John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to speak for 20 minutes.

Leave granted.

Tonight I want to take the opportunity to speak about the Australian Labor Party’s participation in the Australian Political Parties for Democracy, APPD, program. I do so because I believe accountability and transparency in such programs is essential. The APPD program was established by the Australian government in 2006. Funding for the program is set at $1 million per annum per grant recipient.

The program aims to assist the major Australian political parties in promoting strong and robust democracies in the Asia-Pacific region and strengthening linkages with parties in the region. It brings the major Australian parties into line with international approaches to technical assistance to political parties and is akin to the activities undertaken by organisations such as the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs and the Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung.

The government took the view that the program would best be administered by political parties directly. Accordingly, funds were made available to the Liberal Party and to the Australian Labor Party. The ALP received $500,000 to be used to implement the program for the last six months of financial year 2005-06 and will receive $1 million for financial year 2006-07. It is the ALP component of the APPD program that I wish to speak about tonight.

In order to oversee the disbursement of these funds, the ALP established a committee, which we have called the International Party Development Committee—another acronym, the IPDC. The committee consists of my colleague Senator Michael Forshaw, who is the International Secretary of the Australian Labor Party; another colleague in the House of Representatives, Mr Kevin Rudd MP, who is the Deputy International Secretary of the ALP; former Senator Sue West, who is the Socialist International Women’s Vice President and a former International Secretary of the ALP; Mr Mark Butler, who is an ALP National Executive Committee member; Mr Richard Marles, who is ACTU Assistant Secretary; Dr Carmen Lawrence MP, another colleague, who is the Vice President of the Australian Labor Party; Mr Greg Sword, another National Executive Committee member; Mr Tim Gartrell, the National Secretary of the Australian Labor Party; and I can also inform the Senate that I chair this committee.

We appointed a director of international projects, Dr Michael Morgan, to be responsible for the administration of the program. Dr Morgan meets with the IPDC on a regular basis to discuss the direction of the program and report on its progress. Given the relatively limited funds available and the size and diversity of our region, the committee has identified a group of six target countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Fiji. The ALP’s commitments under the APPD are to provide practical training and facilitation to political parties in the Asia-Pacific; strengthen ties with recognised fraternal parties; and build new relationships with political parties in the region, including through existing international associations and frameworks.

We have determined that activities carried out under the program will be guided by the principles of inclusion, internal democracy, sustainability and transparency. Activities will be undertaken only after an initial evaluation of country conditions, local needs and demands. In determining whether a party or parties are appropriate recipients of Australian Labor Party assistance under the APPD we will be guided by a number of considerations: do they support democratic frameworks; are parties committed to the peaceful resolution of differences; and are parties viable, sustainable and relevant?

APPD program funds may be used to assist activities consistent with the program’s objectives and these activities may include but are not limited to: providing training, education and advice; supporting democratic activities and programs in the target countries; providing technical assistance in the conduct of local, regional or national concerns, which is in fact elections in the target countries; visits by Australian non-parliamentary party figures and campaigners—I should note here that Australian parliamentarians are not entitled to travel overseas under this program; and visits to Australia by visiting delegations or legislators and other party representatives. No financial assistance will be provided to any party itself under the APPD program.

Themes for parties strengthening activities under the program might include internal party governance; relations between the parliamentary wings and extra-parliamentary party wings; membership management; candidate scrutiny; caucus discipline; party constitutions, rules and procedures; ethics; policy development; campaign roles and structures; media liaison and political communication; public opinion research; and campaign finance funding and disclosure.

The first evaluation mission under the ALP’s APPD program took place from 20 to 25 August this year. The mission was to Indonesia. The parties targeted were the 10 most prominent parties in Indonesia in terms of the percentage of votes they gained in the 2004 parliamentary elections in that country for the People’s Representative Council, the Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat. I always prefer to say the DPR, because I can pronounce it more effectively. We would like to thank the Indonesian embassy for their help with these applications and also those Indonesian political parties themselves for receiving our delegation.

The delegation travelled to Indonesia in the week beginning 20 August 2006, which senators might recall was shortly after the withdrawal of the immigration bill. The immigration bill and the Papuan asylum seeker issue were still matters of concern in Indonesia. The Papuan asylum seeker issue was raised in most of the delegation’s discussions. The strong feelings about this issue in Indonesia are often based on a fear that Australia will become a base of protest for Papuan dissidents, and it should be noted that this fuels the belief of many Indonesians that Australians support the secession of a number of Indonesian regions and provinces.

Another major issue of concern for Australia that was raised by the ALP delegation was the rise of radical Islam in Indonesia. I can assure the Senate that the implications of this for regional security and domestic politics in Indonesia were discussed fulsomely. In particular, the issue of how to deal with groups that do not respect democratic political processes was high on the agenda. The 10 parties that met with the ALP delegation renounced violence as a means of prosecuting domestic political goals, and they reaffirmed their support for the ongoing process of democratisation in Indonesia, which of course was very much kick-started in 1999. Included in this number of parties were the Islamist parties, some of which have previously called for sharia law to be enacted throughout Indonesia. It is because of their engagement with democratic processes that many political leaders from Islamist parties have dropped their overt calls for sharia law as they seek to extend their party’s political base.

I can say that, uniformly, the parties that were contacted expressed their desire for stronger relations with Australia and with the Australian Labor Party. They expressed their desire for training programs to assist with the transition to democracy and processes which facilitate the development of better policies. Many of these parties are striving to build their internal democracies and improve constituency outreach. Providing technical assistance with campaigning strategies will be a crucial framework for our engagement with Indonesia and other recipient countries. The campaign is the process that energises party structures and brings meaning to policy debates. Where election campaigns are unable to bring people into the process of constituting government, extremism flourishes. Our belief is that parties must remain engaged with democratic processes and we must provide incentives for them to do so. For their part, Indonesian party representatives expressed a desire for greater engagement with Australia and Australian politics to gain a greater understanding of our political system.

Of course, we do recognise many great differences between Australian and Indonesian politics and political systems. We believe our programs should include the broad spectrum of prominent political parties in Indonesia, so long as those parties support peace and encourage democracy. In many jurisdictions in Asia and the Pacific, political parties are not organised along the same clear progressive or conservative lines as the political divide in this country. However, our programs will respect these differences, as we respect the sovereignty of our neighbours. In our programs, we intend to engage with political parties of different persuasions. A requirement for meaningful engagement with Asia and the Pacific is just that—you have to be able to deal with a range of, at times, quite different political parties. We note the risks associated with refusing to engage with a particular party. We understand that such an approach or attitude might jeopardise the entire enterprise of engagement and capacity building in Indonesia by suggesting bias on the part of the ALP or one of the recipient parties.

That said, we do not and will not ignore our core values. Labor are committed to the principle that every person should have the right to a say, directly or indirectly, in the decisions that affect his or her life and have the fundamental right—an opinion which I am sure is shared by all around this chamber—to participate democratically in their choice of government. Labor will never dispense with our belief that institutions such as political parties should promote fairness and balance. We believe that, given a fair go, people can better themselves and the world around them. I would certainly commend the work of this program. We sincerely hope that the Australian Labor Party’s participation, and the participation of all Australian political parties, in the Political Parties for Democracy program is going to further these absolutely crucial rights and belief. It is my intention to report from time to time to the Senate on developments within the program, as I believe there is an interest in the Australian community in this important work.