and the responsible thing for the leader of the country to do is to ensure that we engage. You would have heard the Prime Minister and I and other ministers speak about cooperating where we can, disagreeing where we must and engaging in the national interest, and that is what the visit was about.

In relation to the port of Darwin, the Prime Minister has made clear that we don't think the port should have been sold in the first place by the previous coalition government, and we want to see it return to Australian hands. I think that has been made very clear and public. That is clear diplomatically as well, but those are matters which will go through the appropriate commercial consideration.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stacey, first supplementary?

Warwick Stacey (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, a journalist asked the Prime Minister whether he used the meeting with Xi Jinping to explain Australia's policy on Darwin Port. The Prime Minister answered, 'I don't need to.' Is it the Labor government's position that the port of Darwin doesn't need to be raised with China, and how can you say you have a plan to take it out of Chinese control if you won't even raise it with them?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stacey, I would hazard a guess that the leadership of the People's Republic of China is well aware of the public position taken by the Prime Minister, and this is not a matter for bilateral negotiation. Australia has made a decision. It's a decision we believe is in our national interest, our sovereign interest, and we will proceed to implement that decision. I think that is clear and was put on the public record multiple times by the Prime Minister and other ministers both during the election campaign and since.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Stacey, second supplementary?

Warwick Stacey (NSW, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Minister, will you agree with One Nation's call to have the port of Darwin returned to Australian hands in this term of government?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I agree with the position as articulated by the Prime Minister, which is that it shouldn't have been sold in the first place, and we want to see it returned to Australian hands.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

How about you keep your promise?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'll take the interjection. You're the government that sold it, just to be clear. You were the government that sold it.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You promised to get it back, but you didn't.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's a great interjection, Senator Colbeck. That was a killer. Senator, I appreciate that you want to set a political timeline and, obviously, appropriate commercial arrangements. We have the interests of the Australian taxpayer to consider and we will do so, but the Prime Minister has made the Australian government's position clear when it comes to ownership.