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Thursday, 3 November 2011
Page: 12764

Gambling

Ms JULIE BISHOP (Curtin—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (15:08): My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. In his travels as foreign minister, has he become aware of any country that has adopted a mandatory precommitment regime in relation to gambling? Does he support the cabinet's position on this?

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr RUDD (Griffith—Minister for Foreign Affairs) (15:08): I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for her question. In the hubbub, I did not hear the last bit of it, so I will attempt as best I can to respond to the question that she raises. The House may be surprised to know that the question of poker machines in general and mandatory precommitment was not a huge subject at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. In bilateral conversations with the British Foreign Secretary, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs, the foreign minister of South Africa and the foreign minister of India, this was not at the top of the agenda in the normal work that one does as a foreign minister. In fact, there were other priorities on the agenda of foreign ministers in Perth—this was not one of them. I appreciate the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has raised this question about international travel because we are about to have a distinguished guest in Australia within two weeks.

Ms Julie Bishop: Mr Speaker, on a point of order—this is not a criticism of the foreign minister: he said he did not hear the end of the question. The question I asked was: does he support the cabinet's position in relation to mandatory precommitment? That was the question. So could he be relevant to that part of the question?

The SPEAKER: The foreign minister is aware that he has to be directly relevant and he is responding to the question.

Mr RUDD: I do note the Deputy Leader of the Opposition required me to be relevant to that part of her question. I would simply say that her question was of a broader nature and it referred also to international travel. But, when we are speaking about international statesmen of the type that we were meeting in Perth recently, we should also reflect on the comments of another international statesman—namely, Senator Barnaby Joyce, who has said most recently.

To be honest, I think I'm on the wrong side of the debate in the Coalition on this one.

Lots of solidarity from Senator Joyce as far as opposition policy is concerned. But I refer to our important guest in this chamber within a week or two. That, of course, is the President of the United States. I think that, foreign policy having been raised here, it is important to remember that, first, the former Prime Minister Mr Howard described the election of the President of the United States, Barack Obama, as a victory for terrorism. Secondly, the current Leader of the Opposition said:

He sounds terrific but I don't know what's really there.

Thirdly, the disgraceful manner in which the member for Sturt conducted himself earlier today on a simple procedural motion—inviting the House to assemble in a week or two—underlines fundamentally where those opposite stand on foreign policy priorities. Finally, if the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is interested in international practice, I note recently that they have gone very quiet on the question of what is actually unfolding in Norway. But that is a matter for her.