Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia, which took place from 19 April to 1 May 2009, and move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

In April 2009 there was a parliamentary delegation to Cambodia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The delegation members were the member for Parramatta, Ms Julie Owens MP; the member for Lyne, Mr Rob Oakeshott MP; and me. The purpose of the delegation was to examine opportunities to broaden links with those countries, focusing on economic development, including responses to global economic issues and opportunities to strengthen trade and investment links; the environment, including policies and initiatives to meet the challenges of climate change; security, including defence cooperation and responses to the threat of terrorism; co-operation within the multilateral system; and social development, including community health and education.

In February of this year, a free trade agreement was signed between Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN. As a group, ASEAN and New Zealand constitute Australia’s largest trading partner, valued at over $103 billion in 2007-08, accounting for no less than 21 per cent of Australia’s total trade. Australia’s two-way trade with ASEAN has grown by an annual average of 10 per cent, therefore the delegation felt it was an opportune time to begin this program of visits.

In each of these three countries we were warmly welcomed and supported by our embassies, high commissions and their staff. We had numerous meetings with politicians, community leaders, NGOs, Australian expats and proud Australian companies doing business in these countries. We visited these countries at the height of the global financial crisis and although there are challenges for the world I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the challenges for these countries in particular.

In the Philippines there are three major issues. One is people-smuggling, a topic that is very relevant to this country. Another issue is terrorism at Mindanao, in the southern end of the Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf Group are still operating. Fortunately, through the efforts of the Philippine government with the assistance of other countries—Australia being one—that threat is being slightly reduced, but not to the point where you could honestly say that these extreme terrorist groups are completely on the way out. There is a lot of work to be done down there and I am proud that Australia is continuing to be part of that work.

Obviously, another problem for the Philippines is corruption, and the perception of corruption. We noted that the Philippines was ranked 131st on Transparency International’s 2007 corruption perception index, which rates countries—the best being No. 1 to the worst lower down. The rank of 131st speaks for itself.

We had a very interesting time in Cambodia. As most senators would know, Cambodia is the least developed of the three countries that we visited. It was a moving experience to learn of the history of Cambodia, which is currently in the process of rebuilding following the terrible years of the Khmer Rouge regime from 1975 to 1979. Up to one quarter of the Cambodian population died as a result of the Khmer Rouge purges, starvation and disease. The Khmer Rouge also destroyed much of Cambodia’s infrastructure, including the irrigation systems. Professionals such as doctors, teachers and lawyers were targeted, leading to a lack of educators and role models in Cambodian society. We are very mindful that it has only been for 10 years that Cambodia has experienced the current peace. It is quite daunting when you think about that. Rebuilding in Cambodia is taking place; however, it has unfortunately started from a very low base, and it is happening at a snail’s pace.

One of the confronting things that I took away from Cambodia is that the major industry is the textile and garment industry—I believe that 20-odd per cent of America’s garment market comes from Cambodia. We witnessed in the time we were there in April, when the financial crisis was well and truly affecting the world, that no fewer than 70,000 Cambodians had lost their jobs in just that industry. It was alarming. I do not know how far that number has increased but although 70,000 was a lot back then I would say the number would be a lot higher by now. The sad part is that it was put to us during the delegation that 70,000 jobs going in the garment industry would be fine—it does not matter!—because these low-skilled farmers would go back to the family farms. So everything would be all right!

Our other port of call was Malaysia. The big industry in Malaysia is electronics, and they were certainly feeling the effects of the global financial crisis. It does not take Einstein to work out that, if money is drying up and jobs are disappearing, without aid from the government people certainly will not be investing in televisions and electrical hardware. Malaysia is the most developed of the three countries that we visited. The delegation’s briefing from the economic policy unit indicated that Malaysia is at risk—it was, back then—of being affected by downturns in the United States economy, which they rely so heavily upon.

In fact, it was important to note that the Malaysian government had initiated two stimulus packages. I remind senators in the chamber that we were there in April. It did not take the Malaysians long to work out that they had to start spending and injecting the money into the economy very quickly if they were to save their economy from sliding into the red. Their first stimulus package was seven billion ringgits and their second stimulus package was a mini-budget of some 60 million ringgits.

I know time is against me but I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the embassies, the ambassadors, the high commission in Malaysia, their staff, their secretaries and all the Australian expats that we met overseas. When we are travelling the world, one thing we have in common is that we are all Aussies when we get together. It is wonderful to see what Australian companies are putting into these ASEAN countries and what they are doing, especially in Cambodia, in terms of training and employment and sharing our skills and knowledge.

A special thanks has to go to the delegation secretary, Ms Natalie Cooke, who had to put up with us for those eight or nine days. As you, Mr Acting Deputy President Hutchins, and every senator in this building would know, they do a sterling job and without them our job would be absolutely unbearable. They make it all happen. They are the glue. Natalie, mate, thank you very much.

Question agreed to.