Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Inter-Parliamentary Union was established in 1889. It is one of the world’s oldest international institutions and, with over 140 national parliaments as members, it is the most prominent organisation of parliaments of sovereign states. The objectives of the IPU are that it:

Fosters contacts, co-ordination, and the exchange of experience among parliaments and parliamentarians of all countries;

Considers questions of international interest and concern and expresses its views on such issues in order to bring about action by parliaments and parliamentarians;

Contributes to the defence and promotion of human rights—an essential factor of parliamentary democracy and development;

Contributes to better knowledge of the working of representative institutions and to the strengthening and development of their means of action.

The IPU ‘supports the efforts of the United Nations, whose objectives it shares, and works in close cooperation with it’. The IPU meets twice each year, once at its headquarters in Geneva and once in a host member nation. Australia hosted the IPU conference in 1993. This year Kenya will be the host country.

If you asked the so-called man in the street what the IPU is, the answer would probably be ‘a brand of baked beans’. That lack of awareness of the IPU is not limited to Australia. The IPU commissioned communication company Saatchi and Saatchi Geneva to prepare a strategic analysis with proposals on how to make the IPU better known and its missions and work better understood. The report was presented to the IPU conference in Manila last year. The findings were that the IPU is not well known outside its own members and direct contacts; its mission and purpose are not immediately clear; there is no strategic plan that embraces branding and communications; and the structure of the organisation does not favour effective communication. The report recommended casting a new purpose and position for the IPU, which would become the international voice of democracy, and suggests that the role of the IPU should be that ‘we help ensure that over 40,000 parliamentarians around the world can do the job they were elected to do, freely, safely and effectively, and that their voice is heard in international affairs’.

The report acknowledges two threats to this approach. Firstly, in marginal democracies, parliamentarians’ freedom to speak and act on behalf of the people they represent is often at risk. Secondly, in both marginal and developed democracies, parliamentarians’ ability to influence their constituents’ national, regional and local interests is increasingly comprised by the growing power of executive government and international decision-making institutions. For parliamentarians, the IPU should be their voice and channel to the wider world, their enabler and their protector. In so being would rest the strength and legitimacy of the IPU. I strongly support the report’s proposals.

I also note the election last October of Mr Pierre Fernando Cassini as President of the IPU. Mr Cassini is also the Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies. He brings with him the status of his position as well as great capability and personal charm to the challenging role of reforming the IPU. There is much work to be done in reforming the procedures relating to the standing committees of the IPU and the general debate that takes place at each meeting. An important focus should remain on the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians and its work in increasing the number of women representatives.

So too should there be a greater focus on the human rights of parliamentarians. In Australia, where many people see parliamentarians as having a privileged status, we should not overlook the fact that, in many parts of the world, parliamentarians speaking out on behalf of the people they represent often put their own safety at risk. I commend the many members of this parliament who have served as delegates to the IPU and who have demonstrated their commitment to the ideals and practice of representing parliamentary democracy.

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