Mr McARTHUR —Last Wednesday in the House, the Prime Minister (Mr Howard) reported on his successful trip to the United States and Great Britain, only to be followed by a negative, small-minded and parochial point-scoring reply from the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Beazley). It should be remembered that prime ministerial visits overseas are designed to achieve largely bipartisan policy positions for Australia, such as positions on greenhouse gas emissions, indexation of pensions for UK citizens in Australia, APEC free trade goals—although the member for Hotham (Mr Crean) seems to oppose this—US and Australia security ties, and attracting of overseas investors to Australia. Unlike his predecessor, Mr Keating, the Prime Minister represented all Australians in a statesmanlike manner by not raising domestic issues while overseas.

I remind the House that on his trip to Great Britain and the USA, the Prime Minister met with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair; opposition leader William Hague; the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown; the Home Secretary; the foreign secretary; Deputy Prime Minister Prescott; former prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major; the US President, Bill Clinton; Dr Alan Greenspan; as well as members of the US Congress. It was the opposition leader who used his parliamentary reply last Wednesday to talk about cricket matches, baseball games and Shirley MacLaine.

When the Prime Minister of Australia represents our interests overseas in a statesmanlike manner, tackling difficult issues on which there is bipartisan agreement in this parliament, he deserves the respect and support of both major political parties—as did Labor Party prime ministers Hawke and Keating when they represented Australia in international forums—not the petty denigration and point-scoring which we heard from the Leader of the Opposition in this House. (Time expired)