Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Before I move on to an issue I should correct the record. At no stage have I accused any representative of the minister’s department of fraud. I prefaced my previous question by saying it was based distinctly on raising an issue not of integrity or honesty but simply of systems failures. The minister’s final response to the question started to go in that direction. I should indicate to the minister that I have read the report. I have put a number of questions on the Notice Paper as a result of having read the report and there will be more to come. They will focus specifically on the issue of systems failures: why information was received at certain levels and why it was not communicated up the chain. I would have thought from the process of administrative effectiveness that the minister would want to have known why that did not occur. Stepping perhaps beyond my brief in my next question, I thought it appropriate to place that on the record.

Our engagement in the Asia-Pacific region is an important issue for both sides of politics. I have a number of questions. Has the minister’s department considered placing a permanent representative with the United States Joint Interagency Task Force West? Have there been any discussions with the Federal Police, for instance, about placing a Federal Police officer with that agency? Both the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Honolulu and the East-West Center would relish the opportunity to have Australian representatives on staff. Has consideration been given to that so that we can work more closely with the issues of governance capacity building in our region? Is there concern that it appears that East Timor is developing its future military intentions without participation or sufficient input from Australia? Again, without being judgemental from afar, there seems to be a lack of effectiveness in our relationships with the Solomons and Fiji. Has there been any review as to how we might develop a different mode of operating so that we could be more effective in our operations?

There is a reference in the budget papers on page 200 to the development of multilateral initiatives. Given the minister’s attempted canning of me a couple of days ago for suggesting that Australia should take an approach to multilateral issues, how does he justify that line item? Finally, in terms of disaster response, just what measures are we taking in respect to, for instance, the threat of bird flu? Are we assisting Indonesia to develop vaccines, both for chickens and people? What are we doing to plan for the evacuation of nationals? What are we doing to plan for the protection of first responders? Indeed, what are we doing to plan for a transit point to take evacuees prior to their return to Australia in order to check them for disease? In response to the Asian tsunami, has any analysis been undertaken by Australian authorities of the massive and substantial aid response—that is recognised—and how that could have been improved? They are issues that we would like to focus on. I appreciate that in the time available it may be difficult to respond to all of these questions, but perhaps the minister could do so at a subsequent time if he is able.

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