Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to Mexico and Peru from 22 September to 1 October 2018, and I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in conjunction with the report.

Leave granted.

On behalf of the delegation, I would really like to thank everyone who contributed to making the program so successful with both the Mexican senate and the Peruvian congress. Their time was very generously given and very much appreciated by those of us who were the members of the delegation. This aspect of the program contributed very significantly to the strengthening of the parliament-to-parliament relations and was a very clear highlight of the delegation's visit.

I want to thank the many businesses and government representatives in both Mexico and Peru. These are the people who generously gave up their time to meet with the delegation, to exchange their views and to share their expertise. We would also like to thank Dr David Engel, the Australian Ambassador to Mexico, and his officers at the Australian Embassy in Mexico, as well as Mr Nicholas McCaffrey, the Australian Ambassador to Peru, and his officers at the Australian Embassy in Peru. They offered very dedicated support during our visit. In all of these situations, we know that our embassy teams do an enormous amount of work to make sure that everything is prepared for the visit, before, during and after, so that our meetings run very smoothly. Fiona Way from IPRO also did a great job.

I also want to thank the members of the delegation: Senator Kimberley Kitching, Senator David Leyonhjelm and the member for Groom, John McVeigh. And I want to add a special thankyou to our delegation secretary, Stephen Palethorpe, for all of his efforts in supporting the delegation.

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