Mr PYNE (1:13 PM) —I am pleased to be able to comment, if only briefly, on the report of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, held in Canberra in January, which I attended. I thank the member for Fairfax for his chairmanship of the Australian delegation, a task he carried out extremely well, and also my friend the member for Aston for his kind comments in his dissertation this morning. I also thank the delegation for the opportunity to speak at the conference, albeit only briefly, on the Australian economy and our response to the Asian financial crisis. Meetings such as the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum are very important meetings for Australia in a diplomatic sense because they seriously engage us in the Asian region at a parliamentary level.

I see the member for Werriwa scoffing at the importance of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum, which is interesting given the Labor Party's stated support for Australia engaging in the Asia region. But, obviously, the member for Werriwa regards it as unimportant. Nevertheless, I believe it is very important, and I am sure that other members of the House do as well, in establishing contacts and ties between countries. I established excellent contacts with the delegates from South Korea, Thailand and Singapore. We do not want to overstate the role that these conferences play in establishing networks and contacts but, at the same time, they are very important. We saw the former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer's role in Thailand, which was built up over decades of engagement with contacts and networks. I am mindful of my time running out; so I thank the House for the short opportunity to contribute. I commend the report to the House.

Mr SPEAKER —The time allotted for statements on this report has expired. I thank members for their generous remarks about the management of the conference. Does the member for Fairfax wish to move a motion in connection with the report to enable it to be debated on a future occasion?