QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:22): And we congratulate the Speaker too—absolutely. He did a great job. Thanks to Senator Ciccone, who understands very well, from the work that he does in chairing the senate committee, the circumstances that we live in.

In a time of global uncertainty, it is a fact that Australia's peace and security rely on working with others, playing our part to shape the kind of world Australians want to see. We take the world as it is and seek to shape it for the better, and we do this best by working with international partners. That is the approach we took at the UN last month, and it's why the Prime Minister launched our campaign for a seat on the UN Security Council for 2029-30—to give Australians a stronger say in the decisions that affect us and our region.

Our priority is to work to prevent conflict, uphold the rules to protect us all and promote peaceful, resilient digital futures. Australia is an active and ambitious middle power, and we've seen Australian leadership on digital safety and on AI regulation being adopted around the world. Prime Minister Albanese introduced our world-leading under-16 social media ban and led the way again with the digital-duty-of-care announcement.

At the United Nations, the Prime Minister joined with more than 20 world leaders to support control over frontier AI models. I was pleased to co-chair the inaugural meeting of signatories of the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel with the Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan. One year after its launch, in honour of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom, we achieved historic support from more than two-thirds of the United Nations, and 132 countries are now signed on to support our efforts to drive safer conditions for aid workers.

Australia listens with respect, partners as equals and protects what matters most.