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

About 10 days ago I had the privilege of travelling to the Kingdom of Morocco with three of my colleagues as a guest of the Moroccan government—one of the most stable, multicultural and democratic countries amongst the Arab states.

The purpose of our visit was firstly to further even closer relationships between the Australian and Moroccan parliamentary friendship groups. The Australia group is facilitated by the very hardworking ambassador for Morocco, His Excellency Mohamed Mael-Ainin. We met with our counterparts from the Moroccan parliamentary friendship group in Rabat and learned much from them. We also had very frank and fruitful exchanges with the Moroccan human rights commission and those working with the Western Sahara's development.

The second purpose of our week-long stay was to gain a better firsthand understanding of the Western Sahara communities and the issue of the establishment of a new autonomous state. We flew to the main population centre of the Western Sahara, Laayoune, and there, in glorious weather, became familiar with their industries and burgeoning development: the sardine factories, the desalination plants ensuring potable water, the ports, the phosphate mines and the salt exports. We also became familiar with the significant new investments in social infrastructure: new schools, higher education institutions, libraries, sports facilities, public gardens and transport.

We were disappointed to hear that Western Sahara families and individuals in long-established camps near Tindouf in Algeria remain unable to travel freely or to resettle, including back into their home communities in Morocco. This is an issue that should be resolved. I want to thank the government and the people of Morocco for their great generosity and friendship, as they strive to be an island of peace, tolerance and democracy at a time of great instability and abuse of human rights in their region.