STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator GREEN (Queensland—Assistant Minister for Tourism, Assistant Minister for Pacific Island Affairs and Assistant Minister for Northern Australia) (13:54): Yesterday's landmark Nakamal agreement with Vanuatu is another transformational breakthrough in our region by the Albanese Labor government. We are doing the work after Australia lost a decade in the Pacific under the Liberals—a decade that we can never get back.

They neglected our region and failed to show up when it mattered. Scott Morrison declined to even attend the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in 2018. When he went the next year, the Fijian prime minister said, 'After what we went through with Morrison, nothing can be worse,' and that Australia 'should not be in the Pacific Islands Forum'.

We remember that they failed to respect the Pacific. They mocked their priorities. The Pacific remembers the jokes about water lapping at their doors.

The coalition oversaw the largest cuts to foreign aid in Australian history. They sought to diminish the Pacific's access to the Australian labour market through the establishment of a rival visa. Nothing has changed.

The coalition—this opposition—opposed the Pacific engagement visa and greater support for PALM workers' families. We all saw those opposite, including Senator Collins and Senator Henderson, lead the charge in the coup to scrap net zero. They would not even be able to sign the Nakamal agreement because it commits to net zero.

They want to team up with One Nation, who have made slurs against the Pacific which are unforgivable. The Liberals and One Nation want to take the country backwards, and our relationships and strategic position in the region would go backwards with them. I ask those opposite—including you, Senator Collins: will you condemn Pauline Hanson for her slur against our newest ally, and do the Liberals support the Nakamal agreement even though they wouldn't be able to sign it themselves?

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