Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, I present the committee's report entitled Australia's overseas representation: punching below our weight.

In accordance with standing order 39(f) the report was made a parliamentary paper.

This report identifies a chronic underfunding of DFAT over the last three decades which has resulted in a diplomatic network which is seriously deficient and does not reflect Australia's position within the G20 or the OECD. Australia has the smallest diplomatic network of the G20 countries and sits at 25th in comparison to the 34 countries in the OECD. Australia is clearly punching below its weight.

The committee has recommended in this report that a budget priority for overseas representation should be significantly raised because of the benefits that accrue from diplomacy.

In the medium term, Australia should substantially increase the number of its diplomatic posts by at least 20 posts to bring it level with its position in the G20 and the OECD.

In the longer term, funding to DFAT should be increased to a set percentage of gross domestic product sufficient to reflect Australia's standing as a middle power.

There appears to be no overall strategy for Australia's diplomatic engagement with the world or criteria for establishing, continuing or closing diplomatic posts. To address this deficiency, the committee has recommended that the government produce a white paper to set the agenda for Australia's whole-of-government overseas representation.

The committee has received DFAT's priorities for increasing Australia's diplomatic footprint should it receive increased funding, and a number of suggestions from interested parties for opening new diplomatic posts in particular countries. The committee, however, has restricted itself to recommending that there should be additional posts in Asia, and in particular in China and Indonesia.

The committee recognises the valuable activities undertaken abroad by Australia's representatives in promoting Australia's interests, promoting trade opportunities, and through providing consular assistance to Australians abroad.

The committee notes, however, that issues relating to the effect of recent funding cuts on overall effectiveness, resource allocation of any additional funding and the number and performance of locally engaged staff would benefit from further examination and review.

The committee has therefore recommended that there be an external review of DFAT to prepare it for the future, and hopefully the implementation of other recommendations in this report.

The committee has made a number of other recommendations, including funding the ever-increasing demand for consular services from Australians who travel abroad, in part from revenue sources such as increased passport fees and a small tiered levy, structured to take into account those Australians who have taken out travel insurance or who have been unable to obtain travel insurance—that is, particularly, the aged. We have also recommended placing on the COAG agenda discussion of the location, coordination and effective use of state and Commonwealth overseas trade representatives. We have recommended the creation within AusAID of a mediation unit to reduce the potential need for aid and rebuilding assistance and to prevent armed conflict in the region. We have also recommended the establishment of an office of e-diplomacy within DFAT to harness the potential and deal with the challenges of e-diplomacy, particularly in the light of the constantly evolving nature of technology and, in particular, social media.

The operations of our diplomatic network are being challenged by a lack of funding, the growth and development of Australia's economy, the shift of global power towards Asia, the impact of technology and the rising importance of public diplomacy.

This report along with recent reports from the Lowy Institute and, of course, the Asian century white paper highlight the urgent need to rebuild Australia's diplomatic network and enhance our international standing.

Our diplomatic network must be resourced to grow if Australia is to punch above its weight in the world.

In conclusion, I would like to thank all those who provided submissions to the review and who provided evidence at the hearings. I particularly thank the member for Melbourne Ports for his guidance and his active participation in the committee. I also thank the members of the subcommittee and the secretariat, particularly John Carter, Peter Kakogiannis, Jessica Butler and Sonya Gaspar.

I commend the report to the House.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This report of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, Australia’s overseas representation: punching below our weight?, comes at a most opportune time, given that just this weekend the Prime Minister released the Australia in the Asian century white paper. Our report follows earlier inquiries which also identified chronic underfunding of our diplomatic services over a very long period of time. At the moment, DFAT manages 95 overseas posts in 77 countries. It also manages 46 consulates headed by honorary consuls. Of these, 23 are in countries with no other Australian embassies or high commissions.

We have in the past played a very important role in global diplomacy. I refer in particular to the work that was carried out in the fifties and sixties, when we were the major architects of the Antarctic Treaty System. Successive prime ministers then also played important roles in negotiating bans on mineral exploitation and on military activity in the Antarctic. We have done an enormous job in the past with the Security Council of the United Nations. It now seems that we are no longer capable of pulling the weight we should as a middle power—because we are underinvesting in our diplomatic effort. Our inquiry found that, compared with other OECD countries and the G20, Australia's diplomatic representation footprint is amongst the smallest, ranking 25th out of 34 OECD countries. One of the ways our diplomatic posts and DFAT have tried to overcome the shortfalls in funding and in the number of posts is, increasingly, to employ locally engaged staff.

We are concerned, having talked and taken evidence about this in our inquiry, about the relative efficacy and performance of the increasing number of locally-engaged staff who are often employed as a cost-saving measure. We believe that there should be ongoing dialogue with interested parties—for example, the Migration Institute of Australia—given that they are often made aware of issues or concerns about equitable or appropriate treatment of Australian embassy or high commission clients. We need to make sure that, if you come to an Australian embassy or high commission, you are treated in the way that Australians would expect to be treated in Australia when doing business with a public agency.

We took evidence about the sometimes competing or poorly-coordinated actions of state agents-general or other state or territory trade representatives working overseas. We have recommended that COAG discuss the location, coordination and effectiveness of this plethora of often piecemeal representation, which can confuse new markets. Some markets, indeed, are not aware of where our states are located, and, when they are told about competing products or services, this can be to the detriment of the development of our trade rather than support it.

Whilst we have substantially increased our foreign aid budget, and whilst this increase has bipartisan support, it has not been matched by an adequately increased capacity in Australia's network of posts to match the additional funds to ensure best value for money and adequate recognition of Australia's contribution. We need to make sure that as we are increasing this foreign aid budget—as we should and must—we at the same time overcome past problems by ensuring that AusAID, our embassies and our posts can properly manage the additional budget on the ground.

We are very concerned that a lot of our diplomats have to cover a number of countries—in Africa, in particular. We have engaged with some of our superb diplomats whose task is to try to represent Australian in five or six different countries. This is almost an impossible task. I have already mentioned that sometimes we then resort to honorary consulates, which do the best they can, but it is not the same as having Australian diplomatic missions. I commend the report to the House. It is most timely.

Nick Champion (Wakefield, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

Peter Slipper (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 39, the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.