Senator KNOWLES (6:21 PM) —by leave—I present the report of the Australian Parliamentary Delegation to the 99th Inter-Parliamentary Conference held at Windhoek, Namibia and bilateral visits to Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which took place during April 1998. I seek leave to make a few brief comments.

Leave granted.

Senator KNOWLES —I thank the Senate for its indulgence. When speaking about this parliamentary delegation tonight, I would like to focus not so much on the IPU conference, which the leader of the delegation, Mr Halverson, spoke about in some detail in the House of Representatives this morning, but rather, in the short time I have, on the particular aid programs in which Australia has an interest—that is, the de-mining projects in places like Angola and Mozambique, and the prosthetic limb factories.

The whole delegation was particularly touched by the way in which these countries are trying to rebuild. It was very much a bipartisan delegation, and we visited some of the de-mining areas and also the prosthetic limb factories. It is estimated that there are millions of landmines in Angola and Mozambique. The devastating and cruel consequences of the Angolan landmines were brought to international attention when Diana, Princess of Wales, visited the de-mining projects in 1997.

The delegation received and accepted an invitation from Dr Guy Rhodes of the Norwegian Peoples Aid project for a briefing on the work of his organisation to rid Angola of these insidious weapons. Australia, Norway, The Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark contribute funds to this project. Dr Rhodes showed the delegation several varieties of landmines that are found in Angola, ranging from the small plastic anti-personnel mines designed to maim to the large sophisticated anti-tank mines. He also briefed the delegation on several de-mining projects in various provinces of Angola.

From that briefing, the delegation was left in no doubt that the task is enormous and is made more difficult by the fact that there are next to no records of where the mines were planted in any of the countries. Some of them are made of plastic and are so light that in monsoonal rains they can float to the surface and float down into the waterways where they can be picked up by children at any time at a later date.

We also noted that this de-mining project involves a very slow and painstaking effort. It has been estimated that, on average, it costs $10,000 to remove one mine. Dr Rhodes, however, emphasised that this estimate has to be considered in the context of the significant benefits of opening up agricultural areas to production, as well as the national and international commitment to remove this terrible scourge from the daily lives of Angolan people.

It was interesting to visit the de-mining program in Moamba in Mozambique. Much of the de-mining had been taking place on one side of a line, where we were obviously able to walk. The women of the community were already farming right up to the line that had been de-mined only in the weeks before we arrived, so not only do they have a lot of faith in the project but they also put themselves to work immediately after the process has been undertaken.

It has been estimated that in the years of conflict the mines may have claimed over one million lives, displaced over five million people, and inflicted an economic cost of over $US15 billion. It is generally recognised that these mines pose a very real hurdle to the effective rehabilitation of the Mozambique infrastructure and economy. The United Nations accelerated de-mining program began in September 1994 in Maputo, and it is estimated that there are 218 mined areas in the Maputo province. Since 1994, the ADP has cleared 280 hectares of land, located and destroyed 10,440 mines and destroyed 5,331 items of unexploded ordnance.

The ADP maintains 10 de-mining platoons with a total strength of 497 personnel, the majority of whom are demobilised soldiers drawn from former Frelimo and Renamo factions. Only five of the ADP personnel are expatriates and are employed as technical advisers only. In March 1997 the ADP program was extended for a further three years.

There are a number of recommendations that the delegation has made in connection with Australian aid projects in southern Africa, and one of them relates to the prosthetic limb factory. The delegation was most impressed with the targeting of aid to these projects and the commendable results that have been achieved. The delegation recommends that the Minister for Foreign Affairs reviews the funding and aid projects in southern Africa in order to continue funding to the prosthetic limb factory in Angola. The delegation also recommends that relevant ministers review the optimum duration of deployment of Australian technical advisers to the UN de-mining projects in Mozambique.

The delegation understands that the duration of deployment is currently six months, and it is of the view that continuity and effectiveness would be better served with a longer deployment. The delegation understands that Australian and New Zealand advisers have adopted a common and cooperative approach to de-mining activities in Mozambique and therefore recommends that Australia's deployment be part of a wider Anzac commitment.

With those few short words on that aspect of the delegation's visit to these countries, I want to emphasise that it was very much a bipartisan approach, as I mentioned before, in making sure that Australian money is being well spent and producing absolutely viable outcomes. In those prosthetic limb factories it is tremendous to observe the progress that has been made with the assistance of Australian money. The white wooden legs and feet that the black people of South Africa obviously never wanted to use or wear—because, to put it bluntly, they were not colour-coded correctly—are being replaced by pliable, dark-brown rubber legs and feet with much more durability. There is great turnover rate for these products—particularly because the growth of young children means that most of the young children need the prostheses changed probably every six months—and it was good to see that Australian money is being so well spent. After seeing young children walking around with missing lower limbs—or not being able to walk around, as the case may be with some of them who might have lost both limbs—it is really heartening to be able to answer some of the criticism by Australians about money going abroad. To see the money being used like that first-hand is very encouraging.

With regard to the IPU conference, I have to say that, as the continuing government delegate to the meetings of women parliamentarians at the IPU, I am pleased that the delegation's report records in detail the debate and deliberations of these meetings. I would also like to record in Hansard a list of IPU publications that I have provided to the Parliament Library. They include:

Men and Women in Politics: Democracy Still in the Making—a World Comparative Study ; Towards Partnerships Between Men and Women In Politics ; Mapping Progress—Assessing Implementation of the Beijing Platform ; and Women in Politics—A World Bibliography . I seek to table all these documents.