Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Recently, my dear friend, Senator Glenn Sterle, and I undertook a delegation to the United Nations, where both of us were very keen to understand how we could explain to our constituents why the UN matters to them directly.

There was a time when the UN's purpose was very clear. Following the Second World War, the decolonisation of Africa and maintaining peace in Europe was their No. 1 focus. Having spoken with so many people at the UN, it was very clear that their focus is now towards reform of the UN itself. That is an important reform to be done.

One of the observations I'd bring back—and it's important for us to understand—is that the structure of the UN is largely the same as it was in the 1950s. For anyone who has worked in management consulting or seen restructures in recent years—goodness me, in my 20 years of engineering, the changes that have occurred have been significant in that period.

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