Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I suppose it is appropriate that tonight we celebrate the United Nations, and I take great pleasure in being able to speak to the motion proposed by the member for Fremantle, who has had a most distinguished career in the United Nations both in New York and in Europe, and who comes to this House with a skill set that no-one else in either chamber can match. We do well to take on board her words tonight especially in regard to the United Nations responsibility to women and children.

It is appropriate that we should take pride in Australia’s part in the formation of the United Nations. We should take pride in the fact that we were part of the crafting of the Declaration of Human Rights. We should take pride in the fact that Dr Evatt was the first president of United Nations. Something that surprised me was that I could find no actual tribute in New York to the man who virtually founded the United Nations. There were lots to the secretaries-general but I could not find anything that honoured him.

As the member for Fremantle said in her resolution tonight, the UN is the only genuinely global organisation that plays a critical role in addressing the global challenges that no single country can resolve on its own, and that is true. That is unquestionably true.

About this time last year I was in the United Nations and I spent the period from mid-September to mid-December as one of this country’s two parliamentary advisers to the UN. My colleague at the time was the former member for Canberra, Annette Ellis. It was truly a marvellous experience to be in New York and to be part of the Australian team.

By embassy standards we do not have a big contingent in New York with only about 30 to 35 diplomats. From mid-September to mid-December the UN General Assembly meets. It is, if you like, the parliament of the UN, the parliament of the world. The concentration of all nations, national leaders and national heads of state are on the UN at that time. It is the time when every nation has to garner what it can in its influence on the direction of world affairs. The work there is not easy. The UN is divided into six committees and I served on three of them—the first committee, which is disarmament; the fourth committee, which is decolonisation; and the sixth committee, which is international and UN law.

As a parliamentary adviser one does not go over there for a junket, or at least Annette Ellis and I did not see it that way. It was full-on work every day—into the Australian Embassy by 8.30 am, down to the UN by 10 am, back to the embassy or to functions in the UN from 2 pm till 3 pm, back to the UN from 3 pm till 6 pm, and sometimes staying on later into the night for functions, lectures and the like. It was full on. Every Monday morning in the embassy everyone had to report on the week that they had just been through and what they had done, and the ambassador dished out the jobs for the coming week. Quite often Annette and I represented the ambassador at functions or events. I asked him once: ‘Why do you send us and not the junior diplomats?’ He said, ‘Some international delegations take it as a greater privilege if we send a member of parliament.’

Australia is quite unique in that it sends two Australian MPs—and you, Mr Deputy Speaker Scott, have been one of them—to bolster the team at the UN during the assembly sittings. Some experts are also brought from government departments here in Canberra, and some of the diplomats from our team in the UN in Geneva also come to New York to build the team up to perhaps about 45 to 50. It is full on the whole time, especially in that fortnight when the world leaders are present.

I was very upset when our current foreign minister, the former Prime Minister, was there. He was scheduled to speak at about half-past seven one night, and we had a rare performance of self-indulgence from the presidents of Iran and Libya, who were expected to speak for 15 or 20 minutes. One went for an hour and I think the other one went for an hour and a quarter. So by the time the Australian Prime Minister got to speak it was 25 to 10 at night and people were going home. I was really insulted as an Australian to see our Prime Minister treated so shabbily. Nevertheless, those are the sorts of things you have got to contend with, and sensitivities are all part of diplomacy.

The quality and calibre of the young diplomats in the Australian mission in New York is quite exemplary. People aged from 25 or 26 through to their late 30s are quite young by international standards, and they take a workload the like of which you have not seen. They are skilled negotiators, even at that age, on the floor of the UN in the committees. I remember one day in particular. I did not even know the significance of the issue, but for many years they had not been able to get the five permanent members of the UN to agree on it. Many countries had tried, but it was the junior Australian diplomats who got all five of the permanent members to agree to the resolution. I can remember one girl coming across, saying, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got China! We’ve got China!’ Then they got Russia and they got someone else. It was considered quite a coup, and I took great pride in seeing them work so effectively.

In those committees of the UN I was very interested in colonisation. I take a great interest in the Pacific Islands and Australia’s external territories and I had been to New Zealand to see what the New Zealand government was doing with regard to its external territories only just before we went to the UN. While we were in New York we went to Washington for four days and got to know what the Americans were doing. It was good to see that Australia measured up very well in that field. But it is interesting to see that Gibraltar is still an issue. The Malvinas, the Falklands, are still an issue, and we have a part to play as Australians in seeing that those things are attended to.

I spoke five times in the UN, once in the General Assembly. I must admit that to stand up at the green marble podium and speak to a plenary session of the General Assembly is quite a daunting exercise. But it was great to know that Australia could tell such a great story, and on that occasion the story was about increasing our aid to Africa by 40 per cent.

Sure, the UN is a good place. It is not beyond criticism. It is excessively bureaucratic. But you really have to ask yourself: if there was not a UN, what would you do about water, sanitation, agriculture, human rights, the protection of women and children? Who would do that?

I will finish on this note. One night I went to a display and there I was confronted with a painting of a woman with one arm hacked off trying to suckle a baby with the other. That left me with a burning impression from the UN, one that will live with me for many years to come.

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