Mr NEHL —My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs inform the House whether, and in what manner, Australian government concerns about the current situa tion in Malaysia were raised during the recent APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur? Will the Minister for Foreign Affairs also inform the House whether alternative approaches have been recommended to the Australian government with respect to expressing Australia's concerns about the current situation in Malaysia?

Mr DOWNER (Foreign Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for his question, and I recognise his interest in the situation in Malaysia. I think many other members of the House are also very concerned, in particular, about the arrest and charging of Anwar Ibrahim, the former Deputy Prime Minister. The government has been clear and forthright in its expression of concern over the treatment of Anwar Ibrahim and was indeed very forthright about that matter during the visit of both the Prime Minister and me to Malaysia as part of the APEC meetings.

The Prime Minister raised the matter directly with Dr Mahathir, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, in Kuala Lumpur. I had the oppor tunity to raise the issue and discuss it frankly with Education Minister Najib, and with a range of other Malaysians at the MalaysiaAustralia Dialogue preceding the APEC meetings. I also met with Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah, to discuss her concerns about her husband's welfare and, importantly, to convey my personal concerns and those of the Australian government to her husband directly. That has been the Australian government's measured and sensible approach to this difficult issue. I think the measured way, as the Prime Minister puts it, the Australian way, in which this was handled by the government was well recognised by the Australian community.

The honourable member asked whether there were alternative approaches, and there were alternative approaches proffered to the Australian government, in particular, by the Leader of the Opposition. His starting point was that the Prime Minister should not meet Dr Mahathir at all. Then having realised he had made a mistake, he started to shift ground. One of the themes of the Labor Party's approach to foreign policy is of shifting ground. I have never seen a political party shift ground so quickly day by day as has the Australian Labor Party over the last week.

The Leader of the Opposition was saying that Australia should be concerned about Anwar Ibrahim, but we should not mention it to Dr Mahathir, that we should boycott any meeting with Dr Mahathir—the international equivalent of a `no speakies' relationship. This government does not operate on the basis of a foreign policy by boycott approach, which is beginning to characterise Labor's approach. We like to be forthright, we like to be frank, and we like to express our concerns. Perhaps Labor has suddenly decided to opt for what is sometimes called the megaphone policy approach.

The Leader of the Opposition often says that the former foreign minister, the now member for Holt, was the greatest foreign minister Australia had ever had. You often hear him say that. We do not agree with that, do we?

Government members —No!

Mr DOWNER —No, that is right. We are just encouraging you a bit there. He says that the member for Holt was the greatest foreign minister Australia has ever had. He also says that there should be a parliamentary inquiry to establish whether the member for Holt was involved in a cover-up over affairs relating to the Dili massacre and subsequent events. Where is the Labor Party? An inquiry into the former Labor foreign minister's activities but he was the best foreign minister Australia has ever had. In conclusion let me say it points to a simple direction for the Labor Party—the direction of populism. There is no coherent foreign policy in the Labor Party and, to be fair—and I always am fair to the Labor Party—

Opposition members —Oh!

Mr DOWNER —Yes, I am. Prime Minister, I am always fair to them. To be fair to the Labor Party, there was a coherence to Labor's foreign policy in government. There is a populist incoherence to their foreign policy in opposition. It is a matter of embarrassment for this country that its main opposition party is just a cheapskate populist party on important foreign policy issues.