Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like many of the speakers, I was fortunate enough to participate in that bipartisan parliamentary visit to Myanmar earlier this year, and I gained a better understanding of our investments in that country. We were able to meet with a range of ministers, officials and NGOs, and I also explored opportunities for the Northern Territory and Myanmar to strengthen our relationship, not just in terms of trade but in terms of supporting universities and other things. It is very important that we establish strong relationships with countries in our region, particularly those that many countries have had little contact with in recent years. Myanmar is embarking on a process of democratisation but is also—coming from a low base, granted—one of the fastest-growing GDPs in Asia.

I want to touch on some of those strategic issues to do with Myanmar, and why it is important for the Australian government to invest, before I look at some future directions. As far as threats to regional security are concerned, the situation in the Rakhine State may lead to increased refugee push factors and we have also seen that there have been some influences coming into the Rakhine State from the Middle East. There is a risk that people will increase their support to acts of political violence in that border area. It is a concern we should not ignore and we should increase our engagement with the Myanmar military.

Economically, Myanmar has a population of almost 60 million and, as it expands, we have seen Australian companies, like Woodside, work with Myanmar, but any instability will mean its ability to prosper and to use its resources will decline. Geopolitically, Myanmar borders two of the world's biggest powers—China and India—and as world focus continues to be on Asia Myanmar will be right in the thick of it. The stability of Myanmar and its ability to have positive relations with other members of ASEAN is very important and I commend Myanmar and the government of Indonesia for working together through some of these issues. They are some of the reasons we need to continue investing in our relationship with Myanmar.

I thank the Australian Save the Children Foundation organisation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and I thank the professionals on posts with the Department of Foreign Affairs, in Yangon, who looked after us well. The cuts to foreign development assisted by the current federal government are unfortunate because our good work there is being undermined by a lack of resources, particularly at this point in their transition when we need to be supporting them in coming to terms with new power relationships within the state.

We need to be more deeply engaged with not only their military but also with every facet of their government. I am not taking anything away from the work of our program there, on the ground, but we need to look at ways we can improve our military cooperation. There are a number of things we can do and I will be speaking further with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Defence about some of those ideas. We need to recognise that the Myanmar military still plays a leading role in the affairs of that country. They are constitutionally endowed with a lot of power not only in home affairs and border protection but also in the police, who come under home affairs, and defence—those big three key ministries—so that they still run.

I, like the government, welcome Kofi Annan's interim report on recommendations. It is an important process underway in Myanmar and we should continue to support it. In the report there are recommendations around closing camps, reintegrating people and setting up a body to bring people into harmony. They are important recommendations and should be considered. I seek permission to table a copy of Kofi Annan's interim report and recommendations.

Leave granted.

Thank you, and I thank everyone who looked after us on that trip. We have a long way to go but we must increase our engagement with that country.

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