Russell Trood (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

In rising to speak to the report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee entitled The Torres Strait: bridge and border, I am very conscious that Senator Faulkner wishes to inform the Senate of the second phase of the challenges he has faced in relation to the Glebe Post Office. So I do not want to delay the Senate too long in that enterprise and I think most senators will be very much looking forward to that second instalment.

The Torres Strait Treaty, which came into force in 1985, has been in operation for 25 years. As far as I am aware, this is the first parliamentary inquiry that has taken place into the operation and the effectiveness of the treaty arrangements. For that reason alone, this is an important report from the Senate committee. Given the importance of the report, the committee conducted a very comprehensive inquiry taking evidence from all of the agencies that had connections with the Torres Strait. It took evidence from people who were closely connected to or lived in the Torres Strait. The committee also travelled to the Torres Strait to inspect for itself some of the challenges that are faced there and to take evidence from some of the people who live there. So we looked very closely at many of the aspects of the Torres Strait Treaty—the arrangements with regard to the operation of the treaty. I think the report reflects the commitment that the committee made to that matter. There are 35 recommendations in the report covering all aspects of the treaty’s operation.

I will make three broad points about the report. The first and obvious one is that the Torres Strait is a region of high strategic importance to Australia. It is not a region of high visibility. It is not a region that necessarily attracts a great deal of attention, except on occasions when some incident occurs. But there can be no question that this is a region of great importance to Australia’s national security. You might say it is an area where Australia’s international relations actually begin. It is of course the place where we are closest to another country in the international system, which is Papua New Guinea—our closest neighbour and only a matter of kilometres from the northern most of the Torres Strait Islands. As the report says, this means that it is both a bridge to the nearest country—to Papua New Guinea—and it is our closest international border to another country. It is a place of considerable importance and that means, it seems to me—and I think the committee affirmed this proposition—that we need to pay close attention to any problems, issues or challenges that might emerge in relation to the operation of the treaty or the Torres Strait region.

The second broad observation I would make is that the committee found during its inquiry that the Torres Strait Island Treaty arrangements, generally speaking, are working reasonably effectively. It is a very complicated area of jurisdiction. It is complex because there are not only the treaty arrangements in place there but also several local government authorities whose jurisdiction applies throughout the Torres Strait area, a complex array of environmental and resource management arrangements in place, and 18 island communities with about 9,000 people who live on those communities. I suppose the most striking statistic and the most important factor in this whole region is that there are in the vicinity of 60,000 movements annually, back and forth, across the international border that is in fact the Torres Strait.

This is a very complex area of activity—it is not straightforward by any means—but, despite these complex and difficult arrangements, the committee found that for the most part the Commonwealth agencies work very effectively with one another in trying to manage the challenges of the region. Perhaps it is not surprising that the Commonwealth agencies are confident about the way in which they cooperate with each other in relation to this management, but the committee was generally satisfied that they do that pretty effectively.

I have to say, however, that the satisfaction the Commonwealth agencies have about the way in which the Torres Strait is managed is not necessarily shared by the people who live on the Torres Strait Islands. There is a degree of anxiety about the way in which the agencies interact with each other. Indeed, there is a degree of anxiety about the way in which people move back and forth so freely across that international border.

That brings me, generally speaking, to the third point I want to make about the treaty, which is that, while the system seems to work very well and while the committee were generally satisfied with the nature of that system, it does seem to us that this is a region which is under a great deal of pressure. There are pressure points in relation to environment, border security, health issues, biosecurity and a range of other issues. If these pressures are not dealt with then the challenges which they represent might become much more difficult to deal with into the future.

This is a timely report. It identifies a series of challenges which the Australian government, and indeed the Queensland government, and the Papua New Guinean government need to confront. They need to do so soon—sooner rather than later—in the sure knowledge that, if the concerns we have identified in the report are not effectively and properly addressed in the next short period of time, they could become much more difficult challenges. They could represent quite significant security challenges to Australia, and they could represent some challenges in relation to our bilateral relationships with Papua New Guinea. The 35 recommendations in the report are directed towards those concerns. They are directed towards ensuring that the kinds of pressures which now exist within the region can be alleviated and the generally successful arrangements that exist under this regime can continue long into the future.

I thank the members of the committee for the diligence with which they pursued the inquiry, and I also thank the members of the committee secretariat for the work they did in conjunction with the inquiry. As all of us in this place know, the success of committees is often due to the work of the committee secretariat, and this was certainly true in relation to this Torres Strait inquiry. I commend the report to the Senate.

Question agreed to.