Thursday, 7 March 2024

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (10:06): I want today – and I am sure I will be joined by almost everyone in the chamber – to mark the ASEAN summit that was held in Melbourne this week. I think this is a very important outreach for our country. Not only does it mark 50 years since the first dialogue partner status of Australia in 1974 and the comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021 but our friends are here – Indonesia, the Philippines and in particular Singapore. I am not going to name everyone, but this is a group of Australia’s closest neighbours. We need to foster and build our dialogue and relationship with these countries, which are such an important part of our trading environment and also our security environment. I pay tribute to the decision to hold the ASEAN summit here and to make sure that we build and strengthen our relationship with all of the members of ASEAN. I understand the unfortunate activities in the last few days of some demonstrators – we are a democracy, but sometimes democratic actions are misplaced. But in this case I pay tribute to all those who have been involved and indicate, on behalf of the chamber I suspect, that this is a very important summit for Australia and Victoria, and we are proud to have hosted it.