Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to European Parliaments and Institutions from 23 to 30 April 2010. This delegation was led by the President of the Senate, the Hon. John Hogg. I was the deputy leader and accompanying members included Senator Bilyk and Andrew Laming MP. The delegation continued the custom of biennial visits to certain parliamentary, commercial and international institutions in Europe which are of significance to us here in Australia.

The delegation was originally scheduled to depart Australia on 16 April and spend two weeks visiting parliaments and institutions in Sweden, Denmark, France, Belgium and Germany. You may remember that there was a remarkable eruption in Iceland, and that meant that much travel in Europe was not possible. The ash cloud obviously disrupted aviation and resulted in the cancellation of the Scandinavian component of our program.

The delegation commenced an amended visits program in Paris on 24 April. The delegation visited the French Senate and attended various Anzac Day ceremonies, including the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux. I must say, having previously been in Gallipoli and also at Hellfire Pass, that participating in one of the most important Anzac Day ceremonies, the dawn service at Villers-Bretonneux, was a very emotional experience.

The group moved on to Belgium, and we completed Anzac Day formalities by attending the last post ceremony at Menin Gate, in Ypres. In the following days, meetings were held at the European Parliament, the European Commission and the Belgian Senate. In Germany, the delegation met with a range of commercial and international organisations in Bonn and Cologne, with a focus on research, innovation, energy security, climate change and strategies to combat desertification.

The delegation arrived in Europe at an important time for our bilateral relationship. The expanded role for the European Parliament after the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect in late 2009 has implications for key areas such as agriculture, the impact of the global financial crisis and exchange of security information. Hopefully we were able to clarify Australia’s position on some of these issues to ensure that that bilateral cooperation can be maintained. Of particular note is that the first Australia-EU parliamentary meeting was able to take place over two days, when we were guests of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Australia and New Zealand. These sessions provided a useful forum to explore a number of important issues in depth and to clarify Australia’s position.

It was particularly interesting to me, and it is mentioned on page 9 of the report, that there was discussion on migration. I have to say I was disappointed by the good deal of misinformation about the way we handle these issues here in Australia, particularly as we handle them in a non-discriminatory way. I was puzzled by some of the criticism that was developed by some new members of the European Community, questioning Australia’s approach to these matters, and I am glad we were able to deal with them in a comprehensive way. While delegation members also absorbed much information from our European hosts, it was a good chance to provide an Australian perspective, and so this regular exchange is an important component of our bilateral relations. The report recommends that the Scandinavian leg of the program be subject to a delegation visit in early 2011.

I commend a reading of the report, particularly the section dealing with climate change, as it may be enlightening to know that we had some rather ambitious views here about how some degree of agreement might be achieved, particularly at Copenhagen. The section on that makes it quite clear that we should have had some doubts before we made the commitments that we did. I commend the report.

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