STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator BABET (Victoria—United Australia Party Whip) (13:14): Australia's foreign policy should be guided by a simple question: does this benefit Australia? If something benefits Australia, we should do it. If something does not benefit Australia, well, heck, we should not do it.
If something we were doing no longer benefits Australia, let's stop doing it—simple guidelines for acting in the national interest, but, apparently difficult to understand for some people. Watching how our government behaves—it's like I'm trying to explain quantum physics to them. As a nation, we should be wary of entanglements that cost us billions, weaken our economy and make life harder for Australian families, especially when those entanglements are done in a pursuit of some grand moral gesture whose only purpose, as far as I can tell, is to make our political class feel better about itself.
Take Russia as a perfect example. We're told that Russia must not be allowed a sphere of influence, yet the United States has a sphere of influence. China has a sphere of influence.
Australia has our own interests in this region here that we expect other powers to respect, but, when it comes to Russia, apparently the rules of international relations cease to apply. Having a sphere of influence doesn't mean that you can just have a blank cheque to invade your neighbours. That's not what I'm saying.
But pretending that great powers don't have security interests or that those interests can simply be wished away isn't foreign policy. It's just fantasy. The world, not least of all the Russians, were assured that NATO would not move one inch further eastward, and yet NATO did move closer towards the Russian border.
We don't have to approve of President Vladimir Putin to recognise that diplomacy requires understanding the other side's interests. Indeed, that is generally the point of diplomacy, and we don't have to agree with Russia to trade with Russia where it suits our national interests. Australia is not obliged to impoverish its own citizens to demonstrate its supposed moral superiority to the globalist class.
I've asked Minister Wong whether Australia should consider importing Russian fuel if doing so were in our national interest and if it helped bring down the cost for Australian families. Her response was to accuse me of supporting President Putin's regime and say that my position was a disgrace. I was asking a very simple question.
If buying Russian fuel would benefit Australians, why would we refuse to do it? It's madness. President Trump understands this.
He is putting America first, and he has done a deal with Russia to increase diesel supply because Americans are hurting and fuel prices matter. Why can't Australia just do the same? Why are Australian families expected to pay more at the bowser?
I'll tell you why. It's because our political class wants to impress globalists over a conflict on the other side of the world that has nothing to do with us at the expense of ordinary Aussies. Enough of this.
On a side note, the deeper motive could be strategic, using energy trade as leverage over Moscow, encouraging a Ukraine settlement, weakening Russia's dependence on China and shifting from sanctions towards transactional diplomacy, but that's beyond the scope of this piece here today. The job of the Australian government is not to win applause overseas. The job of the Australian government is to look after Australians first.
If Russia can sell us diesel and bring down the costs for everyone here in this country, then we should just do a deal. It really is that simple. We need to act in our own national interests first.
Australian families are struggling. Businesses are struggling. Farmers, truck drivers and manufacturers are all paying more, and higher fuel costs flow into the price of everything else.
We need to cut the rubbish. We need to stop putting foreign interests ahead of our own. We need to stop impoverishing Australians to satisfy a globalist class that does not care about us, and we need to do what President Trump is doing, which is put our own country first, like he's putting America first.
It is about time that this government grew a spine, did a deal and just got on with it.