Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I wish to briefly add to the remarks of the member for

I did want to emphasise particularly the opportunity that I had to speak of the activities of this parliament—through the subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade —in taking up the plight of those members of parliament who, from time to time, are charged inappropriately and sometimes tortured, and some who lose their lives. This parliament is one of the few around the world that has a structured approach to following up the inquiries that the IPU makes on behalf of parliamentary colleagues who suffer this fate. To be able to report on it in the parliament in the detailed way that we did, I think, brought great credit to this parliament and to Australia, because I do not think that the same structured approach is necessarily undertaken in too many other countries.

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