Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the People's Republic of China and to the Republic of Indonesia, which took place from 26 August to 7 September 2012. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I acknowledge, as did the previous speaker in relation to the previous document before the Senate, the work of those who helped prepare for this delegation and also acknowledge my colleagues from both the House and this chamber on the delegation: the delegation leader, the Hon. Alan Griffin; Senator Stephens; and Mr Rowan Ramsey. I also acknowledge the work of the delegation secretary, Mr Peter Stephens, who looked after us on the tour and who has done a great job in having a report—

Senator Chris Evans interjecting—

it was not a bad group—prepared for us to present so quickly after the delegation. It was a significant opportunity to be in China, particularly at about the time of the 40th anniversary of Australia and China relations, which was made quite a bit of during our time in China. It was certainly very much appreciated by our hosts. There was significant discussion not only about the strength of the relationship that has developed over the last 40 years between Australia and China but also about the growth of the Chinese economy and the Chinese community over that period and their development both as an economy and as a nation.

I want to talk about a couple of the elements of the delegation in each of the two countries, particularly the bilateral parliamentary exchange at which we discussed a number of issues. I would like to acknowledge the work that was done both here in preparation for the delegation and also to acknowledge the acceptance of the Chinese side in accepting these particular issues. We obviously talked about bilateral relations, parliamentary exchanges and international and regional cooperation, economic and social development, agricultural cooperation, and investment and trade. We also talked about something that Mr Ramsay and I have a particular interest in: new energy technologies and reducing carbon emissions, food security and the ageing population.

One issue that came up as part of our discussion on agriculture and food security was the reality, as our host put to us, that China has insufficient land and water in respect of its primary production and it needs to deal with this matter. As China says, it has to pay greater attention to environmental protection. These are matters that Australia can work very closely with China on as part of our bilateral relationship. We see the relationship as being about what we can send to them and what we can expect them to buy from us, but there is an enormous amount in respect of services and knowledge that we can exchange with China as part of our relationship. We should be working hard to achieve that.

That bears out in our knowledge and understanding of systems that we are developing in dealing with our ageing society. When you go to China you will see that the numbers are starting to get to a stage where they are significant, almost beyond imagination. China is a nation with 100 million people over 65 years of age—that is, 8.8 per cent of the population. That is set to increase to 20 per cent by 2024 and to 34.5 per cent by 2042.

Members of the National People's Congress suggested that this is an area of social policy where Australia and China could work much more closely together, looking at models for aged care and home-based care, and at social services for the elderly. There are a number of different areas where there is enormous opportunity for our two countries to work very closely together.

As Senator Stephens said in her contribution on the previous report, these delegations give us huge opportunities to see what is happening and to actually experience conditions in those particular countries. There is an old saying: a picture paints a thousand words.

We visited a number of Australian companies that are operating in China. That provided some real insight into the business conditions of operating a business there. We visited Lynch Flowers down in Kunming—and I have visited their Sydney plant since—to see the opportunities they have and the challenges that they face in developing their business in China, and the export-import relationship that exists was quite breathtaking.

We also met with a number of businesses which are operating in Chengdu, in the Sichuan province—Bluescope Steel, Rheem, Circorp, Goodman and Swann Global. To get an understanding of the business issues that they are facing, as they grow and develop their businesses in China, and some of the logistical issues that they have and also the opportunities that exist are really something worth seeing.

There is also the work that has been done with the ANZ Bank, with their back office operations centre. To hear of the number of graduates are coming through in areas that are of interest to them and comparing that to the graduation rates in Australia was also something that was extremely worthwhile.

We had the opportunity in Indonesia to meet with the Australia-Indonesia Friendship Group and have some very frank conversations with them. We also met with their commission 4, which is their agriculture, farming, forestry, fisheries and food agency—again to get a sense of their views around issues of food security, agriculture, growth and the relationship. It was again a very, very valuable experience I think for all of the members of the delegation.

We went out to have a look at some of the forestry issues that are being dealt with in Indonesia at CIFOR, the Centre for International Forestry Research at Bogor. We had a look at the broader issues, the way that those are being developed in that environment. It is an organisation being led by an Australian which is doing a really good job in the work that they are developing in assisting nations with the development of their forest industries—which are very, very important for their economies, I might add—to ensure that there are good management processes and procedures and good infrastructure around the management of their forest industries.

There was also an opportunity, which I think struck all the members of the delegation, up at Pedang to see some of our aid money at work, particularly in the development of some disaster relief work and reconstruction. There was a water program connecting water to local residents who were basically using well water within their houses. The water table was very high but the water was not all that good. The way that the cost to provide water had been subsidised and the impact that it had on the locals' lives was very, very gratifying to see.

We also met a local health clinic. I was a little overwhelmed by the strength of the expression of gratitude towards members of the delegation for the funding that we had put into that particular centre. It was quite confronting to see that the funding that had been provided by Australia was to reconstruct this health centre. The difference that it had made to this community was quite profound. That impact was felt by all of the members.

Can I again thank those that assisted with the preparation of the delegations—our ambassadors in Beijing, Francis Adamson, and, in Jakarta, Mr Greg Moriarty. I also thank my colleagues for the collegiality of the delegation.

Question agreed to.