Kim Carr (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Science) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the United Kingdom and Germany, which took place from 26 October to 5 November 2015. I seek leave to note the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

It was a privilege to be the deputy leader of the delegation, which comprised the member for Brisbane, Ms Teresa Gambaro, who was the delegation leader; the member for Parkes, Mr Mark Coulton; and Senator Fawcett, who is in the chamber here today.

Before I get to the substance of the issue, I wish to record our appreciation for the work that went into preparing for the visit, including the arrangements made by the Australian parliamentary International and Parliamentary Relations Office, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association UK Branch, officials from the Scottish parliament and the administration of the German Bundestag. I also thank the Australian diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom and Germany for their work in developing programs and their excellent support during the visit.

The European project, which has developed since 1957, I think is one of the great achievements of modern time. It is of some concern, though, that the recent developments within Europe have put that great project at risk. Recent evidence is the regional elections in Germany, which took place last weekend, where the far right nationalist party, the Alternative for Germany—or AfD—carved into the vote of the ruling Christian Democratic Union. More than half of Germany's 16 state parliaments now have AfD representation.

The context of the AfD's rise is part of the biggest migration crisis we have seen since the Second World War. More than a million people entered Germany alone in 2015. Eighty per cent of them were from Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan. At the time of our delegation visit in November, 1,200 people a week were arriving in Germany. With 6½ million people displaced from Syria alone, the flow of asylum seekers is not likely to be diminished anytime soon.

The AfD opposes the open border policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which it claims will result in the Islamisation of Germany. We have heard similar rhetoric in the far right of British politics. We have seen this with UKIP, and we have seen it in other countries within the European Union as well.

In the UK, the UK Independence Party has risen to a mixture of Islamophobia, resentment of migrants who settle in the United Kingdom and hostility to the British membership of the European Union. In last year's general election, UKIP received 3.8 million votes, almost 13 per cent of the total and an increase of more than nine per cent on the vote in the previous elections. This was the largest increase of any British political party, although UKIP won only one seat because of the British electoral system itself.

There is fear of losing more than just votes if UKIP is able to develop its agenda any further. It is very much the concern of the British Conservative Party that the Cameron government will hold a referendum on 23 June to decide whether or not Britain remains part of the European Union. While leaders of the major political parties of Labour and the conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish nationalists all favour staying within the European Union, the support for British exit is substantial—according to most recent polls, at least one in three voters in the United Kingdom. During our visit we did have the opportunity to meet with parliamentary supporters and opponents of the British engagement in the European Union.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the questions of the British engagement with the European Union are really not just about the advantages or disadvantages for voters but about the very existence of the European Union itself. Of course, there are now really serious risks emerging about that whole European project. The most toxic forms we have seen are actions on the east of Europe with various governments around the issue of migration, questioning the very fundamental, underlying principles of human rights that have been such an important part of the European experience.

This was a very worthwhile trip and exposed us to a range of issues which I think are worth considering in detail. I commend the report to the chamber.

Question agreed to.