Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties I present the committee's report, Report 153: treaties tabled on 16 June 2015 and 23 June 2015.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—The report contains the committee's views on three treaty actions, the agreement between Australia and the European Union Establishing a Framework for the Participation of Australia in European Union Crisis Management Operations;    The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for People who are Blind, Visually Impaired or otherwise Print Disabled; and·The Ratification of the Decisions of the 2012 Doha Congress of the Universal Postal Union.

The first of these treaty actions is an agreement between Australia and the European Union to allow for Australia's participation in future crisis management actions undertaken by the EU. Australia and the EU have in the past made joint contributions to peace-keeping and peace-building operations. For example, Australia participated in an EU maritime security capacity-building mission for the Horn of Africa.

In the past, each joint activity had to be negotiated separately. Under this agreement, the framework is put in place for Australia to participate in any future operations; making our participation quicker and easier to manage.

This agreement is an important part of improving Australia's bilateral cooperation with the EU on security and development issues. The agreement does not oblige Australia to participate in any particular operation.

Each decision to participate is made on a case-by-case basis. However, the agreement sets out the basic terms and conditions under which Australia's participation would occur.

The second treaty action, the Marrakesh treaty, is intended to make books and other printed materials available in formats accessible to a person with a print disability, while balancing the commercial interests of the copyright holders. Australia's current copyright law has exemptions for creating accessible material.

In Australia, declared organisations are able to legally reproduce copyrighted work in an accessible format. The Marrakesh treaty will create an international framework similar to Australia's current law. Although no domestic legislative changes are needed to implement this treaty, the committee is pleased to note that the legislative amendment is being considered in order to simplify and clarify this area of copyright law.

The third treaty action is in relation to the movement of international mail. The Universal Postal Union is a specialised organisation of the United Nations, which sets the operational rules for international mail. This treaty action makes a number of changes to the way in which international postal organisations agree to work together. This includes improvements to technology, such as processing new materials used in stamp manufacture and enabling the exchange of electronic postal services.

The changes also include definitions of personal data, which make the international postal standards similar to those contained in Australia's domestic privacy legislation.

The committee supports the ratification of these three treaty actions and recommends that binding treaty action be taken. On behalf of the committee, I commend the report to the House.