Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 134th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly held at Lusaka, Zambia, from 19 to 23 March 2016. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to that report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

I am pleased to present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation that participated in the 134th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 19 to 23 March 2016. This delegation was led by the Deputy Speaker, the Hon. Bruce Scott MP, and comprised the member for Werriwa, Mr Ferguson, the member for Forrest, Ms Marino, Senator Lines from the Labor Party and me. Once again this was a hardworking and successful delegation. All members of the travelling party played an active role at the various proceedings of the assembly.

The delegation attended all formal sessions of the assembly and its governing council and participated in meetings of the Asia-Pacific and 12-plus geopolitical groups. Our participation in the geopolitical groups allowed members the chance to raise matters with like-minded colleagues and workshop issues before debate in the plenary session. The three key resolutions under consideration at this assembly were: global cooperation to counter terrorism and protect democracy, protecting cultural heritage and the freedom of women to participate in the political process fully and safely. I should add with great pride that this last resolution was proposed by the Australian delegation at the last IPU Assembly in Geneva last year.

During the assembly Mr Scott participated in the general debate on the topic of rejuvenating democracy and explained the various measures that organisations, such as the Australian Electoral Commission and the Parliamentary Education Office, are undertaking to ensure that the next generation of Australians are ready to participate in our democratic processes. This is particularly topical in an election year in Australia.

Another important business item of the assembly involved two sessions of the Meeting of Women Parliamentarians, which Senator Lines attended.

Once again, the delegation participated in the work of the various standing committees. Senator Lines was a panellist at the proceedings of the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights as it considered a resolution, originally proposed by an earlier Australian delegation in 2015, on the participation of women in the political process. The member for Werriwa, Mr Ferguson, attended the four sittings of the Standing Committee on Peace and International Security as it debated and drafted a resolution on terrorism. In recent times, the Australian delegation has played a lead role on the Standing Committee on Sustainable Development, Finance and Trade. Once again, the member for Forrest, Ms Marino, continued her work as a member of the steering group for that standing committee and chaired an extended drafting session on a complex resolution concerning the protection of cultural heritage.

In addition to the formal program, IPU assemblies offer the chance to meet with a wide range of representatives from other parliaments and international organisations. On this occasion, in addition to many informal discussions, Senator Lines and I had a meeting with the Fijian delegation and received an update on recovery efforts since parts of the country were devastated by Cyclone Winston in February this year.

This was my third opportunity to participate in the Australian delegation to the IPU during the 44th Parliament. While any gathering involving more than 600 parliamentarians speaking a wide range of languages will present logistical challenges, I have found these meetings to be interesting and worthwhile. Above all, the IPU Assembly fosters an understanding of different parliamentary models and strengthens parliament-to-parliament relationships.

On behalf of the Australian travelling party, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this successful delegation. In particular I wish to acknowledge the support provided by the Australian Deputy High Commissioner to Zambia, Mr Joel McGregor, who provided a wide range of practical support and local advice to the delegation while we were in Lusaka. His Canberra based colleagues at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Mr Matthew Neuhaus and Ms Natalie Boyes, also provided detailed and useful briefings to the delegation.

I would like to extend the delegation's thanks to the staff of the Parliamentary Library for providing comprehensive and timely briefing materials prior to departure, and to staff in the International and Parliamentary Relations Office for their support. I would also like to extend my thanks to the representatives of the Department of the Senate and the Department of the House of Representatives who accompanied us on this trip. They were exemplary in their advice and their coordination of it.

Finally, I am happy to advise the Senate that the Australian delegation is highly regarded by a range of people associated with the Inter-Parliamentary Union, and this is due to the hard work, cooperation and good humour of my fellow delegates. I commend the report to the Senate.

Sue Lines (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Senator Bernardi outlined, I too was a delegation member to the IPU Assembly. It was also the third time I have attended IPU meetings. They take a little bit of getting used to, but the assembly is a really important group for Australia to participate in. It is the only organisation where parliamentarians actually come together.

As a member of the Labor Party, I am partisan with my politics. I am sure that would come as no surprise to anyone—though I can see Senator Bernardi shaking his head in disbelief over there. But this is a chance where as a delegation we put politics to one side and work together. Even though we might be a very long way apart on some major issues amongst us, it is an opportunity for us to work together as parliamentary colleagues. We see that right across the IPU.

I would also, as Senator Bernardi has done, sincerely thank those who support us, in particular those from the Australian parliament, both from the Senate and the House of Representatives. We are well supported. There are many countries there that do not have that sort of support. To have people from the Senate and the House of Representatives whose knowledge you can rely on, who are very thorough and who work many more hours than we do is an absolute credit to the way that our democracy works and the way the Australian parliament works. Our embassy staff also worked incredibly hard to brief us. We got good briefings before we left and once we were in Zambia. Again, it is an opportunity for us as politicians to see how hard our embassy and consular staff work. Nothing was too much trouble.

This year we continued with a motion we put up at the last IPU in Vietnam, where we talked about the representation of women in the member parliaments of the IPU. I am pleased to say it is something that the IPU takes very seriously. Countries that do not have women among their delegation are penalised in their voting and so on. This time we looked at how we could increase the representation of women parliamentarians across the world. The work that we have done here, or that I have done in particular, will form part of the motion that Australia will pursue in Geneva. That initial motion was initiated by the government and this time was picked up by me—again, it really shows how we can work in a bipartisan way that I do not often see in this place. We, as the Australian delegation, have put together a motion in partnership with Kenya on how we look at increasing the participation of women across the world.

In the session where I was the rapporteur it was incredible to hear of the struggles of women right across the world. It was also somewhat ironic—and I did draw it to the men's attention—that we had countries with all-male delegations telling us how we needed to improve the participation of women. I think they need to hold a mirror up and have a good look at where they are going with that.

It was really interesting to hear how women struggle; for example, in Tibet. Something that stops women participating there is that people have to travel across rugged terrain to boarding schools, which in the past had boarding facilities only for males. Women were not even able to get to school. It was an incredible insight for me to hear firsthand how countries are really challenging the lack of representation of women and to hear, too, how countries you would not expect were tackling the notion that it is a woman's role to remain at home with children; that they were saying: 'No, that is not really what we want. We want to see much better participation.'

I look forward to whoever is on the next delegation taking that motion forward.

Question agreed to.