Mr PRICE(12.55 p.m.) —Like the right honourable member for New England (Mr Sinclair), I would like to commend the three reports by the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade to the House. I would also like to acknowledge the role of the chairman, the right honourable member for New England, in initiating this particular form of committee activity for the joint committee. He has certainly made it his own, and I concur with his remarks. I believe it is a very useful forum for bringing disparate people together to discuss important issues relevant to the nation. I could be unkind and suggest that we are perhaps seminared out for a little while. If that is the case, I have no doubt that next year we will still be having one or two seminars, but again I commend him for introducing this format.

All of the reports are important and in the brief time that is left to me I would just like to say in regard to the seminar on the Simons committee report, Sharpening the focus, that one needs to consider that this was done against the backdrop of a disastrous initiative by the new Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Downer) in abolishing DIFF and a number of other funding mechanisms for our region that caused an absolute uproar. As has been pointed out, the Simons committee is the first review of overseas aid in 13 years since the Jackson report.

When we think of overseas aid, it really is an investment in humanity. It is a small contribution that we make but if we wish to be good world corporate citizens, as I would hope all Australians would want to be, it is a very small investment in humanity. I know that my party is reconsidering a couple of the important issues addressed by the Simons committee and they include the quantum, or level, that we should really set in terms of overseas aid. Like the chairman, I have difficulty with just one focus for overseas aid. I certainly believe, although I commend poverty reduction of course, that sometimes overseas aid should have a broader focus than just that.

The seminar on ANZUS was very important because there is no more fundamental agreement or arrangement for our national security, and it is really interesting, as has been pointed out, that it has survived New Zealand dropping out of what was a tripartite arrangement because of its objection to ships visiting with a nuclear capability. I thought the seminar certainly benefited from lots of illustrious contributions and, indeed, even the chairman's illustrious contribution in one session, but I would also like to commend to people the contribution by the Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, who gave an excellent overview of the Labor years and the future. The present government suggests that it has already, in 18 months, improved the Australian-American alliance. I have got no doubt that it has put a great emphasis on that, but it is very false to suggest that there was somehow not a pre-existing, excellent relationship contributed to by a number of defence ministers.

We do not do enough to publicise the importance of the ANZUS treaty and the benefits that accrue to all Australians through it. I am one of those who believe that into the future we need to be looking at new and different ways of strengthening it. If I have one particular fear it is that the treaty is far more important to Australia than it is to America. I believe, without in any way denigrating the strength of the current relationship, that in defence and strategic terms we probably need to move to become just a little more self-sufficient than we currently are and perhaps not quite so dependent on the United States of America, but the US is the last remaining superpower that we want to move closer to. I do not dispute that we want to have the joint operations and interoperability, and I see all these things as beneficial. (Time expired)

Mr SPEAKER —Order! The time allotted for statements on these reports has expired. Does the right honourable member for New England wish to move a motion in connection with the reports to enable them to be debated on a future occasion?