Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to the 19th annual meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum which took place in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, from 22 to 27 January 2011. I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the report.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

and I am pleased to make a few comments about it before the Senate decides on that motion.

I was a member of the delegation that went to Mongolia for the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum. The delegation comprised the Speaker of the House of Representatives; the member for Reid, Mr John Murphy; and me. The delegation would also have included two members from the coalition, but unfortunately the flooding in Queensland and Victoria prevented their participation on this occasion.

A delegation from the Australian parliament has participated in every annual meeting as well as the meetings that prepared for the establishment of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, and this was the second time that I had attended an annual meeting of the APPF. My first experience was in Jakarta in 2006, and I was very pleased to have the opportunity to renew friendships at the APPF and to see the way the forum is developing as it approaches its 20th anniversary.

As usual, there were three broad subject headings on the meeting agenda for the APPF: economic and trade matters, political and security issues, and interparliamentary cooperation. The Australian delegation to the forum usually proposes a number of draft resolutions that are then debated and negotiated during the meeting. On this occasion the draft agenda for the meeting was delayed, and so we were able to propose only one resolution—and that was on the reform of the APPF. The New Zealand and Canadian delegations joined with us in finalising a resolution for adoption by the plenary.

Although our delegation was smaller in number than usual and proposed only this resolution, we were very active in the plenary and participated in all sessions of the drafting committee and in bilateral meetings with other delegations, some of which I will refer to shortly.

Each member of the delegation spoke in the plenary. The Speaker, Mr Jenkins, contributed to debate on reform of the APPF and on peace and security in the region. The member for Reid spoke on the agenda item on promotion of economic partnership and free trade. And in the plenary I addressed an agenda item that I had also spoken about in Jakarta in 2006, the Millennium Develop­ment Goals. It was useful to make a comparison of the situation then with the current context. The resolution that the meeting adopted on this topic included an affirmation of the role of parliaments in legislating, budgeting and monitoring, to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

As well as participating in the formal parts of the meeting, the delegation had a number of meetings with individual Mongolian leaders and delegations from other countries. The delegation was pleased to have meetings with the Prime Minister of Mongolia, who subsequently visited this parliament shortly afterwards; with the Chairman of the State Great Hural, who was also President of APPF 19; and the delegations from Russia, South Korea and China.

Our hosts at the parliament in Mongolia, the State Great Hural, were very generous and thoughtful to us, and I would like to thank them for that. The Vice-Chairman of the Hural,Mr Enkhbold Nyamaa, had studied at the University of Sydney and, from our first day in Ulaanbaatar, he made us especially welcome. He also ensured that we met a number of Mozzies—members of the Mongolia Australia Society. Mr Enkhbold, like all of the Mongolian people we met, was friendly and had the same dry sense of humour that we think of as the hallmark of Australians.

In preparation for the meeting of the APPF, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra assisted us, as usual, with comprehensive briefing materials, and we appreciated their assistance. The delegation also greatly appreciated the invaluable and tireless assistance of Ms Catherine Cornish, the delegation's secretary.

The Australian embassy in Seoul is currently responsible for relations in Mongolia and the First Secretary, Mr Charles Adamson, travelled to Ulaanbaatar and assisted the delegation throughout the meeting. He gave us practical and thoughtful advice as we prepared for meetings, and he continued that role until we left. We were very grateful to have him with us for the whole time and for his understanding of Australia's interests in Mongolia as well as on matters that arose during the APPF and the various bilateral meetings. So our thanks to Mr Adamson.

I also wish to thank the staff member from the Hural, the Mongolian parliament, who was our liaison officer: Mr Amartuvshin Amgalanbayar. Amartuvshin had studied at Monash University, so he was well versed in Australian ways, and he was always cheerful, calm and thoroughly professional and a delight to spend time with.

One of my abiding memories of Ulaanbaatar is the weather. It is the coldest national capital in the world, and the January meeting was in midwinter. The temperatures averaged minus 34 degrees. It will be some time before I complain about a Canberra winter again.

The next meeting of the APPF is scheduled to be held in Tokyo in January 2012, and I wish our colleagues in the Japanese Diet well in their preparations, particularly given the devastating tsunami and earthquakes that have occurred in Japan since the APPF meeting.

In concluding, I would like to thank the Speaker for his leadership of the delegation, and the member for Reid for his enthusiastic cooperation in the delegation's work. I believe that the delegation effectively represented the Parliament of Australia.

Question agreed to.