John Forrest (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise tonight to support the member for Fremantle on her motion concerning the United Nations. It is a very important motion. Whilst I might not be able to bring the same passion that she can to this issue after her long years of experience with the organisation, there are some observations that I would like to make. Last year, during the last parliament, I visited the UN with the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. We were conducting an inquiry on nuclear proliferation. To stand in the chamber of the General Assembly made me realise that, for all the criticisms that are made against the UN—that is, it is a talkfest and excessively bureaucratic—the reality is that it is there. We must not let happen to it what happened to the League of Nations, which was established after the Great War. The League of Nations collapsed in its effort to prevent another war from happening. Within a generation the world was again at war. All of us need to make the commitment to the United Nations, despite all of its alleged inadequacies, to make it operate effectively.

The motion goes to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. I have been somewhat frustrated over my time in this parliament—no matter what government has been in power—in achieving the millennium goals set for us by the United Nations. I got so frustrated that I took matters into my own hands. I wanted to make a personal effort. Last year I was privileged to table in this chamber a report of the struggling stateless Akha people in the Mekong hinterland of South-East Asia. They are completely vulnerable and exposed to child trafficking. They end up being sexually exploited. I was encouraged to go to the village after working with the Rotary Club of Swan Hill. Other motivated members of the Swan Hill community in my own home town established a donation tax deductibility status for an organisation called Children of the Golden Triangle. I was impressed with the commitment that ordinary Australians make. It is somehow not taken so much into account in our contribution to achieving the millennium goals. I believe this parliament owes organisations like that every means by which we can encourage Australians to demonstrate their commitment.

For the last decade or so, people from the Swan Hill community and other communities around Australia have been travelling up to Mae Sai, a small village in northern Thailand that is right next to the Burma border, to help these stateless people. These people are one of 12 individual tribes scattered throughout the Mekong hinterland. We want to arrest the vulnerability of these people and give them skills in agriculture and education so that they will not be exposed and vulnerable to the ruthlessness of people who go there to steal their children in order to take them away into slavery.

I commend the member for Fremantle on her motion. Sixty-five years is a wonderful milestone for the United Nations. I am pleased to be able to stand here to support her motion. I also would like to comment on point (6) of the motion, which expresses condolence for the loss of life from the Haiti earthquake. There are not many Haitians in my constituency but I found a couple in Robinvale. They asked for my assistance in sending a package to their devastated family in Haiti. I was thrilled to be able to make a contribution to assist them. At that stage, they did not know whether their relations were safe.

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