Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of our obligations as a developed nation is to support developing countries, particularly in our region. The autonomous region of Bougainville is one of our closest neighbours. With the negotiation of the Bougainville Peace Agreement, which brought to an end more than 10 years of civil war, Bougainville became Papua New Guinea's first autonomous region, a status guaranteed by PNG's constitution.

Bougainville have in the last few weeks held only their third election since the agreement was signed in 2001. Recently I was a member of the Australian team in a United Nations coordinated international observation mission for that election. The UN provided assistance, including observers, with our presence contributing to voter confidence and providing important oversight of the process. The Australian government has provided continuous support for Bougainville as part of its overall assistance to PNG. Indeed, for this election we also funded the printing of the ballot papers.

I have travelled to Bougainville previously with the foreign minister and I am critically aware of the challenges that both Bougainville and the national PNG government face on this journey from war to peace, as does my colleague the member for Macquarie. I am pleased to acknowledge how far both parties have progressed down that road.

Our role as observers was to assess the polling process and see if voting was done in a fair and reasonable manner. I am pleased to advise the House that on the booths I observed this was clearly the case. Voting was conducted in an orderly and peaceful manner. Polling officers were knowledgeable about the required voting process and I witnessed good cooperation between the police and the polling officers.

There are a total of 40 seats: three reserved seats for ex-combatants, three reserved seats for women, 11 seats in each of the three regions and the President. I have previously paid tribute to the three remarkable women MPs from Bougainville who are empowering other women in the region. They represent the three reserved seats for women in the Bougainville parliament but, importantly, many more women nominated this year not just in these seats. There were 35 women candidates, out of a total of 342 candidates, and of these 12 women nominated for the open seats. Hopefully, this means we will see even more women in the Bougainville parliament after the election.

I was honoured to represent Australia on this mission and to be involved in the election process. The people of Bougainville are keen to see their country progress. The election process I witnessed was professional and well run. Many seats have now been declared and voting is coming to an end, which means that the next step for the people of Bougainville is a referendum for independence, which could occur within the next five years. There have been some reports of incidents but overall the impression is positive. The challenges for Bougainville and PNG will continue as a referendum on independence approaches. What is important is that they both work within the framework of the Bougainville peace agreement rather than resorting to armed conflict. The road ahead will be challenging for both but, with goodwill and open minds, these challenges can be overcome. If the conduct of this election so far is any guide, we should be optimistic about their future.