Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I will join with the member for Mallee in thanking those who made this delegation possible, particularly the committee secretariat, who travelled with us on this delegation, and also particularly the High Commission staff in Kenya, led by Alison Chartres. We know they have endured a difficult time recently with the recent terrorist attacks in Kenya that occurred very near to the Australian High Commission in Nairobi. We want to express our thoughts and goodwill, on behalf of all delegation members, to these outstanding Australian foreign service professionals.

With regard to the committee report, it's fair to say that Africa doesn't get the attention it deserves in the Australian foreign policy debate. The delegation was a rare opportunity to reflect on Australia's existing relationships with the countries visited and to discuss opportunities to strengthen these relationships in the future. As part of this delegation we met people from all walks of life: fellow parliamentarians and government ministers, women's group leaders in Ethiopia, Australians working on the land in Kenya, and NGO representatives. For me, the most significant part of the trip was the visit to the UNHCR's Kakuma Refugee Camp in the north of Kenya next to the border with South Sudan. Kakuma is nearly 30 years old, and at the time of our visit around 180,000 refugees were seeking temporary refuge at the camp. Many residents of Melbourne's west, in my electorate of Gellibrand, have called it home on their journey towards humanitarian resettlement in Australia. Most spend around a decade at this camp before starting their life anew in Australia.

I've spoken many times in the chamber on the need to increase the Australian government's commitment to aid in this region. I note in this regard that the current Prime Minister also spent a significant proportion of his first speech in this place outlining the case for increased Australian aid to Africa. At Kakuma I saw firsthand how Australian aid plays a crucial role in helping both the UNHCR and the World Food Program to support refugees living in this camp while they wait for a durable solution that lets them restart their lives. It's literally a life-saving investment. Along with other MPs in the delegation, I was privileged to participate in the WFP food delivery program onsite. UNHCR does amazing work at Kakuma and is perpetually underresourced, so I'm proud that a Shorten Labor government will commit an extra $500 million to UNHCR to provide support to more refugees, to improve regional processing and resettlement and to speed up legitimate settlement pathways.

This delegation also highlighted the need to increase the number of refugee resettlement places offered by Australia. It was affecting to consider the many years that refugees in camps are forced to wait before being given the opportunity to start their lives again in a third country. I'm pleased that a Shorten Labor government will resettle an extra 5,000 refugees a year via community sponsorship, on top of our existing commitment to increasing our humanitarian intake to 27,000 a year. Community sponsorship allows non-government actors—businesses, religious organisations, community groups and individuals—to directly meet the costs of resettling refugees in Australia via either direct financial contributions or the provision of in kind goods and services.

The extent of untapped community desire to directly assist refugees living in these camps was highlighted by the work in the Kakuma camp of Aussie NGO Barefoot to Boots. Barefoot to Boots was founded by an Australian professional footballer, Awer Mabil, and his brother, Awer Bul, former residents of Kakuma, in 2014 as a way of giving back and helping other refugees on the same journey they had travelled. Alongside Australian businessman Ian Smith, Barefoot to Boots has donated over 2,000 kilograms of football boots and uniforms to refugees living in these camps, as well as other vital supplies such as hospital beds, mattresses and monitors, an operating table and an ultrasound machine. I had the privilege of meeting Awer Mabil at Kakuma and I can report that he's not just a gun footballer, not just an outstanding humanitarian, but a really good bloke as well, an Australian that we can all be proud of.

I took the opportunity during the visit to make a delivery of football kit (boots, keeping gloves, balls and jerseys) donated by groups in my electorate—the Altona Soccer Club, the Sunshine Heights Soccer Club and Their Beautiful Game—to Barefoot to Boots in Kakuma. I thank them for their kind donations. Unfortunately, as the member for Mallee mentioned, torrential rain trapped the delegation in a flood that blocked the main road into the camp for three hours. That prevented me from getting on the pitch to test out the kit that had been donated by the football clubs in my electorate in Melbourne's west—but that is life in a refugee camp.

The visit to Kenya also showed the untapped investment and trade opportunities in the East Africa Community: Kenya, Tanzania, South Sudan, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. The EAC is home to 150 million people and has been growing at an average of 11 per cent per annum since 2003. The EAC is ambitious. It established a free trade zone in 2005 and a common market in 2010 and aims to become a monetary union by 2023. Kenya, as the region's largest economy, will play a leading role in the EAC's future. Australia is home to over 35,000 people born in the EAC, providing us an opportunity to utilise the skills and knowledge of these diaspora communities to increase our economic engagement with the region. Despite this, my impression on this trip was that we are underweight in our trade representation in this growing region with enormous potential. There's room for improvement on this front.

It was a privilege to be part of this parliamentary delegation to Kenya and Ethiopia. It brought into focus the opportunities in this region and the potential for future engagement with Australia.

See this speech in context