Mr MARTIN (12:59 PM) —I would like to lend my support to the report that has been tabled today of the very successful Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum hosted by the Australian parliament in January this year. I particularly support the comments made by the leader of the Australian delegation, Mr Somlyay. It has been a while since I have been involved with the APPF. As I know from my role as Speaker—as you know from yours, Mr Speaker—we have a primary responsibility to ensure that the views of this nation are canvassed and are put forcefully at meetings of the APPF. As indicated by Mr Somlyay, we certainly took the opportunity to do that during the meeting in Canberra.

What impressed me about this meeting is that there has been an increase in the number of people attending and they represent a wider cross-section of parliamentarians from the various countries that make up the APPF. In the initial period they tended to be a little bit restricted to certain people invited by certain members of the APPF but, as a result largely of changes put in place by Australia—now carried on under your expert guidance, Mr Speaker—opportunities are widening and broadening for the participation of a great number of other people. In this way, you get not only government MPs from other countries but also opposition members coming and participating in the forum.

I would like to congratulate the parliament of Australia for the expert way in which they conducted this conference. Having been involved with conducting an Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Australia some six months after I became Speaker, I understand the work that is necessary and the role that is played by parliamentary staff, and I certainly want to place on record my congratulations to the parliamentary staff for the outstanding job they did in looking after each and every one of the foreign delegates.

The issues canvassed during the course of the conference ranged across transnational crime, foreign affairs issues and, as Mr Somlyay mentioned, peacekeeping. I hope that the resolution that was deferred will in fact be considered further. There were some sensitivities amongst participants about peacekeeping resolutions, particularly in the light of the involvement of Australia, other ASEAN nations, and the United Nations in East Timor. As such, it was felt there needed to be an opportunity for a bit of cooling down on this very important topic and for further discussion to be left for a bit later. I think that there was a lot of common ground, and I have no doubt that a resolution will emerge on the role of peacekeeping, particularly as might be pursued by people from the Asia-Pacific nations that make up membership of this very important organisation.

I believe that this is a very worthwhile conference and that Australia has played a very strong and leading role in ensuring that there is an opportunity for members of parliaments from a variety of nations around the Asia-Pacific to put specific views and to hold in-depth discussions about very important issues. I certainly urge the parliament of Australia to give its continuing support, because in my view it does provide those opportunities.

Finally, I would like to refer to the comments made by the member for Fairfax in respect of comments that might have been made during the course of the presentation about the need for a little more caucusing and dialogue beforehand. I thought some of the comments made by Australian delegates came right from the heart and that they actually got a few people at the conference to sit up and take note. Might I say that some of the comments coming from National Party delegation members in respect of foreign trade issues were enlightening for the Americans and other delegates. I think they are still our allies, but we would have to check after some of those comments. Nevertheless, it is a great opportunity for members of the Australian parliament to participate. I would certainly recommend to any person from this parliament who is looking to participate in a conference that this is one they should go to.