Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to provide a brief oral report to the parliament on the Parliamentary Delegation to the United Nations undertaken last year.

Leave granted.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

Last year, the member for Gippsland and I were privileged to represent this parliament at the annual proceedings of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. It really is, I think it's fair to say, one of the more extraordinary delegations and one of the more extraordinary opportunities that a member of this parliament has an opportunity to be part of. He will provide his own report, but I know I can say on behalf of both of us that we are incredibly grateful to have had that opportunity and to have played a part in representing Australia at the United Nations.

It's worth remembering—and Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong, noted this in her country statement to High-Level Week when we were there, that Australia is one of the founding members of the United Nations. In fact, our country played a prominent role in the negotiation of the UN Charter in 1945, for which we owe a debt to Doc Evatt, for his role in that as the head of Australia's delegation, and to William Hodgson, who was the Australian ambassador. We were one of eight nations involved in drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Australia has a really proud history of involvement well above our population, well above what some might think is our status internationally, at the United Nations, and it's that involvement which actually means that our international status traditionally has been regarded as one of the important countries in multilateral actions and treaties despite where we are at the bottom of the globe—or the top of the globe, depending on where we are in the rotation—and the population of our country.

So it was with honour that the first thing we got to do as the delegation was to participate in High-Level Week, which is a very UN named week, where prime ministers, presidents, foreign ministers—high-level representatives of every member country—make a statement on behalf of their country. The member for Gippsland and I got to play a small but, we think, incredibly important part in the government's agenda to step up Australia's engagement with our Pacific and ASEAN neighbours and friends during that time. We did meet, get photographs with and shake hands with prime ministers, presidents and foreign ministers from countries in the Pacific island areas and ASEAN—so much so that the member for Gippsland and I may have started referring to that week as 'Peta and Darren's Excellent Adventure Across the Pacific Islands and ASEAN'! But it was a privilege to be there on the floor of the General Assembly, talking to our friends from other countries on behalf of Australia and reiterating Australia's commitment to a number of really important policies for us and for our neighbours, not the least of which was about climate change. It was also a privilege to be there with Senator Pat Dodson to talk about recognition of Indigenous Australians and the important role that that sort of recognition is playing in countries around the world. For me, the highlight of High-Level Week, of course, was being there when our foreign minister, Penny Wong, gave Australia's address. If anyone hasn't had the opportunity to read that or see that, I recommend it, because it shows how important Australia's engagement with the rest of the world is.

I won't take up too much time of the chamber's time. I do want to talk about some of the highlights, but I want to thank Australian Ambassador to the UN Mitch Fifield for his hospitality and Australia's then consul-general to New York, Nick Greiner, for the educative and enjoyable trip that he took the member for Gippsland, his wife, me and my husband on to West Point. It's actually quite disappointing now that, when Darren Chester and I walk into a room, we don't get greeted the way we got treated by the cadets at West Point. That will never happen again. It was quite amazing.

Alice Volkov at the mission had the unenviable task of coordinating the member for Gippsland and myself in our activities. I wanted to thank Yunei Kim who did Australia's representation at the Third Committee. She did a lot of human rights work, and I did work with her and had the privilege and the opportunity to present Australia's statement on protecting children from sexual exploitation, particularly online, and on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Being involved in the work of the Third Committee again just emphasised some of the commonalities around the world of the issues that we face and how we don't need to think, in Australia, that we can solve them on our own. We are part of a world and a United Nations where we're working towards predominantly the same thing.

I want to give a special acknowledgement to Milli Allan who chaired on behalf of Australia with Costa Rica the renegotiation of the motion on a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty. She did an amazing job in the face of some pretty tough negotiating tactics from countries that wanted to keep, and are keeping, the death penalty. Ultimately, on the 15th anniversary since that motion was first adopted by the United Nations, the General Assembly re-adopted the resolution with the historic majority of two-thirds. Australia can be very proud of Milli and everyone who worked on that.

I also want to thank everyone at the Australian embassy in Washington where the member for Gippsland and I had three or four days. The member for Gippsland accompanied me to think tanks focusing on things like women's equality at work, and I accompanied the member for Gippsland to meetings about improving the lives of veterans. I think we both learnt more about the topics that we had been working on, and we also learnt more about each other's interests in an incredibly beneficial way by doing that together.

It was a whirlwind lead-up to both of us going to New York, which was no-one's fault. It was due to COVID, an election in May and various other things. One thing I did notice was the lack of us as parliamentarians, DFAT, the parliamentary travel office and the mission in New York being able to prepare for us being there. That meant that perhaps we didn't get quite the involvement that we otherwise could have, and the mission didn't perhaps get quite the use out of us that they otherwise could have. So, on behalf of whoever it is that gets the opportunity to go this year, I urge that that decision be made as early as possible and that preparatory work be done to enhance opportunities. We had extraordinary opportunities, but I think there are more.

We were there at a time when the Security Council and the General Assembly were debating the issue of Russia and the Ukraine. It was an extraordinary time to be there and see how that body was dealing with an illegal and unwarranted war. We were there at a time when a lot of the debate in a lot of the committees focused on why we aren't hitting the targets for the sustainable development goals, particularly climate change, and how that is impacting the most vulnerable people and communities around the world the most and what, as a world, we can do about it. They are just some of the things that we were able to learn about and be part of over there. It was an invaluable experience, and I'm sure the member for Gippsland and I will bring back some of the things we learned and saw to contribute to this parliament and to our communities. I know I already have.

I just want to finish—I did say I would be brief, but I never am—by thanking the member for Gippsland, Darren Chester, and his unarguably better half, Julie, for their friendship. Darren and I knew each other a little bit before we went, but, over the time that we were there, I believe Darren and Julie became good friends to me and my husband, Rod. They were very generous. They cooked us a meal once a week to make sure that we had a home-cooked meal. The way they looked after the younger staff at the mission and took them under their wing was incredible to watch. I think it was because Julie missed her own children—I'm sure it was—but it was also because they are two people who cared about the welfare of young Australians in New York working for the Australian government, and it was an immense credit to them the way they looked after the young employees. I'm very grateful to have had those two as our travel companions and to have the member for Gippsland as the person I went to events and worked with at the United Nations. It enriched the time my husband, Rod Glover, and I had over there and I learned a lot from them.

Finally, to Fiona Webster, the deputy chief of mission, thank you for your support over there, for your hospitality for us, and for the message I have yet to respond to noting that you and your husband finally knocked off the rest of that bottle of gin that I left you at the last dinner before we came home. I thank the parliament again for the opportunity. Good luck to whichever two lucky people get to go this year.

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