Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I present the report of the Australian parliamentary delegation to the 150th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, which took place from 5 to 9 April 2025. I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

From 2 to 9 April this year, I travelled to Tashkent, the capital of the Republic of Uzbekistan, as part of the delegation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, known as the IPU. It was no ordinary delegation. As the House of Representatives had been prorogued for the election, I had the privilege of representing our very much respected Speaker, the Hon. Milton Dick, as the delegation leader on this occasion. I was also accompanied by my then colleague from the Senate, Senator Reynolds. While the delegation was small, the task was significant. We certainly missed the company and the leadership of the Speaker, but we did our very best to represent Australia's interests and to build relationships with our fellow parliamentarians from around the world.

Australia's contribution to the IPU is longstanding and substantial, with continuous participation in parliamentary diplomacy to promote peace, cooperation and mutual understanding among nations. Prior to the commencement of the formal assembly, I had the honour of representing our Speaker as chairperson of the Sub-Committee on Finance to the Executive Committee.

Senator Reynolds, in what would be her final contribution to the IPU, continued her vital work on addressing orphanage trafficking. She facilitated a discussion on the implementation of the 2023 resolution on this issue, hosted by the Standing Committee on Democracy and Human Rights.

While political debate in Australia is often robust and occasionally intense, when a bipartisan delegation travels abroad, we act as one—as team Australia. I was, therefore, very proud to preside as President over the same committee in which Senator Reynolds had advanced her work on orphanage trafficking.

During the assembly in Tashkent, I continued my advocacy on tax avoidance and evasion. I introduced a resolution condemning the predatory tax practices of certain multinational enterprises and reaffirmed Australia's commitment to fair and transparent global trade. Firms such as PwC have promoted schemes that allow multinational enterprises to exploit jurisdictional gaps, enabling them to operate across borders with little accountability while maximising profits. This behaviour undermines the integrity of global tax systems and creates a lawless zone within the infrastructure of international commerce, and, in doing so it, it undermines any movement towards the achievement of the sustainable development goals, on which there is so much consensus yet so little investment.

I look forward to working with my fellow co-rapporteurs, Mr JMR Edwards of Chile and Ms J Sabao of Zambia, to further international cooperation in this area and to help secure much-needed revenue for nations striving to reach those important sustainable development goals. In the same spirit of multilateral collaboration, I would like to acknowledge the significant efforts of the Standing Committee on Peace and International Security, and the many delegations to the assembly, in securing a resolution at the IPU, after a considerable period of dissent, on the critical issue that so much of our attention is focused: the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. This achievement in the Standing Committee on Peace and International Security demonstrates that negotiation and consensus can still deliver meaningful outcomes and, indeed, hope. It reassures me that parliament-to-parliament contact and relationships remain vital and effective in striving for peace for our brothers and sisters right across the globe.

On behalf of the delegation, I extend our deep gratitude to the parliament of Uzbekistan for hosting the 150th IPU Assembly. We are especially thankful, as the Australian delegation, to Senator Kadirxanova Malika Akbarovna and her team for their support throughout the assembly. We also express sincere appreciation to the Deputy Mayor of Tashkent, Dr Shakhnoza Abduvaxitovna Sultanova, whose assistance and hospitality enriched our visit with insight into Uzbek culture and customs.

I would also like to thank the Speaker for entrusting me with the responsibility of leading this important delegation when, clearly, he was unable to attend. I also thank Dr Jane Thompson for her unwavering support as secretary to our delegation. Finally, I wish to pay tribute to former senator Reynolds for her enduring advocacy and service in representing Australia on the global stage. Awareness about orphanage trafficking is now common knowledge across all the parliaments that have participated in the IPU, and that is a significant contribution to the safety of millions of children.

Question agreed to.