Dr SOUTHCOTT —My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Can the minister inform the House of the government's response to the international earthquake relief operation in Turkey?

Mr DOWNER (Foreign Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for Boothby for his question and indeed his interest in this great tragedy. The Prime Minister has already made some comments about this and I do not really want to add much more to that, suffice it to say that within some brief period of hearing of the disaster we provided $1 million worth of assistance through the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent societies as well as the United Nations, and yesterday we announced that we would provide 1,000 tents, thirty 10,000-litre water tanks and 500 mobile toilets in response to a specific request from the Turkish government to our ambassador. I asked our ambassador at the end of last week if he would speak to the Turkish government and see whether there was still more we could do over and above what we were doing, obviously taking into consideration the constraints of logistics for Australia, and that was the response.

Mr Brereton —Stop being mean and miserly.

Mr DOWNER —Over the weekend, I despatched a senior official from Australia's aid agency, AusAID, to assist the embassy in Ankara and to talk to the Turkish authorities about what more we can do.

Mr Brereton —A whole lot more; that is what you can do.

Mr DOWNER —We obviously will be prepared to provide assistance wherever we can usefully.

Mr Brereton —This is a pathetic effort so far. Just pathetic.

Mr DOWNER —Can I just say in conclusion that I do regret that the opposition spokesman on foreign affairs thinks this is a party political issue and an opportunity to have a shot at the government.

Mr Brereton —No, it is a question of aid; that is what it is. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Mr DOWNER —The fact that we cautiously look at ways of helping and do not wish to provide assistance in areas that are not wanted is clearly commonsense and commonsense on behalf of the Australian public.

Mr Brereton —You will end up paying Mr Barratt more than you are paying to Turkey.

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Kingsford-Smith! The minister has the call. It seems a most inappropriate question on which to have interjections.

Mr DOWNER —You really are bad, aren't you? You really are low. You are just about as low as a politician gets.

Mr Brereton —More money for Barratt than for Turkey.

Honourable members interjecting—

Mr SPEAKER —The minister will resume his seat. I call on the Minister for Foreign Affairs to wind up his response.

Mr DOWNER —I was only going to say that we look forward to a further report from the AusAID officer from Turkey. On the basis of any further recommendations he may make in consultations with the Turkish government, obviously the government will consider a constructive response. We want to do all we usefully can to help the people of Turkey at this difficult time, and I think it would be appropriate if as a nation we supported this cause not only through the government itself but also through private donations. If people make cash donations in particular, that is an appropriate way of providing support at the community level.