Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the weekend I attended in Bangkok the General Assembly of the Asian Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development. This forum is chaired by Japan, which helps fund the forum with its base in Bangkok. Australia contributes over $500,000 over three years, in particular to advance gender equality and women's empowerment through this very important MP forum. Australia has funded a men's committee of MP champions from across the region who are aiming to eradicate intimate partner violence, in particular. I mediated the special panel on gender equality and women's empowerment: what can parliamentarians do to reduce gender gaps and advance gender equality for all women?

Also, I am pleased that I was elected the vice-chair of this regional forum on the weekend, with Japan continuing to be chair. I am very pleased to participate in that way. The key goal for us moving into the future will be to address the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly goals 3 and 5, and to make sure that the Pacific communities have more attention, given the conditions for women and girls are not as they should be in developed nations. I commend this forum. It was a very important experience over the weekend, with all of my parliamentarian colleagues from the Pacific and Asia. All were doing their best for achieving gender equality.