Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are all very familiar with the fact that one of the first acts of the Rudd government on coming to office was to ratify the Kyoto protocol, and that reflected the view that the Rudd government formed that it had a mandate to do so following the election last year. But it was a very disturbing development in my view when, without going through what I regard as now well established processes of this parliament, the Rudd government went ahead and ratified the protocol without referring the matter to the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties of the parliament. One of the great innovations of the Howard government during its years of office was to establish the Joint Committee on Treaties and to ensure that every international agreement, every international convention—protocols—came before that committee and received the kind of scrutiny which, prior to the committee being established, was not received. The committee gives members and senators an opportunity to explore in depth the details behind the establishment of an international agreement. If ever there were an international agreement of significance and importance to this country the Kyoto protocol was certainly that particular agreement. I think it is a matter of great shame to the Rudd government that the first act it undertook as a new government was to essentially ignore the treaties committee and to proceed to ratification without giving the treaties committee an opportunity to scrutinise the protocol.

I understand that the protocol is now before the committee, but it is rather belated. It is particularly belated in the context of a government which, through the course of the election campaign, complained about the fact that the standards of propriety and oversight within this parliament had declined. I do not accept that proposition for one moment. But since that was the argument that was put to the electors of Australia during the course of the election, one would have thought that the first thing the Rudd government would have done in relation to its first policy initiative would have been to pay attention to those well-established protocols of the parliament. The treaties committee is an important part of the parliament’s capacity to extend oversight and accountability, and it has worked excessively well during the period it has been in existence. I think that the reports of its activities all confirm that. I think it is a matter of great regret, as I say, that the first thing the Rudd government did was to ignore it, and I hope that that will not become a practice of the Rudd government during the course of its tenure.

Debate (on motion by Senator McEwen) adjourned.