Mrs MOYLAN (3:10 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House of the purpose of his forthcoming visit to the United States this month? What areas of the bilateral relationship will he focus on in his discussions with the new administration?

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for Pearce for her question and the interest she shows in foreign affairs. I note the interjections from the opposition. It is now 182 days since the opposition spokesman asked me a question about foreign affairs, which demonstrates the depth and profundity of his interest in these issues—not that anyone would call Laurie profound.

I will be visiting Washington from 20 to 22 March, and this will be the first contact at ministerial level between our government and the new Bush administration. I will be holding discussions with senior members of the administration's foreign and trade policy team, including Secretary of State Powell and the trade representative, Bob Zoellick, as well as with key members of the Congress.

In my discussions with Secretary Powell, I will be underlining the importance of the enduring nature of our security relationship. He clearly knows only too well about that. This year is the 50th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty entered into by the Menzies government and is one of the great security achievements of Australia during the last 100 years. We will be having extensive discussions about a range of international security issues. We certainly share with the United States concerns over ballistic missile proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, and we understand the interest that the United States has in developing a missile defence system to try to deal with that threat.

I note that, in contrast with the opposition here in Australia, a number of countries, including the Labour government in the United Kingdom and the Social Democratic government in Germany, increasingly now share similar views to Australia on the United States missile defence plans. In a joint statement between President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, they said that they recognised the existence of a common threat stemming from the growing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and increasingly sophisticated missiles for their delivery and that they needed to obstruct and deter these new threats with a strategy that encompasses both offensive and defensive systems.

That is a very sensible statement, and it stands in stark contradiction to the Australian opposition's position, should it ever become the government of this country, that it would not allow Pine Gap to be used in any way at all if it were to be associated with a development of an American missile defence system—which, of course, in the end would lead to the closure of the Pine Gap facility altogether. Labor's commitment to ban the use of Pine Gap for the missile defence system would in the end lead to the closure of Pine Gap and would severely undermine the very basis of the alliance that we have with the United States. Labor's proposition is apparently that it will fix up the ballistic missile threat through the member for Kingsford-Smith hopping around the world, going and telling the likes of Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il to stop building missile arsenals. You could only question whether they would listen to the member for Kingsford-Smith on issues like that. Of course the answer is that they would not.

I also look forward to discussing with Secretary Powell and others perspectives on issues in South-East Asia, in particular, naturally enough, Indonesia, our largest and most important neighbour, and also developments on the Korean Peninsular and in North Asia more broadly. I will be using my talks with Ambassador Zoellick and others to discuss the possibilities of entering into negotiations with the United States on a free trade agreement between our two countries, and the Minister for Trade will, two or so weeks later, be in Washington to enter into further discussions on the topic. We at this stage are merely exploring that issue with the United States and, as far as Australia is concerned, it would be axiomatic, if there were to be such an agreement, that it would facilitate the reduction in protection in the United States against Australian agricultural exports.