Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Australia has a long and proud history with the United Nations, having been a founding member in 1945. I can say confidently that this nation has always had a strong regard for the United Nations. We have been well represented as a member of the Security Council on four occasions—1946-47, 1956-57, 1973-74 and 1985-86—along with being a founding member and an active participant on many UN agencies. Australia has been a full participant in the United Nations.

I would like to mention the underlying principles and purposes of the United Nations. Firstly, it is to maintain international peace and security, to develop friendly relations and to achieve global cooperation. Collectively as a nation, or individually, Australians have made a great contribution to the United Nations. For example, Dr Evatt in 1948 was elected third President of the General Assembly and was the first chair of the UN Atomic Energy Commission; and Mr Makin in 1946 was the first President of the Security Council. There are quite a number of Australians that have made a contribution to the United Nations. We only need to look back very recently to East Timor and the proud contributions that Australia has made to INTERFET, UNOTIL and UNMIT, and a number of contributions that we have made collectively there in the best interests of the people of East Timor.

I note the member for Fremantle, in making her contribution regarding the United Nations, made mention of a bill of rights and how that is a shortcoming—a limitation—of this country. I think of it differently. I have great confidence in the systems and laws that exist in this country. When you look at places like Western Australia, with which I am obviously most familiar, there is a certain lack of confidence in people in the decisions of some magistrates and judges in Western Australia. Although that might be limited to issues to do with the criminal justice system in Western Australia, I think there will be a great cause for concern for the people to want to surrender a certain amount of interpretive power, in the future, to judges—given that there have been plenty of occasions where justice has not been well served—particularly when people tend to trust the running of the country to those that are directly elected. I think it is an important point to make. We should not be second-guessing and handing over power to unelected officials that can then reinterpret the law away from what the people’s representatives—the elected representatives of this nation—would want.

Australia has had a great history within the United Nations, having been there right from the start. It has been a full participant in the agencies of the United Nations, making contributions—whether financially or in the way of peacekeeping forces—through the history of the United Nations. We have been there. Australia has made an excellent contribution. In the same way that we have a sense of regard for this great and important multilateral organisation, there have also been times when there has been a certain limitation in the ability of the United Nations to act in the right way. We have seen that not every decision by the UN has been a positive one or fairly applied and that it has not delivered justice on every occasion. We need to acknowledge it as a great organisation for the world but there are certain limitations that we must never lose sight of.

See this speech in context