Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to the 38th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Australia and Pacific Regional Conference held in South Australia from 18 to 21 November 2019, and I ask leave of the House to make a short statement in connection with the report.

Leave granted.

This conference was on urbanisation and the role of parliamentarians in that huge change that we are seeing happen across the world. It's important for all of us in this chamber, whether we are from a regional or a city electorate, and of course it's important for my electorate of Perth, including the Perth CBD. The chair of the CPA noted in her statement that half of our world live in cities and some 2.5 billion more people will live in cities come 2050. That is a huge challenge and one that parliaments can't just leave to the executive, and that was the theme of many of the contributions to this conference.

It was a conference that welcomed many first time visitors to Australia, including many Australian friends from across the Pacific. It was a conference full of ideas. I love ideas and I love conferences where you're able to share things, thinking a little bit more long term. We were able to hear from the Queensland delegates about their implementation of regional parliamentary sittings, something some in this chamber know that I would love us to do on a national level. We heard from delegates of the Northern Territory talking about the risk of losing the unique character of our beloved regional towns as urbanisation continues at pace. We heard New Zealand parliamentarians talk about the benefits of having bilingual and bilingual sign language interpreters in the chamber of their parliament. We heard from delegates of Bougainville about the hope of independence and how that can be important in preserving culture and managing urbanisation.

I also note that the South Australian parliament were very kind to take us and the South Australian government on a number of tours, including to Bowden where we saw the old Clipsal factory that has turned into a urban renewal project; to Tonsley where the old Mitsubishi car factory is where they have prevented carbon emissions by building within the existing infrastructure on that site, including a TAFE South Australia. It's a fabulous site where they are teaching electrical work and plumbing. And if you want to see a very excited member for Perth at that TAFE you can see it in the report.

Finally, we did have a lovely dinner at the Mortlock wing of the State Library of South Australia, which I learnt claims to be the most beautiful library in Australia. I think definitely when it comes to books and libraries beauty is on the inside not the outside. But it is definitely a beautiful library.

I would like to thank all of the delegates who attended the conference, especially those for whom it was their first time visiting Australia. I would like to say a special thank you to Sarah Fielder, who is in the chamber now, to Jerome Brown and to the South Australian parliament for hosting us all.