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

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties I present the committee's report entitled Report 120: Treaties tabled on 5 July and 16 August 2011. I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the report was made a Parliamentary Paper.

by leave—Today I present the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties report entitledReport 120: Treaties tabled on 5 July and 16 August 2011which contains the committee views on, firstly, a series of treaties on Antarctic environmental and tourism issues which were tabled in the Commonwealth parliament on 5 July 2011. The report also reviews five taxation treaties and a social security treaty, which were tabled on 16 August2011.

I intend to briefly comment on all the treaties dealt with in this report. Firstly, there are three proposed amendments to the Antarctic treaty, which will: establish an environmental liability regime for those operating facilities and vessels in the Antarctic; require tourist operators in the Antarctic to have insurance to cover the cost of medical emergencies; and make environmental regulations previously self-imposed by the tourism industry mandatory.

These amendments align with and strengthen Australia's commitment to protecting the Antarctic environment, which is a place of special significance. It is the only place that could make a reasonable claim to wresting the name 'Down Under' from our country, and it is appropriate that Australia play a specific and critical role in protecting this far southern continent and it is incredibly stark, unique and precious environment.

I will now turn to the agreement between Australia and the Republic of Hungary on social security. This treaty provides access to Hungarian age disability or survivor's benefit for Australians of Hungarian descent who worked in Hungary long enough to establish an entitlement to these benefits. The treaty also ensures that people who move between Australia and Hungary will have their entitlement to benefits recognised in both countries.

I will now deal with the five tax treaties covered in the report, which involve the Marshall Islands, Mauritius and Montserrat. These treaties are part of Australia's implementation of the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation, OECD, standards on the elimination of harmful tax practices. The committee supports these treaties, as they are a powerful tool for transparency in international financial transfers. Previous tax treaties have resulted in a decline in fund flows from Australia of 80 per cent to Liechtenstein, 50 per cent to Vanuatu, and 22 per cent to Switzerland. In each case, the committee concludes that these treaties should be supported with binding action. I thank my fellow committee members and the treaties committee secretariat for their continuing dedication and professionalism. I commend the report to the House.