Patrick Secker (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I was honoured to attend the 118th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union as a member of the Australian delegation to Cape Town, Republic of South Africa in April of this year and then to further participate in the bilateral visit to Jordan. The delegation was certainly very ably led by the Speaker of the House, Harry Jenkins.

I have been asked in the past: what is the IPU? I suppose it could be described as the equivalent of the United Nations for members of parliament. Although it obviously does not meet as often as the United Nations it has a similar role in many areas. The assembly was inaugurated on 13 April in the presence of His Excellency the President of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Thabo Mbeki. Delegations from the parliaments of 130 countries took part in the work of the assembly, with observers from a range of organisations such as the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the OHCHR; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; the United National Children’s Fund, UNICEF; and others.

It was particularly inspiring to note delegations from the parliaments of Malawi, Swaziland and the United States of America, who participated as observers with a view to considering further affiliation with the IPU. Of the 1,467 delegates who attended the assembly, 700 of us were members of national parliaments. The parliamentarians included 51 presiding officers, 42 deputy presiding officers and 196 women.

On the first day the assembly observed a minute of silence to honour the memory of several political leaders killed in recent months as a result of political violence. That is certainly something that we in Australia do not really think much about because we do not generally have assassinations in this country, although we had one in New South Wales. I think that has been the only assassination in Australia’s history.

The overall theme of the assembly was ‘Pushing back the frontiers of poverty’. One of the keynote speakers, Ms Yassine Fall, a senior economist at the United Nations Development Fund for Women, said that poverty was a complex topic and a great challenge. I recall Ms Fall saying that it was women worldwide who bore the brunt of, and were responsible for dealing with, the consequences of food, water and other shortages. She went on to say that at no time in history had so many resources been available to end poverty and that although some countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America were experiencing growth, millions of people were not benefiting. Ms Fall urged the assembly to view poverty as the responsibility of parliaments as well as governments and reminded us that fighting poverty involved fighting inequality and upholding the rights of individuals.

On Tuesday, 15 April, the assembly was addressed by the Prince of Orange, His Royal Highness Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Chair of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, and Mr Valli Moosa, President of the International Union for Conservation and Nature. His Royal Highness Prince Willem-Alexander recalled that 10 years ago the IPU had adopted a resolution on water and the means required to make the best use of that resource for sustainable development. He went on to say that 7,500 people were still dying every day because they lacked access to clean water and sanitation. Whilst we have problems in Australia with water supply, I think people would recognise that it is nothing in comparison with what some other countries are going through. He noted that there is still a long way to go, and in light of those sobering statistics I wholeheartedly agree with him. Even if the Millennium Development Goals were achieved, more than one billion people would still have no access to basic sanitation. His Royal Highness was confident that the challenges could be met by working together. Later that day Dr Francisco Songane, Director of the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, addressed the assembly and said that the IPU member parliaments should play a substantial leadership role.

It was certainly an interesting time to be in South Africa, given that neighbouring Zimbabwe had not released the results of their elections more than two weeks after the people of Zimbabwe had cast their votes. For a large part of the assembly, up until the Speaker of the Republic of South Africa raised it, it was the elephant in the room that nobody wanted to talk about. Indeed, at the closing sitting the president of the assembly read out the declaration on the situation in Zimbabwe which had been prepared by a working group at the assembly.

At the end of the IPU, I was equally honoured to participate in the bilateral visit to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Jordan is a constitutional monarchy consisting of a bicameral parliament with a lower House of Representatives and a Senate. The 110 members of the House are elected with a number of seats being reserved for women and for various religions and ethnicities. The Senate’s 55 members are appointed by the King. Whilst the Senate is similar to the Australian parliament, it has half the numbers of the House of Representatives. They are appointed much more like the Canadian parliament and the British parliament. Political parties were legalised in Jordan only in 1992 and political reform has been a priority of the government in the last few years. I think they have come a long way in a relatively short time and have done a very good job in bringing democracy to Jordan.

With my keen interest in parliamentary committees and the value I hold of these in the workings of parliament, it was interesting to learn that in Jordan all proposed laws are referred to relevant committees for inquiry and report, and ministers attend these meetings to explain the proposed law. I think it would be wonderful if we took that procedure up in the Australian parliament.

I was particularly honoured to attend an Anzac Day dawn service commemorating the landing at Gallipoli 93 years ago. This year, 2008, also marks the 90th anniversary of military engagements of Anzac troops in and around Amman in 1918. The service was held in the grounds of the Amman Citadel in the area of the Roman temple directly overlooking downtown Amman. It was quite an extraordinary experience to be part of that dawn service in such a place of reverence. I note the Chief Government Whip has entered the room and he would certainly agree with me how that special commemoration of the Anzac Day dawn service made us feel as Australians in that special place in Amman.

I valued the opportunity to meet with international members of parliament and it was further an honour to meet with the Prime Minister, Mr Nader Dahabi, with the President of the Senate, His Excellency Zaid Rifai, and with His Excellency, Abdul al-Majali, Speaker of the Jordanian Parliament. The delegation’s visit to Jordan and Cape Town was highly educative and informative. It certainly gave me a greater understanding of its history and the dynamics of the complex challenges that impact on the peoples in troubled or impoverished parts of the world.

We did have the opportunity of visiting the Dead Sea. It was, again, a very interesting experience and I have to say we have a parallel in Australia. It is called the Coorong, unfortunately referred to several times yesterday by the Prime Minister as the Coorong lakes. In my whole life, I have never heard the Coorong called the Coorong lakes. I think the Prime Minister was getting it confused with the Coorong and the Lower Lakes. They are two quite separate problems in my electorate and there are two quite separate solutions. They are not very much related to each other.

I noted there was a proposal to dig quite a large channel to refresh the Dead Sea with sea water and I have actually proposed that for the Coorong—without much success I might add. It is interesting that they were not only looking at refreshing the Dead Sea, which is falling in its level as every day passes, but also using the fact that it is about 200 metres below sea level to produce hydroelectricity. I am interested to see how they approach that and how successful they are.

It certainly was very interesting to look at the problem that they have with the Dead Sea and to see the West Bank over on the other side of the Dead Sea, which showed how important Jordan is to the whole Middle East area because it is surrounded by Iraq, Iran, Syria and so on. It is quite an interesting place to be. I have to say I was very impressed with the country and felt quite safe when walking the streets.

I congratulate the members of the group ably led by Mr Harry Jenkins and also the deputy leader, the Hon. Danna Vale, the member for Hughes, Ms Jill Hall, the member for Shortland, and Mr Roger Price, the Government Whip. There were many highlights of the work. I would particularly congratulate Ms Hall on being elected to her position which is ongoing. Well done! She made a great contribution to the delegation and to the IPU conference. Thank you again to the Australian parliament for giving me the opportunity to be part of a wonderful delegation that was very much working towards Australia’s future and the future of the globe and, with the trip to Jordan, our interests there as well.

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