Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The decision to open an embassy in Kiev is a decision which has emerged from the long work of this parliament. Australia is diplomatically unrepresented in that part of the world, in a country of $50 million people. It is a place where the United States, Brazil, China, Indonesia and other countries in our region have diplomatic representation. Even a country of equivalent population, Malaysia, has a similar diplomatic representation. It is entirely appropriate that Australia, in the circumstances of this behaviour by Russia in Eastern Ukraine, have diplomatic representation there. We have long canvassed this issue in this parliament and I think it is an entirely appropriate response to the undemocratic behaviour we see of Mr Putin and the Russian Federation.