Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to Vietnam from 5 to 10 January and to the 17th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, held in Vientiane, Laos, from 11 to 15 January 2009. As leader of the delegation, I am pleased to present the report of its visit to Vietnam and its participation in the annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the APPF, in Vientiane. The delegation included the member for Cowan, Luke Simpkins, and three of our Senate colleagues, Senators Jacinta Collins, Helen Kroger and Claire Moore. At the APPF, the Clerk of the House of Representatives also participated in the delegation’s work.

The delegation had a number of objectives for its visit to Vietnam. We wanted to renew contacts with the National Assembly; to gain an understanding of the impact of economic reform and liberalisation measures that have been in place for more than 20 years now; to observe the outcomes of Australia’s development cooperation program at first hand; and to consider prospects for further trade and investment by Australia. The delegation’s time in Vietnam was divided between three centres: Ho Chi Minh City, where our focus was mainly on the impact of economic reform, trade and development cooperation; Hanoi, where our attention was directed mainly towards the National Assembly; and Ha Long City and Ha Long Bay, where our attention was primarily on environmental issues and the impact of economic reform. I will not go into detail about our discussions except to say that they were constructive and that we were pleased to be able to meet, amongst others, Prime Minister Dung and to renew acquaintance with Chairman Trong, the President of the National Assembly.

It was a valuable experience to meet Vietnamese people, whether at social gatherings or in their workplaces and schools. The delegation will remember our visits to the centre of education and vocational training for homeless and orphan children and to the school for the blind in Ho Chi Minh City. In both these places, delegates observed the impact of support from Australia, whether that was a relatively small donation under the Direct Aid Program to the homeless and orphan children or the funding support Loreto Vietnam-Australia provided for infrastructure to the school for the blind. Another particularly pleasing visit that we had in Ho Chi Minh City was to the Vietnam campus of RMIT, where we saw RMIT running a fully fledged campus giving access to degrees that have equivalence to those degrees provided on the campuses of RMIT in Melbourne.

At the completion of our visit to Vietnam, the delegation travelled to Vientiane for the annual meeting of the APPF. Each January for the last 16 years, members of the national parliaments in the Asia-Pacific region have been meeting in the cities around the region to discuss matters of common interest. The Australian parliament participates in APPF for two major reasons: the countries that participate in APPF have great significance to our regional strategic and economic interests, and Australia and the Australian parliament support the objectives of APPF meetings. These objectives include strengthening understanding of the policy concerns amongst regional neighbours; examining political, social and cultural developments; and supporting the roles of national parliamentarians to build a sense of regional cohesion and cooperation.

I will now turn briefly to the substantive subject matter of the meeting. As is customary, sessions were broken into three main subject areas: economic and trade matters, political and security issues and interparliamentary cooperation in the region. As is becoming the usual situation at these meetings, a current event that had a big impact on all other issues was raised at the meeting. This year the issue, of course, was the global financial crisis. It was useful to get a firsthand understanding of the impact of the crisis on neighbouring countries and the measures that were being taken to address it.

The delegation proposed and spoke to resolutions on cluster munitions, terrorism, cooperation on natural disaster management, and gender issues in parliament. We followed up with negotiations on the final resolutions on the various topics. The delegation participated in all sessions of the drafting committee, where all draft resolutions were settled before they returned to the plenary for adoption at the final session.

Outside the plenary, the delegation participated in a number of successful bilateral meetings with other delegations. These included the delegations from China, the Russian Federation, Laos and Mexico. In addition, the delegation was able to take time to visit aid programs with which Australia had an involvement, most impressively in the area of education.

On behalf of the delegation, I express our thanks to the Australian embassy representatives in Vietnam: the ambassador, His Excellency Mr Allaster Cox; the consul-general in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr Graeme Swift; and Mr Michael Hoy, who helped to develop the program and then accompanied us throughout our time in Vietnam.

In Laos, we were assisted very ably by our ambassador, Her Excellency Dr Michele Forster, and her colleagues, in particular Ms Emily Russell. The post in Vientiane is not a big one and, so, the preparations that were made with the APPF secretariat, local officials and expatriates were all the more appreciated.

Our programs in both countries were quite demanding but, because we were well supported, I believe we were able to make the most of the two programs. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra assisted the delegation with comprehensive briefing materials and drafting of resolutions. The Parliamentary Library assisted us with briefing material and a draft resolution, and the Parliamentary Relations Office provided administrative support.

I thank the deputy leader of the delegation, the member for Cowan, and all members of the delegation. All the delegation participated fully in the various meetings in Vietnam and at the APPF meeting in Vientiane. Throughout the visits, we sought to represent the parliament effectively, through the resolutions we advocated, our speeches and our meetings, and I think that we were able to do that very successfully.

I also place on record my appreciation for the efforts of Catherine Cornish as the secretary of the delegation. She has accompanied the APPF delegations for many years. She knows some of the mysteries and where some of the skeletons are in the APPF and made it much easier for the delegation to be able to participate positively in the meeting. I also thank the accompanying spouses, who are very important in delegations in modern times. We were accompanied by them in Vietnam and at the APPF, and we appreciate that support. I commend the report to the House.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I also rise to speak on the report of the parliamentary delegation to Vietnam and to the 17th Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, in Vientiane, Laos. The delegation took place between 5 and 10 January in Vietnam and between 11 and 15 January in Laos. For her hard work during the visit and in the compilation of the delegation report, I would like to thank Ms Catherine Cornish, the delegation secretary. We were also fortunate to have the Clerk of the House, Mr Ian Harris AO, along, primarily for the APPF phase, and he was able to greatly assist the delegation with his wealth of knowledge of process and of foreign government representation at the APPF.

I was very pleased to have the opportunity of joining this delegation and joining you, Mr Speaker, and Senators Kroger, Moore and Collins. Although I had not expected to have the opportunity of participating in the delegation, I was certainly pleased to do so. Given the number of people in Cowan of Vietnamese descent, I wanted the opportunity to look at Vietnam and the way the country is run. The Vietnamese people in Cowan know why I wanted to go to their homeland, and I thank my Vietnamese friends across Australia for the information they gave me before the visit and the communication I had with them and their friends in Vietnam during the visit.

I will take this opportunity to thank the Australian diplomatic staff for their great assistance and detailed support of the delegation. Beginning in Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City, we had the support of Consul-General Mr Graeme Swift, who supported a program of meetings with Australian businesspeople and city officials as well as visits to the Nguyen Dinh Chieu School for the Blind and the Phu My Bridge, under construction by Bilfinger Berger Baulderstone Hornibrook. We also visited the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Vietnam, which is a great success story for not only RMIT but also the whole of Australia.

In Hanoi the delegation was supported by the ambassador, His Excellency Mr Allaster Cox, and his staff. In Hanoi, highly effective and interesting meetings took place with government officials, including the President of the National Assembly, His Excellency Dr Nguyen Phu Trong, and we made a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr Nguyen Tan Dung. A visit also took the delegation to the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology, which was highly interesting and instructive.

The delegation visit to the Protec Helmet factory was of great interest to the delegation, as throughout Vietnam the very large number of motorcycles demonstrated to all of us the need for helmets and better road safety. Although a helmet for the rider of the motorcycle was required under recent laws in Vietnam, sadly the law did not apply to the two, three or even four pillion passengers that we saw on those motorcycles, including children. The delegation appreciated the significance of the production of those helmets, and I note here in the parliament the contribution by AusAID towards the helmet factory and safety programs in Vietnam. The delegation witnessed the announcement of an additional US$100,000 contribution by AusAID to the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation, who run the factory.

The visit by the delegation was highly productive and greatly increased our understanding of Vietnam, the needs of that country and the relationship between our nations. I also would particularly like to thank First Secretary Michael Hoy for his consistent and outstanding support in Vietnam. He is a most excellent diplomat and Australia is fortunate to have him in Vietnam.

Given that I do not have much time left, I will confine my comments on the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum in Vientiane to observations of the forum, while also acknowledging the work of AusAID. Ambassador Michele Forster and Second Secretary Emily Russell greatly assisted the delegation in administrative arrangements and, beyond the forum, a day visit to an AusAID funded school as well as organising contact with Australians working and volunteering in Laos. I thank Michele and Emily for their dedicated work supporting the delegation.

The APPF was a very interesting experience for me as I had never been involved in such an event. I understand, though, that you, Mr Speaker, and Senators Kroger, Moore and Collins had all had similar experiences in sitting down with delegates from other nations and drafting resolutions and the final communique. ‘Frustrating’ would be one description. However, in speaking to and then helping to draft the resolution on cluster munitions I appreciated the experience of getting to negotiate with the Laotians, the South Koreans, the Chinese and the Russians—a very interesting and instructive experience.

Apart from the APPF itself, Ambassador Forster organised visits to the Friendship Bridge between Laos and Thailand that was built by Australia in 1994. The delegation also visited the Saka Primary School which, as I mentioned before, is assisted by the Australian government to participate in the UNICEF child-friendly school program. Then we got to observe the difference between that school and the Nong Poung Primary School, which is soon to join the program. It was a fascinating comparison and evidence of effective Australian support in Laos.

To conclude, I can say that I echo the sentiments of the entire delegation in saying that the two parts of the delegation, the two aspects of the visit, were fascinating and highly instructive. I thank the staff of this parliament, the Parliamentary Relations Office and our missions in Vietnam and Laos for their excellent support in all regards. I also thank you, Mr Speaker, and Senators Kroger, Moore and Collins for their guidance during the trip and also for the way we worked so well together to try to achieve the aims of the delegation.