Mr NUGENT —Mr Speaker, may I add my congratulations to you, Sir, on elevation to your office. My question is addressed to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister inform the House what the government is doing to ensure APEC responds effectively to the economic crisis.

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I thank the honourable member for Aston for a very important question about a very important meeting which is to take place in Kuala Lumpur next week. I will be attending the APEC meeting which takes place at a time when some of the goals for which APEC was established and which I understood, certainly up until now, to be supported in a bipartisan way by both the Australian Labor Party and the coalition parties need to be reaffirmed. This will happen at Kuala Lumpur next week.

The time of economic difficulty through which the region is passing is no time to walk away from the essence of the Bogor declaration. I have to say in this regard that we are a little concerned about the attitude being taken by the Japanese government in relation to the agreement to fast track liberalisation in 15 sectors, such as the so-called agreement on early voluntary sectoral liberalisation which was canvassed at the Vancouver meeting of APEC at the end of last year.

It is also important that the APEC economies adopt policies that will lead to a resumption of strong growth. Part of that process is for all members of APEC to commit themselves to improving their own economic and financial management. Among other things my government has proposed the adoption by APEC of relevant codes of international best practice, such as the Basle code on banking supervision.

It is also important that APEC help galvanise international efforts in the IMF, the so-called group of 22 and elsewhere, to reform the international financial system. There has been a lot of talk about these issues recently and we now need some practical proposals and agreement to carry them out.

It is also significant that the meeting in Kuala Lumpur is taking place against a background of considerable international examination of events inside Malaysia itself. I take the opportunity of saying that it is my intention to have a bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Malaysia. I think it is appropriate, given our regional association, that I should have such a meeting. I was a little surprised at the suggestion made by the leader of the opposition that in some way I should be reluctant to meet Dr Mahathir.

I think it is very important in circumstances such as this that, given the character of our relationship and given the importance of the bilateral relationship and the fact that we are part of this region, we do not automatically follow the stances taken by heads of government from countries that are not geographically part of this region. It is important that we have an independence of action in these matters.

I think it is also important for another reason that these meetings take place. If you have concerns about what may be happening inside a country, your obligation is to meet face to face with the head of government of that country and to express those concerns. I can assure those opposite that I will be talking in a very open but constructive fashion with the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

I think I was probably the first regional head of government to express a concern about some of the things that were going on inside Malaysia and, as a result of those remarks, other heads of government expressed similar concerns. Let us put down immediately the canard around from the opposition that in some way we have been reluctant to express our concerns.

It is an important bilateral relationship. I intend to handle it in a sensitive but frank manner. I regard APEC as extremely important and I hope that, notwithstanding the regional economic difficulties, the heads of government that assemble in Kuala Lumpur next week will see that it is in the long-term interests of their individual societies and of APEC as a whole that the fundamental thrust of the Bogor declaration be reaffirmed.