Hollie Hughes (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 144th Interparliamentary Union Assembly in Nusa Dua, Indonesia, which took place from 20 to 24 March 2022. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report .

In March of this year I attended the 144th Assembly of the Interparliamentary Union, or IPU, which took place in Nusa Dua, Bali. I attended with Senator O'Neill. I note that both of us attended the conference slightly late due, in part, to the passing of Senator Kitching, which enabled Senator O'Neill to attend the funeral before joining me in Indonesia. The overwhelming theme of the assembly was 'Getting to zero: Mobilising parliaments to act on climate change'. However, whilst that was the official theme of the IPU, what was incredibly apparent and what dominated much of the official proceedings—which were attended by 778 delegates, 404 of whom were parliamentarians, representing 101 member parliaments—was that we were there to look at, discuss and come together with regard to Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine. Belarus and Russia were not in attendance at the conference. Ukraine was also not represented, but we did have a presentation from one of the Ukrainian ministers, expressing their thanks for our support.

Both Senator O'Neill and I spoke in the debate on the emergency resolution that was adopted by the assembly in relation to the war in Ukraine. The motion called for 'peaceful resolution of the war in Ukraine, respecting international law, the Charter of the United Nations and territorial integrity'. The item was submitted by New Zealand and their delegate lead, Louisa Wall, who, whilst a member of the Labour Party in New Zealand, was an absolutely outstanding delegate and person. She has unfortunately now left the New Zealand parliament. When I spoke to the general assembly on the Ukrainian war, Australia, through me, was the first nation—and I think potentially the only nation—to directly call out China for its complete lack of condemnation when it came to the illegal invasion.

The assembly also adopted a number of reports, as it's required to do each time it meets. They included reports on financial results and communication strategies for the IPU moving forward. We also, as Australia, participated in the Twelve Plus geopolitical group. We met a number of times around the conference, and this was very much around coming to an agreement on the wording of the motion that was put as an emergency item with regard to the war in Ukraine.

Senator O'Neil and I, as the Australian delegation, together with the British and New Zealand delegations, went to the memorial at the site of the Bali bombing. I had actually never been to Bali before, let alone to Kuta, and to see where this bombing occurred—the tightness of the space—was absolutely horrific, imagining what would have occurred on that terrible, terrible night when so many Australians, New Zealanders and British citizens lost their lives.

We held a number of bilateral meetings while we were there. We had a fabulous bilateral with Israel, particularly with Avi Dicter. Harriett Baldwin, from the UK, was an outstanding delegation leader, as was—as I said—Louisa Wall from New Zealand, who was accompanied by Nationals member Scott Simpson. Some of the importance of these things is also in the relationships you develop with your international parliamentary colleagues, and I would like to give a shout-out to Silje Hjemdal, from Norway and Michelle Muentefering, from Germany, who were colleagues that it was wonderful to meet and discuss issues with in Bali, and we have stayed in contact. Silje, as a libertarian, has a very interesting Instagram account worth following.

Overwhelmingly it was an incredible conference to be part of, and I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to lead the Australian delegation and be part of the contribution that the IPU makes in bringing parliaments together across the world.

Question agreed to.