Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Minister for Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, I present the committee's report entitled Report 173: Consular functions in Macau - China; Montreal ozone layer-amendment.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Today I rise to make a statement concerning the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties Report 173, which reviews two treaty actions: the amendment to our consular arrangements with China and Macau and the amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. The purpose of the amendment is to amend our consular arrangements with China and Macau to bring the Macau Special Administrative Region, the SAR, under the auspices of the China agreement.

We have a very strong commercial presence in Macau, with around 1,000 Australians living in that SAR and over 2½ thousand people of Macanese descent living in Australia. We have a range of bilateral agreements directly with Macau, but since it came under the People's Republic of China in 1999 we also have an agreement with China on consular relations. In 2013 and 2014, there were procedural issues in relation to a number of arrest notifications between Australia and Macau, and consequent to negotiations to improve the notification process it was agreed to amend the China agreement to include the SAR.

The treaty action will provide procedural clarity for managing consular cases in Macau and will enable improved consular access to Australians detained in the SAR. For example, consular officials will be informed within three days if an Australian national is arrested or committed to prison or custody pending trial in the SAR. A consular visit to the detainee must be permitted within two days. These time lines are not currently mandated in the Macau agreement. Although Macau is now included within the scope of the China agreement, the committee notes that China has requested that the Macau agreement remain in place. We commend DFAT in its efforts to improve Australia's global consular services, and the committee supports ratification of this treaty action.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer mandates the phase down of scheduled ozone-depleting substances. This amendment will mandate the global phase down of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs. Although HFCs are not ozone depleting, they are considered to have a somewhat higher global-warming potential. Australia has already introduced legislation to phase down the import of HFCs from January 2018 in order to meet existing climate change emission reduction commitments. That legislation will facilitate implementation of commitments under this amendment to the Montreal protocol. The committee acknowledges the success of the Montreal protocol and its role in assisting Australia to reach its climate change emission reduction targets. Australia has supported all six previous amendments to the protocol, and the committee has recommended that it support this one as well.

Finally, the report also contains the committee's review of two minor treaty actions relating to the OECD G20 conventions, addressing tax evasion by individuals and large multinationals. On behalf of the committee, I commend the report wholeheartedly to the House.