Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House:

(1)

notes that the 24th October is United Nations Day, celebrating the entry into force of the United Nations Charter on 24 October 1945;

(2)

celebrates Australia’s key role in the formation of the United Nations and the drafting of the United Nations Charter;

(3)

recognises that Australia has been a consistent and long-term contributor to United Nations’ efforts to safeguard international peace and security and to promote human rights, for example, by being the 13th largest contributor to the United Nations’ budget; by contributing to many United Nations’ peacekeeping operations; and by firmly committing to increasing Australia’s development assistance and seeking real progress towards the Millennium Development Goals;

(4)

notes further the Australian Government’s commitment to the multilateral system as one of the three fundamental pillars of Australia’s foreign policy; that Australia is determined to work through the United Nations to enhance security and economic well-being worldwide; and to uphold the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter;

(5)

notes that as the only truly global organisation, the United Nations plays a critical role in addressing the global challenges that no country can resolve on its own and that Australia is determined to play its part within the United Nations to help address serious global challenges, including conflict prevention, international development, climate change, terrorism and the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction;

(6)

notes also Australia’s commitment to, and support for, reform of the United Nations’ system in order to ensure that the organisation reflects today’s world and is able to function efficiently and effectively; and

(7)

reaffirms the faith of the Australian people in the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter.

As a former United Nations staff member, it gives me great pleasure to move this motion, noting that 24 October is United Nations Day, celebrating the entry into force of the UN Charter on 24 October 1945. Australia played a key role in the formation of the United Nations and the drafting of the UN Charter. Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, Australia’s Minister for External Affairs in the Curtin and Chifley Labor governments, was the leader of the Australian delegation to the founding meeting of the United Nations held in San Francisco in 1945, at which Australia became the champion of the small and middle powers in the drafting of the UN Charter. Some three years later, in 1948, Dr Evatt was the third President of the UN General Assembly when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted—a document which, along with the UN Charter, he had worked hard to achieve. Of course, this year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These two documents remain of key importance today, not only in defining the course and framework of international relations but also in setting standards and principles to guide nations in the treatment of their own citizens as well as respect for each other. This is the normative function of the UN, setting the benchmarks against which nations compare themselves and to which nations aspire in order to be regarded as good international citizens.

As when the UN Charter was drafted, the problems of today’s world can only be addressed by a truly international organisation. The serious global challenges of conflict prevention, development, climate change, terrorism and the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction cannot be resolved by any one country acting on its own. While most people tend to think of the UN in connection with war zones and conflicts between member states, in fact there are countless ways in which member states cooperate with each other for the common good through the UN: coordinating assistance in natural disasters, regulating civilian air traffic or the carriage of goods by sea, development assistance, promoting respect for human rights, the rule of law, democracy and good governance, tackling HIV-AIDS and other global health issues, support to peace processes, supervision of elections, advancing universal education and environmental protection. Much has been achieved in 63 years, but it is clear that much remains to be done.

As the Secretary-General noted in his most recent report on the work of the organisation:

We must deliver results for a more secure world. Once again, during this past year, in too many places around the world, children bore arms instead of holding textbooks, the earth was scorched instead of cultivated, and national revenues were diverted to arms instead of being spent on education and health care. Every life lost and every penny spent on war is stolen from future generations.

I am proud to be part of the government that has recommitted Australia to a path of multilateralism and support for the UN as one of the three key pillars of its foreign policy, including ratifying the Kyoto protocol and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and taking steps to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Australia has participated in the negotiation of a new treaty to ban cluster munitions, has established a commission to promote a new nuclear disarmament treaty and is seeking a seat on the UN Security Council for 2013-14. Australia is also committed to tackling the Millennium Development Goals within our region, with programs to eradicate poverty and advance health, education and infrastructure.

With regard to this parliament’s interaction with the UN, each year a parliamentary delegation attends the UN General Assembly. There has been a UNICEF Parliamentary Association since 1987 and I am proud to chair that association, along with Senator Simon Birmingham as deputy chair. As of last week, there is a new Australia-UN parliamentary group, of which I am the chair, Senator Russell Trood is the deputy chair and Senator David Feeney is the secretary. I note with appreciation the encouragement of John Langmore, President of the United Nations Association of Australia, former member for Fraser and former senior UN official, for the establishment of the UN parliamentary group.

I would like to finish with a quote from one of my heroes—the only person to have received a Nobel Peace Prize posthumously—the second UN Secretary-General, Dag Hammerskjold, who died in somewhat mysterious circumstances in a plane crash in the Congo on 17 September 1961. In his last address to UN staff, nine days before he was killed, he said this:

It is false pride to register and to boast to the world about the importance of one’s work, but it is false humility, and finally just as destructive, not to recognise—and recognise with gratitude—that one’s work has a sense. Let us avoid the second fallacy as carefully as the first, and let us work in the conviction that our work has a meaning beyond the narrow individual and has meant something for man.

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I am happy to second the motion. It may be unusual but can I commend the member for Fremantle on proposing this motion. I have no problem with its terms and that will be clear. If we did not have the United Nations, no doubt people would be actively looking at how they might well form another—perhaps with even greater difficulty if you look at the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I have been assured that some would have greater difficulty acceding to terms and conditions today than they did earlier, in the 1940s.

Australia has had a continuous commitment to the United Nations and all of its activities in relation to social affairs and development and technical agencies. I was looking at a list of those that I have had association with over a period of time: the United Nations Drug Control Program, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Intellectual Property Organisation, amongst some of the specialised agencies. The numbers of bodies are legion. Australia has made financial contributions which have assisted in its activities overall period of time. We are proud of our participation in the UN’s peacekeeping operations and in it humanitarian relief, agricultural development, sustainable development and support of free and fair elections in newly emerging democracies.

If you look at the importance of associated organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, both UN based organisations that are playing a significant part in dealing with some of the problems we now face, the importance of the United Nations and its agencies cannot be overlooked. I would recognise that we do have a vital role in addressing the problems of failing states and addressing poverty. Through many activities such as the UN’s Millennium Development Goals we are seeing important developments. But I am glad that the member in her motion also noted:

… Australia’s commitment to, and support for, reform of the United Nations’ system in order to ensure that the organisation reflects today’s world and is able to function efficiently and effectively.

Like the honourable member, I do recognise the importance of Australia having an active engagement in ensuring that we are able to contribute better to the functioning of the body itself, to improve its focus on key global, regional and thematic themes and to ensure that UN organisations are able to actively work in collaboration and cooperation.

The honourable member mentioned some new bodies that we are recently party to. I noted recently a paper presented by the Human Rights Council—a document I was presented with when I was recently in Geneva—welcomed the establishment of the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. It welcomed the entry into force on 3 May of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the optional protocol thereto which created the ninth human rights treaty body, which will begin its work in 2009. I might say that I was party to Australia signing that convention. That happened before the change of government. It acknowledged with appreciation the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance by the General Assembly on 20 December 2006 and noted when it enters into force it will establish an additional treaty body.

I mention that because what it is doing, of course, is continuing some of the inefficiencies that we have seen in the way in which treaties that we are party to are dealt with. I welcome the measures that the council has been taking, because if you read the report further, it makes mention of the need for reduction of duplication in reporting requirements, the harmonising of general guidelines, the preliminary list of states that need to coordinate the schedule for consideration of reports, the limiting of the length of state parties reports—and I could go on with efficiencies that are being suggested. But the real problem is that, until you are able to deal with the multiplicity of treaty bodies, which nations seem unwilling to address, those efficiencies which are needed will be unlikely to occur.

I think it is very important to note the changes that are occurring in the Human Rights Council, but I think it is also important to notice the reforms that are being undertaken at the moment in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. I note particularly the structural and major management change in the processes that are occurring right now in that organisation. These sorts of developments are going to be important for the United Nations to be able to retain its pre-eminent role. I wish it well in the years ahead. (Time expired)

Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia has played a proud part in the formation of the United Nations and in its continuation, nurturing and support—give or take the lack of enthusiasm by some administrations most recently, but being restored by the Rudd government. The United Nations has three noble aims worth pursuing no matter what the faults and foibles of the organisation are: to end the scourge of war, to affirm the faith in fundamental human rights, and to promote social progress and better standards of life. They are three noble aims. The organisation is 60-odd years old, and I thank the member for Fremantle for bringing to the attention of the House the remembrance of the anniversary of its founding.

I would like to share with you in the little time that remains a number of the views expressed by others that ably sum up how I feel about the United Nations and also raise some of the concerns that others have with the United Nations. The former speaker, of course, raised the necessity of reform as the United Nations evolves. The first I would like to share with you comes from an interesting book by Alison Broinowski and James Wilkinson called The Third Try: Can the UN Work? I recommend it to anyone who likes a good read on this. It says:

The United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the Genocide Convention are extraordinary documents. They changed the course of history by moving not toward a world government, but toward global embrace of the universal principles that have guided the world’s most advanced democracies: rule of law, democratic processes, equal opportunity and justice for all. This vision remains valid, relevant, and superior to any alternative.

The beginning of the next paragraph says:

America is the keystone nation.

I was taken by the comments of Professor Sir Adam Roberts, who is in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Oxford University and a noted observer of the UN. The book says:

… cautioned us that those who believe the UN can save the world will be disappointed, because the UN, having nation states as its members, will always be a cockpit of power politics … Sir Adam Roberts pointed out, the Charter is not a complete global security system.

Most poignantly, he said:

But the perfect should not be the enemy of the good, and the Security Council has demonstrated it can succeed when the will is there. The UN remains the sole repository of international legitimacy. While it has failed to live up to its potential, evolution is far more likely than revolution to improve its capabilities and performance.

Just on the other side of the question, I note several writings that I came across in the last couple of years when I did some studies in international relations of an extraordinary conservative from the United States called Jesse Helms, who is a great hater of the United Nations and did not hold back. He most forcefully put that case directly to the UN Security Council. This is the type of attitude that has borne fruit in the United States, unfortunately, let loose by Ronald Reagan and his cohorts some time ago and reinforced by George W. He said:

No UN institution is competent to judge the foreign policy and national security decisions of the United States ... The UN is seeking to impose its utopian vision of ‘international law’ on Americans.

However, as the book says:

… he was willing to praise UN ‘core tasks’ of peacekeeping, weapons inspections, humanitarian relief, and helping sovereign states work together.

But:

... he mocked the notion that a majority of Americans support international cooperation by saying he had done poorly in the polls but always won election.

We will see about that.

I will conclude with the same authors that I commenced with:

The 1945 goal of a world made more secure, prosperous, and just through international cooperation is as worthy today as it was then. The alternatives, as Roosevelt told Congress on his return from Yalta, involve unilateral actions, spheres of influence, and exclusive alliances, which ‘have been tried for centuries—and have always failed.’ At the time, FDR’s words were intended to persuade Americans to support the UN. Today, with the third try in progress, they have the ring of chastisement and forewarning. (Time expired)

Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on this motion. I commend it. It is a very good motion. I am particularly pleased to speak after my colleague and friend from Tasmania. I also want to acknowledge all the people of Ryan who might be listening to this presentation. I know that there will be many, because they have contacted me in relation to the government’s support for the UN, the opposition’s support for the UN and, indeed, my own support for the UN. I want to say at the outset that as a student at Cambridge University I had the distinct privilege of being the president of the Cambridge UN Society. Personally, I have a very strong affection for the UN and what that global body can do to make life better for the billions of people on planet Earth.

I want to also at the outset commend the young Australians who are seeking to host the Asia-Pacific model UN conference at the University of Queensland, which is located in the Ryan electorate, next year from 12 to 17 July. I commend them, I wish them well and I look forward very much to supporting them and working with them. My electorate will be hosting some 600 students that will be coming in from all over the Asia-Pacific region to participate in that conference. It is fantastic to see young Australians engaged in that kind of activity.

Australia has been a consistent and long-term contributor to the United Nations. We have contributed to many UN peacekeeping operations. Our country, in fact, participated in the first peacekeeping operation under the UN flag in 1947, the UN Consular Commission to Indonesia. Australia had a place at the table when the UN was formed, as my colleagues have said. The UN replaced the League of Nations, which was created by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The UN officially came into being on 24 October 1945 following the signing of the UN Charter in San Francisco in June of that year.

Since then, Australia’s record has been very good and honourable. All of us can be proud of our participation in the UN, our support for it and our deep interest in the place of the UN in the global architecture. Australia has participated in more than 30 UN peacekeeping and peace monitoring operations, in areas including Korea, the Middle East and Cambodia. Speaking of Cambodia, I had the great privilege of leading Australia’s contribution to the UN observer mission to the Cambodian elections in 2003. Cambodia has had recent elections, which is a positive step for that country’s fledgling democracy. But at the same time, and I will touch on this a little bit later in my presentation if I get the time, I acknowledge that Cambodia is also in the spotlight at the moment with its border dispute with Thailand.

Australia’s core interest in terms of the UN’s agenda lie very much in the areas of international security and disarmament, the environment, human rights, developmental programs and those technical agencies dealing with issues such as agriculture, refugees and international nuclear safeguards. Australia has been a member of the UN Security Council on four occasions: from 1946 to 1947, 1956 to 1957, 1973 to 1974 and 1985 to 1986. I note the Rudd government’s determination to have Australia back on the UN Security Council. For my part, I support this. It is a worthy initiative. But if we are going to do it, let us do it properly. Let us give it full resources and let us make it happen in a bipartisan fashion.

Australia is the 13th largest contributor to the UN regular budget and to the funding for UN peacekeeping operations. This is a very good thing. Australia also provides voluntary funding to many UN agencies. In 2007-08, Australia will provide $80 million for core funding to UN development agencies compared with $70 million in 2006-07. That is a welcome initiative. I state for the record that I support that very much.

I want to touch on some broader points. The UN does have its limitations and constraints. As I said, I am for the UN. It is an indispensable part of the global architecture. But from the time of its foundation to the 21st century, the world has changed. Let us ask this question: does today’s UN genuinely and legitimately reflect the 21st century global landscape? I am not so sure. There has been the rise of China and India and Brazil and more recent times. We have seen a completely different Eastern Europe emerge with the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the Russian Federation now dominating that part of the world. In our part of the world, Japan still remains the second-largest economy in the world and India, the world’s largest democracy, perhaps should have a place on the permanent UN Security Council. I very much want to acknowledge all the great challenges facing the UN. We can solve these togethers. (Time expired)

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As we approach United Nations Day, celebrating the establishment of the UN on 24 October 1945, I too join in thanking the member for Fremantle for causing us to stop and reflect on the importance of this truly global organisation, one which is dedicated to the security, economic wellbeing and genuine humanitarian conditions that apply throughout the nations of this earth. The United Nations plays a critical role in addressing the challenges that no single country can ever hope to resolve on its own. Australia was a founding member of the United Nations back in 1945 and played a leading role in drafting the UN Charter’s articles for the Security Council. As a nation we have had a long and active engagement with this organisation. Australia has been a consistent contributor to United Nations efforts to safeguard international peace and security. As the member for Ryan indicated, we are the 13th largest contributor to the UN budget. We have contributed to many UN peacekeeping operations and we are firmly committed to increasing our development assistance as we seek real progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. In the larger multilateral system we are energetically pursuing international trade liberalisation through the Doha development round, and that is for the benefit of all countries, both developing and developed alike.

I would also like to take the opportunity to reflect on the significance of Australia’s peacekeeping record as I think it is one that should be recognised. Multinational peacekeeping is a difficult and often dangerous activity. The record of Australia’s contingents in this regard, be they military, police or civilian, has long been impressive but, tragically, not always casualty free. The member for Fremantle herself has made a significant contribution at a senior level, working with the UN in peacekeeping, reconstruction and humanitarian roles in Kosovo, Gaza, Lebanon, Cyprus and at the UN headquarters in New York. As a member of this organisation, I indicate how proud we are to have the member for Fremantle be so active on matters of international concern.

Australia’s contribution to peacekeeping operations throughout the globe has been in wide-ranging support roles such as governance, institution building, electoral reform and border control. Australia presently is supporting UN missions in the Middle East—Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt—the Sudan, Cyprus and East Timor, and it is also a partner in coalition peacekeeping operations on the Sinai, in the Solomon Islands, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. It is quite a formidable list.

Through my involvement with the Police Federation of Australia I know that Australian police have an excellent record in international peacekeeping, with the Australian police contingents in the operation in Cyprus since 1964 through, more recently, to much larger contingents now deployed in Cambodia, East Timor, Bougainville and the Solomon Islands. Today there are some 900 Australian Federal Police, state police seconded to the AFP and territory police officers on overseas based operations. This is in addition to contributing a total of 75 officers to three United Nations peacekeeping missions in East Timor, Cyprus and the Sudan. The AFP has continued to enhance its strategic engagements through the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations.

Australian police officers have served continually as part of the UN’s peacekeeping operations in Cyprus since 1964, making a valuable contribution to the maintenance of peace and the stability of the island. There are currently 15 Australian police officers stationed there. The AFP maintains a contingent of 50 police in the United Nations police component of the UN Integrated Mission in East Timor. This mission is mandated to support stability, democratic governance and national reconciliation within East Timor. UNPOL performs executive policing functions as well as supporting the formation, restructuring and rebuilding of this economically and security challenged young nation. We are committed to pursuing such goals as the Millennium Development Goals, climate change and signing the Kyoto Protocol and now joining as a full member— (Time expired)

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the 2½ minutes available to me, I would like to add my comments to this motion recognising the establishment of the United Nations and the important part that it plays in world politics. The United Nations learned very much from its predecessor, the League of Nations, and the failure of the United States to ratify it, which left it rather a body waiting to fail. The United Nations has been successful in establishing many important organisations which have served the world well, particularly the World Health Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Australia has played a very large and successful role in peacekeeping operations, as others have pointed out during the course of speaking to this motion, but I would like to say that very often the United Nations can also be a source of profound disappointment to us. One of the best examples of that has been the inability of the United Nations to take any meaningful role in preventing the devastation and murderous behaviour that has occurred in Zimbabwe under the dictatorship of Mr Mugabe. Although he purports to have elections, we see again and again how this fails and how the United Nations is totally unable to deal with it in any way. On the other hand, when it establishes something like the Millennium Development Goals and we see the accent and importance it has placed on the development of microcredit, which has the ability to open up the lives of, particularly, women right across the world by giving them loans which enable them to establish their own small businesses and to succeed in providing for their families in a way that is quite new and quite refreshing and that empowers them, one can only say that this is the sort of thing where the United Nations is truly successful.

There are many examples that others have given in speaking to this motion, but I would simply like to say that Australia’s contribution has been profound right from the beginning. The four times we have served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council have been marked with our success. It has grown from 51 member states to, in 1996, 192 member states.