Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance) Share this | Hansard source

With regard to the several matters that were raised, the minister and the government are confident that we have the resources and the structure within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to carry out the government’s tasks in accordance with the new priorities that we have set down. Of course we have also in parallel talked about a review of the department, because new governments come in and they have new priorities and they need to be reflected in the manner in which departments and agencies are conducted. But at the moment there is no concern within the government that there is not the capacity to undertake the tasks that have been outlined. I will come back to some of these specifics in a moment, but I am advised that the number of staff in the DFAT negotiating teams with regard to the various FTAs is unchanged. That is my understanding of the situation that relates to one of the specific points that the member raised.

With regard to the role of Special Envoy Woolcott, and with regard to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament co-chaired by Mr Evans, these are recent announcements and the funding arrangements are still under consideration between PM&C and DFAT. They have not been finalised. As to what went on inside the cabinet, the minister no more expects me to answer that than I expect to answer it. If I had asked him the previous time, he would not have told me the character of the internal discussions between the minister and the Prime Minister or within the cabinet, and I do not intend to do so.

With regard to the Pacific partnerships, we have announced the first two countries with whom we are in negotiations: Papua New Guinea and Samoa. Those negotiations are well advanced and it is our hope that we will have framework agreements in place for signature at the Niue Leaders Forum. We will outline reasonably soon a timetable for subsequent negotiations, and the Port Moresby declaration outlines that broadly. We are looking at establishing such partnerships eventually with all the countries of the Pacific. As to who has been excluded, at the moment we are not in a position to negotiate that sort of partnership with Fiji. In the long term it is our ambition to do so but we are not in a position to negotiate such an agreement with Fiji at the moment. In the budget and in the forward estimates we have got ample resources to fund the partnerships through the development assistance portfolio.

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