Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2026

Mr BIRRELL (Nicholls) (12:57): I, too, rise to speak on the Australia's Foreign Relations (State and Territory Arrangements) Amendment Bill 2026. At the outset, I'll put the coalition's philosophical position on all bills, particularly this one: we need less bureaucracy where there is little genuine risk but stronger scrutiny where the risk is real. This bill should be understood through a simple principle—that is, Australia needs one coherent foreign policy, and that is especially relevant when states, territories, councils, public universities any organisations want to engage internationally.

Those engagements are overwhelmingly positive—absolutely, overwhelmingly positive. Everyone in Australia should be encouraged to see what's out in the world. I was the beneficiary of a Churchill Fellowship to investigate the links between secondary education and industry in Germany, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

I was just one of many people or organisations who engages with and creates relationships with foreign entities and foreign countries to be able to bring knowledge from around the world back here. But problems can arise when foreign actors deliberately or otherwise influence or attempt to influence Australian institutions in ways that cut across or are inconsistent with what a Commonwealth parliament has decided is in our national interest.

Therefore, the Commonwealth needs visibility of significant foreign arrangements and the ability to act where Australia's interests could be threatened. That is why the former coalition established the Foreign Arrangements Scheme in 2020. One of the main issues that forced that Foreign Arrangements Scheme was the then Victorian premier Dan Andrews's decision to sign up to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Just for the history on this, Victoria entered into a memorandum of understanding in 2018 and a framework agreement in 2019 with China's National Development and Reform Commission. Those arrangements were not ordinary commercial contracts that you might see; they carried strategic and symbolic significance, because, as we know, the Belt and Road Initiative is one of Beijing's signature foreign policy and infrastructure initiatives.

The Commonwealth had deliberately made the decision not to sign Australia up to the Belt and Road Initiative at a national level. So we had this situation where one state government was effectively sending a different signal internationally, in relation to Australia's foreign relations and foreign interests, from that of the elected Commonwealth government. I think we could all agree that that was an untenable position.

I want to be very clear about this. The issue is not whether Victoria or any state—or, indeed, our nation—should trade or engage with China or any international partners. In fact, I come from an electorate where our trade with China has built and expanded many industries, particularly the dairy industry.

You only need to go through supermarkets in parts of major Chinese cities to see the amazing products from the Goulburn Valley—and from other parts of Australia—and particularly the dairy products. People are prepared to pay such a premium for those because of the food safety, because of the high quality—because of the trust that people not just in China but around the world have in Australian farmers.

So that wasn't an issue, and the Victorian government does well and other state governments do well to engage with foreign countries in relation to enhancing export opportunities. The issue was whether a state government should be able to enter into arrangements with a foreign national government that cut across what has been decided are our national foreign policy settings.

What happened was that the former coalition government used the Foreign Arrangements Scheme in April 2021 to cancel Victoria's Belt and Road arrangements after determining they were inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy or adverse to Australia's foreign relations. That episode showed that foreign policy cannot and should not be outsourced, fragmented or run state by state.

In relation to Victoria, the agreement, when you read what it was about, promised to 'increase the participation of Chinese infrastructure companies in Victoria's infrastructure construction program'. We can debate what the BRI is, and we can debate its impact around the world, but the key element is: Who should decide whether Australia gets involved in it? Should it be a state government or should it be the Commonwealth government?

It absolutely should be the Commonwealth government. As to the Victorian government, a state government doesn't even have a foreign affairs minister. So this was Premier Andrews making what I think was a major strategic misjudgement and a fairly heavy-handed decision—which Premier Andrews did quite often in Victoria—I must say, to the great detriment of what we now experience in Victoria.

I hope the people of Victoria will remember some, or maybe many, of the decisions that Premier Andrews made during his time as premier. Hopefully, they will factor that into the decision they make in late November when deciding whether to have a fresh start, if I could put it that way. The bill doesn't just apply to states; it applies to other entities, including universities.

Universities are great institutions in Australia. Their interactions with foreign entities, universities and in some cases governments can be a positive thing. But there's got to be some sort of—and this is what this bill does—reporting of arrangements that universities want to develop with foreign entities and governments so that it can be assessed and we can make sure that Australia's foreign interests are being looked after in relation to these arrangements.

The explanatory memorandum frames the bill as both strengthening and streamlining the Foreign Arrangements Scheme. It strengthens that scheme by shifting the decision-making framework from the narrower concept of foreign relations to a broader national interest test. This matters because the national interest test includes security.

It includes economic, strategic and foreign policy considerations, not just that formal diplomatic consistency. We feel like there is a gap in the legislation, which is significant researcher-to-researcher collaboration. The coalition amendment would close that gap and make sure that any researcher-to-researcher arrangements that could impact Australia's national interests is targeted and proportionate.

Australia has had a very proud history of foreign policy since federation. Australia has generally participated very well on the foreign stage. There's always been this focus on Australia's national interest, but it has to be a national responsibility.

Therefore, it has to originate in this place. It has to originate in this place, which is the Australian parliament and the Australian Commonwealth executive government. It can't be run by a patchwork of state-by-state arrangements.

We have premiers of various proclivities when it comes to that. Australia should engage confidently with the world, but not in a naive way. The test should be simple: does the arrangement serve Australia's national interest?

The Victorian Belt and Road deal and saga with Premier Andrews and the Victorian government showed why the Commonwealth needed visibility and power to act. The coalition created the Foreign Arrangements Scheme because that sovereignty needs to be protected. Strengthening and streamlining the scheme is sensible, but the streamlining can't become weakening.

There should be less bureaucracy for low-risk arrangements but stronger scrutiny when the risk is real. To finalise my remarks and make it very clear—and I would hope most people in this place would understand and agree with this—constitutionally, the federal government has responsibility for foreign relations and significant arrangements with foreign nations.

That needs to be the case. It needs to be embedded in law. This bill goes a long way towards doing that, and I commend it.

I encourage the government to support the coalition's amendment, which will strengthen it even more.