Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to Papua New Guinea which took place from 8 to 13 April 2013, and I seek leave to move a motion to take note of the document.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

In view of the time constraints I will later seek leave to incorporate a speech containing the delegation report. I wanted to make a few additional comments to what will be in the official report. This was an important delegation to a foreign country, but it is—as I often say of PNG—a country which is just five kilometres across the sea from my electorate of the state of Queensland and from the electorate of Leichhardt, held by Mr Entsch in the federal parliament. Mr Entsch; Mr Ewen Jones from Townsville in the electorate of Herbert; Mrs Jane Prentice, the member for Ryan; and I all have a very big interest in PNG because of its closeness to Queensland. The trade and business operations between Queensland and PNG and, indeed, the health issues are relevant both to PNG and to the adjoining Torres Strait Islands and Cape York of Queensland. So this delegation was particularly important and timely. It was led—I might say, very well—by Ms Sharon Grierson, and it included Mrs Jane Prentice, who I have mentioned, and Mr Mike Symon. Our delegation secretary was Stephanie Mikac, and I particularly thank the secretariat for the work they have done in presenting this report.

Drug-resistant TB is a huge issue in PNG and it is also something that is of particular interest to Australia. As our closest neighbour, PNG is a country that we have to support. It is the only other country in which Australia has ever had a colonial administration, and, of course, the ties between Australia and PNG are very close. I often think we do not give PNG the significance and importance it deserves as a nation to which we have a special obligation and a special friendship. It is one of Australia's largest aid recipients and received approximately $500 million in development assistance last financial year.

The delegation had a very busy round of meetings with a wide range of people in PNG including government officials, senior government ministers, other politicians and members of various parliamentary committees. The interaction between the Australian parliament and the PNG parliament was useful to both and I think it was conducive to building further relationships between the two parliaments. I am delighted to say that, since the delegation went to PNG, the Speaker of the PNG parliament has made a visit to the Australian parliament, and that, again, was very useful in building the relationship. My statement, which I will incorporate, highlights some aspects of the report. I want to briefly mention the visit by the committee to both the Bomana War Cemetery, one of the biggest Australian cemeteries of the Second World War—and it was an honour to lay a wreath there—and the Lae War Cemetery.

I was very impressed with the work that an Australian, Sir Mick Curtain, is doing at Motukea in PNG by creating a new port. He is building a dry-dock which will take two Panamax ships at the same time. There is a paucity of dry-docks along the east coast of Australia and, because of the number of ships that pass from the Pacific Ocean through the Torres Strait between Papua New Guinea and Australia on their way to maintenance and repair in Singapore, this operation at Motukea in Port Moresby by Sir Mick Curtain is a great initiative and one that will bring value and jobs to PNG locals. The work being done training young people in trades is very impressive. Indeed, throughout the whole of our visit we saw some very good things being done with education and technical training across a range of areas.

I want to also particularly mention the Lae City Mission, which has a compound just outside Lae and is undertaking marvellous things by providing basic education—reading, writing and arithmetic—to some young people who do not have parents. The young people have never had any sort of education at all and, therefore, are not in a position to work at even the meanest jobs. The Lae City Mission has a proud record because any of the kids who have been at the mission are almost guaranteed of getting a job after two years. The only means of livelihood for most of the kids is to steal, rob, rape and in some cases murder, which has been their life until they go into the mission and, after a couple of years, come out as good citizens. There are a number of different organisations doing the same thing in PNG, but we were particularly impressed with the Lae City Mission.

We were in PNG after the general elections and, certainly, the government seems to be very stable at the present time. The ministers all seem to have a very good handle on their work. The fact that there is a 30-month moratorium on any no-confidence motion in the parliament of PNG does seems to have brought stability to a parliament that did, until recently, have a reputation for instability. That was very pleasing to see.

The mineral wealth of the country is quite obvious. We had a look at the ExxonMobil site and they are helping the PNG people with developing it. There is a lot of other wealth in PNG and, if it is properly managed, it can really make a huge difference to the people of PNG, our closest neighbours.

It was a privilege to have been in the delegation. I know I speak for all of the participants in the delegation in saying what a wonderful exercise it was, how much we felt the benefit of our meetings with people in PNG and how we all hope that this parliamentary delegation is just another step on the path towards much closer and more mutually beneficial relationships between our country and the nation of Papua New Guinea. I commend the report and seek leave to incorporate a tabling statement in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The statement read as follows—

Parliamentary Delegation to Papua New Guinea

Monday, 24 June 2013

Delegation Report

Senator the Hon Ian Macdonald, Deputy Delegation Leader

Mr President, I present the report of the Parliamentary Delegation to Papua New Guinea.

From 8 to 13 of April this year as the Deputy Delegation Leader I participated in the Parliamentary delegation to Papua New Guinea. The purpose of the visit was to allow Australian parliamentarians to engage with the parliament of Papua New Guinea around issues of mutual importance to our longstanding relationship. With Papua New Guinea being one of Australia's largest aid recipients having received approximately $493.2 million in official development assistance this financial year, the delegation also wished to engage with stakeholder organisations and representatives to learn more about the current state of economic and social development in Papua New Guinea and to be informed specifically about programs being delivered in Papua New Guinea by AusAID. As the delegation's visit took place in the lead-up to Anzac Day, the delegation also laid wreaths at the Bomana and Lae War Cemeteries.

The delegation visited the capital, Port Moresby and Lae, the capital of the Morobe Province. At both locations, the delegation met with Government officials, business representatives, and local service providers, in addition to engaging in tours of major infrastructure. Matters discussed during these meetings and tours included: the broader trade, investment and aid program between countries, financial transparency, immigration, parliament-to-parliament assistance, further developing the

The Australian Government is continuing to work with the Government of Papua New Guinea to improve health, education and training, administrative, and law and order outcomes, which in the longer term are expected to yield positive economic results for Papua New Guinea. The delegation believes that progress could be assisted by increased strategic government funding into health and education services and into programs to improve the skill base of its people.

Importantly, the delegation also heard about the work being undertaken to assist victims of gender based violence by one of the eight Family and Sexual Violence Units established across Papua New Guinea as a result of funding from the Australian Government under the Papua New

Guinea Australia Law and Justice Partnership.

In addition, programs to assist in supporting victims of family and sexual violence and programs to assist in women's empowerment are expected to improve societal attitudes and meet global development goals.

There is currently a high level of foreign investment in Papua New Guinea which is expected to make a sustained positive impact on the economy and which the Government of Papua New Guinea is best placed to divest by establishing mechanisms for national wealth sharing.

I would like to thank all those who gave their time to meet with the delegation to discuss issues of mutual interest to Australia and Papua New Guinea. I would also like to thank Her Excellency Deborah Stokes Australian High Commissioner to Papua New Guinea, Ms Margaret Adamson, Deputy Head of Mission and High Commission and AusAID officers who assisted and accompanied the delegation during its visit to Papua New Guinea.

Mr President, I commend the report to the Senate.

Question agreed to.