Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to Vietnam from 5 to 10 January and to the 17th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, held in Vientiane, Laos, from 11 to 15 January 2009. As leader of the delegation, I am pleased to present the report of its visit to Vietnam and its participation in the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the APPF, in Vientiane. The delegation included the member for Cowan, Luke Simpkins, and three of our Senate colleagues, Senators Jacinta Collins, Helen Kroger and Claire Moore. At the APPF, the Clerk of the House of Representatives also participated in the delegation’s work.

The delegation had a number of objectives for its visit to Vietnam. We wanted to renew contacts with the National Assembly; to gain an understanding of the impact of economic reform and liberalisation measures that have been in place for more than 20 years now; to observe the outcomes of Australia’s development cooperation program at first hand; and to consider prospects for further trade and investment by Australia. The delegation’s time in Vietnam was divided between three centres: Ho Chi Minh City, where our focus was mainly on the impact of economic reform, trade and development cooperation; Hanoi, where our attention was directed mainly towards the National Assembly; and Ha Long City and Ha Long Bay, where our attention was primarily on environmental issues and the impact of economic reform. I will not go into detail about our discussions except to say that they were constructive and that we were pleased to be able to meet, amongst others, Prime Minister Dung and to renew acquaintance with Chairman Trong, the President of the National Assembly.

It was a valuable experience to meet Vietnamese people, whether at social gatherings or in their workplaces and schools. The delegation will remember our visits to the centre of education and vocational training for homeless and orphan children and to the school for the blind in Ho Chi Minh City. In both these places, delegates observed the impact of support from Australia, whether that was a relatively small donation under the Direct Aid Program to the homeless and orphan children or the funding support Loreto Vietnam-Australia provided for infrastructure to the school for the blind. Another particularly pleasing visit that we had in Ho Chi Minh City was to the Vietnam campus of RMIT, where we saw RMIT running a fully fledged campus giving access to degrees that have equivalence to those degrees provided on the campuses of RMIT in Melbourne.

At the completion of our visit to Vietnam, the delegation travelled to Vientiane for the annual meeting of the APPF. Each January for the last 16 years, members of the national parliaments in the Asia-Pacific region have been meeting in the cities around the region to discuss matters of common interest. The Australian parliament participates in APPF for two major reasons: the countries that participate in APPF have great significance to our regional strategic and economic interests, and Australia and the Australian parliament support the objectives of APPF meetings. These objectives include strengthening understanding of the policy concerns amongst regional neighbours; examining political, social and cultural developments; and supporting the roles of national parliamentarians to build a sense of regional cohesion and cooperation.

I will now turn briefly to the substantive subject matter of the meeting. As is customary, sessions were broken into three main subject areas: economic and trade matters, political and security issues and interparliamentary cooperation in the region. As is becoming the usual situation at these meetings, a current event that had a big impact on all other issues was raised at the meeting. This year the issue, of course, was the global financial crisis. It was useful to get a firsthand understanding of the impact of the crisis on neighbouring countries and the measures that were being taken to address it.

The delegation proposed and spoke to resolutions on cluster munitions, terrorism, cooperation on natural disaster management, and gender issues in parliament. We followed up with negotiations on the final resolutions on the various topics. The delegation participated in all sessions of the drafting committee, where all draft resolutions were settled before they returned to the plenary for adoption at the final session.

Outside the plenary, the delegation participated in a number of successful bilateral meetings with other delegations. These included the delegations from China, the Russian Federation, Laos and Mexico. In addition, the delegation was able to take time to visit aid programs with which Australia had an involvement, most impressively in the area of education.

On behalf of the delegation, I express our thanks to the Australian embassy representatives in Vietnam: the ambassador, His Excellency Mr Allaster Cox; the consul-general in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr Graeme Swift; and Mr Michael Hoy, who helped to develop the program and then accompanied us throughout our time in Vietnam.

In Laos, we were assisted very ably by our ambassador, Her Excellency Dr Michele Forster, and her colleagues, in particular Ms Emily Russell. The post in Vientiane is not a big one and, so, the preparations that were made with the APPF secretariat, local officials and expatriates were all the more appreciated.

Our programs in both countries were quite demanding but, because we were well supported, I believe we were able to make the most of the two programs. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra assisted the delegation with comprehensive briefing materials and drafting of resolutions. The Parliamentary Library assisted us with briefing material and a draft resolution, and the Parliamentary Relations Office provided administrative support.

I thank the deputy leader of the delegation, the member for Cowan, and all members of the delegation. All the delegation participated fully in the various meetings in Vietnam and at the APPF meeting in Vientiane. Throughout the visits, we sought to represent the parliament effectively, through the resolutions we advocated, our speeches and our meetings, and I think that we were able to do that very successfully.

I also place on record my appreciation for the efforts of Catherine Cornish as the secretary of the delegation. She has accompanied the APPF delegations for many years. She knows some of the mysteries and where some of the skeletons are in the APPF and made it much easier for the delegation to be able to participate positively in the meeting. I also thank the accompanying spouses, who are very important in delegations in modern times. We were accompanied by them in Vietnam and at the APPF, and we appreciate that support. I commend the report to the House.

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