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

by leave—I move:

Omit paragraph 2 (a), substitute:

(a) that significant progress has been made in Serbia and other countries in the region who were affected by the devastating war, to move away from conflict and towards reconciliation and cooperation.

The original words of the motion were constructed to solely attempt to fix a datum point from which to recognise that progress had been made throughout the Balkans. The words were not used in any way to attempt to redefine the nature of the conflict but rather to recognise that through a concerted effort from all countries in the Balkans positive progress had been made towards peace and reconciliation. Clearly what I have tried to do through the amendment is place a focus on the fact that this is about recognising peace and the benefits it brings.

Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment.

Robert Oakeshott (Lyne, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am not going to jump on every single vote; I am confident this will be the last one. In recognising the significance of this vote, I just wanted to pay tribute to the Serbian ambassador in light of the events of Tuesday night, which involved very difficult issues for this parliament. One of the side stories is that everyone involved in the events of this week still managed to keep a Serbian cultural evening functioning. That could have very easily gone off the rails. But to the Serbian ambassador and to everyone in this chamber who made that work, I say: hats off to you all.

Question agreed to.

Original question, as amended, agreed to.