Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories, I present two reports: Interim report: Inquiry into availability and access to enabling communications infrastructure in Australia's external territoriesand Interim report: Inquiry into economic, social and environmental sustainability in the Indian Oceans Territories.

Reports made parliamentary papers in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—These two interim reports from the Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories provide an update on two inquiries: the inquiry into availability and access to enabling communications infrastructure in Australia's external territories, and the inquiry into economic, social and environmental sustainability in the Indian Ocean Territories.

During these inquiries, the committee made every effort to travel to Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Norfolk Island to gather evidence. Holding public hearings and conducting site inspections are essential for committee members to fully understand the issues relevant to the terms of reference. Domestic travel interruptions meant that our repeated attempts to travel were unsuccessful, and the committee, sadly, was unable to complete the inquiries as planned. Given this situation, the committee has not attempted to present substantive reports. Instead, the committee has adopted two interim reports that recommend both inquiries be restarted in the next parliament, when, hopefully, circumstances will allow them to be properly completed. I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to prepare submissions and to assist with visits that, regrettably, did not go ahead as planned.

Luckily, though, in the past fortnight, I've had the great honour of being able to visit both the Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Christmas Island and to talk to the communities about the issues involved in these committee inquiries, and I report to the parliament that there are significant issues around failing communications in the Indian Ocean territories, particularly on the Cocos islands. There is no mobile phone service on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Unless you've got access to wi-fi on the island, you can't use your Telstra connection or Optus or any other mobile service on the islands. It's a serious issue which requires immediate attention. I note that the Department of Defence has just brought onshore a cable, which should be reticulated across the island for the benefit of the whole community, not just Defence, and that's an issue which I would hope this committee would look at if it gets a referral in the next parliament.

On the issue of economic and environmental sustainability in the Indian Ocean territories, a huge issue is the cost of freight, and the prices of sea freight are to increase by as much as, we understand, 30 per cent. That makes the cost of doing business and the cost of living in the Indian Ocean territories extraordinarily high.

I want to reference some issues which this government has, I think, achieved good results in—in particular, the creation of marine parks around the Cocos islands and Christmas Island. That's a very good result. They've set up fishing reference groups from those two communities, which is very important and will lead to the sustainable access to the fishery on both of those island territories.

There are, however, some significant issues which need to be addressed, one of which is the role and the accountability of the Indian Ocean Territories Regional Development Organisation, which, oddly, has no formal representation from the Christmas Island shire council, which is responsible, obviously, for the planning and development of the Christmas Island community. It is not on the regional development organisation, and that's a major disappointment. There are some major community facility upgrades that need to take place, particularly in relation to the port. Money was made available four years ago by this government. The work has failed to take place. There are buoy moorings which are inadequate and need to be fixed. Both Smith Point and Flying Fish Cove have a crane which is not of much use in terms of the importance of access to the islands.

Again, it's been a great privilege to be on this committee and to work with those people from across the parliament, both in the Senate and in the House of Representatives, who contributed their time to participate. It's been my great privilege to represent the people of the Indian Ocean territories in this parliament since 1987. They are wonderful people. They need more attention from this parliament. As with my comments earlier, the recommendations from various reports which have been made in relation to economic development, sustainability and environment, particularly on Christmas and Cocos islands, have not been acted upon, and they should be. I commend the report to the House, and I move:

That the House take note of each report.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) | 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.