Mr PROSSER (2:09 PM) —My question is directed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on Australia’s response to the Hurricane Katrina crisis? Are there any other alternative views?

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —First of all, I thank the honourable member for Forrest for his question and his interest. There are still no reports of any Australian casualties as a result of Hurricane Katrina. We know of around eight Australians who may—not necessarily are—still be in the affected area and may be awaiting evacuation. We are still working on that.

Overnight our consular officers returned to New Orleans. We have concerns still about a 30-year-old man from Victoria who was scheduled to stay in New Orleans at a hotel. We have not been able to find him or any trace of him, and we are looking into that. We also have fresh concerns about a 37-year-old Queensland man who lives in New York. Apparently, according to his family, he went to New Orleans to film the hurricane and contacted his family just before he got there, and he has not been heard of since. We will continue to do what we can to try to track him down. I am, on the other hand, very happy to report that the 75-year-old dual national has now been located safe and well in a nursing home just outside of New Orleans.

Are there any alternative views? Yesterday we saw an extraordinary press conference from the Leader of the Opposition—a man who made remarks which will be remembered in the way his predecessor’s remarks about ‘troops out by Christmas’ were remembered. What the Leader of the Opposition claims is that he is some kind of an expert on foreign security policy. I have not seen any sign of that in recent times. Indeed, I noticed this morning that the Leader of the Opposition was starting to backtrack on his position by saying he did not want to make a big deal of this. Yet yesterday he called a big press conference—with flags and so on. The poor old spokesman for foreign affairs was sitting there looking decidedly uncomfortable as the new ‘troops out by Christmas’ foreign policy gaffe was made by a new Leader of the Opposition.

Let me make this point about the Leader of the Opposition’s proposals absolutely clear. Firstly, the proposition that consular officers should break the laws of a foreign country and go into New Orleans is a preposterous proposition which would have added to a number of Australians at risk. Secondly, the Leader of the Opposition said he wanted Australian defence personnel from around the United States to head to Louisiana and somehow get onto helicopters and head for New Orleans. This is what Ambassador Richardson said this morning on the radio, which is the point that the Labor Party complimented. I think his words should be considered. In an interview on 2GB he said:

The Leader of the Opposition sneers, but this is our ambassador in Washington. He went on:

The fact is that what the opposition has said demonstrates something very important about the Leader of the Opposition. What he has demonstrated is he lacks judgment. If you want to be the leader of this nation, you have to be somebody with good judgment. This is a Leader of the Opposition who lacks good judgment. He pretends to be an expert on foreign policy, but he has no judgment.

Let me conclude with this point. I resent very much the criticism of the consular officers in America and the consular branch here in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. These are exceptionally good people; these are hardworking people; these are people who care about Australia and Australians. You are making party political points at their expense.