The Australian Parliament’s international program focuses on strengthening its engagement and cooperation with parliaments internationally, with an emphasis on parliamentary relations with countries in the Asia–Pacific region.

The program’s activities and projects in 2015–16 were coordinated primarily by the International and Parliamentary Relations Office (IPRO) and the Parliamentary Skills Centre (PSC), with input from all four parliamentary departments. IPRO and the PSC are joint offices administered by this department, and IPRO receives part funding from the Department of the Senate.

IPRO manages incoming and outgoing delegation programs, membership of inter-parliamentary organisations, and the international interests and travel of members and senators. The PSC is responsible for all parliamentary strengthening and capacity-building programs of the Australian Parliament.

In 2015–16, the budget allocation for the activity was $1.751 million and expenditure was $1.944 million. Results against the performance criteria for the activity are summarised in Appendix 1. Staff levels, by location, are shown in Appendix 2.

Performance summary

A comprehensive program of incoming and outgoing visits during the year strengthened bilateral links with several national parliaments. Activity declined in the second half of the year due to the prorogation of parliament, the second session of the Forty-fourth Parliament and the early dissolution of both Houses prior to a general election. The Australian Parliament continued to support the capacity-building of parliaments in the region and played an active role in the parliamentary associations to which it belongs.

Parliamentary engagement

During 2015–16, the department coordinated 23 official visits overseas, including bilateral visits to 11 countries; attendance at eight assemblies, conferences, workshops and seminars; and 11 other visits, including Presiding Officer visits and annual committee visits to New Zealand and the Asia–Pacific region (see Appendix 7). There were seven official visits by parliamentary delegations from other countries as guests of the Australian Parliament (see Appendix 8) and 30 other visits, including a range of capacity-building activities (see Appendixes 9 and 10).

A significant regional focus was maintained in the visits programs. Four of the seven official visits to Australia were from parliaments in our immediate region, including the annual visit by a combined delegation from ASEAN countries. Twelve of the 23 overseas visits were to countries in Asia or Oceania.

A priority for the outgoing visits in 2015–16 was to establish, or re-establish, links with parliaments in the region following their elections. The visits included a delegation to Australia’s largest neighbour, Indonesia, following elections for both houses of its parliament; the first official Australian parliamentary delegation to Fiji in nine years, following the first elections in that country since a military coup in 2006; and an election observer mission to Myanmar to assist that country with its first openly contested poll since 1990.

In 2015–16, a parliamentary field visit was again included in the outgoing delegations program, following a successful trial in 2014. The destination for a field visit is chosen based on a policy issue, allowing a group of parliamentarians interested in a particular issue to broaden their knowledge and understanding and report back to the parliament.

The parliamentary field visit was made in October 2015 to the United States and Canada to examine energy security. The delegation noted in its report to parliament that ‘field visits such as this allow parliamentarians the opportunity to look at an issue in some depth, and have mutual exchange of information with other countries on the issue at hand. It is a valuable opportunity that was appreciated by all participants.’

It is anticipated that two field visits will be a standard inclusion in the outgoing delegations program in non-election years, commencing in 2017.

The work of incoming and outgoing parliamentary delegations continued to be promoted on the Parliament of Australia website through publication of short articles and video interviews with delegation leaders.

Outgoing and incoming delegations gave positive feedback on the quality of the programs, both at debrief meetings and through correspondence. For example, Axel Voss MEP, leader of the European Parliament delegation to Australia in February 2016, expressed the delegation’s appreciation for the ‘very fruitful’ program arranged for the visit and the ‘outstanding [and] high-quality service’ provided by departmental staff.

Parliamentary cooperation

The Australian Parliament maintained its strong commitment to regional and international parliamentary cooperation in 2015–16. Delegations attended the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, two Inter-Parliamentary Union assemblies, the Asia–Pacific Parliamentary Forum, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, and the Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth. (For more detail see Appendix 7.)

Parliamentary strengthening

The PSC has responsibility for administering the parliament’s parliamentary strengthening activities. With a small staff, through the generous support of members, senators and colleagues from throughout the parliamentary service, the centre enables the parliament to engage in substantial collaboration in capacity-building with Pacific nation and other parliaments.

The centre continued to coordinate activities under both the Pacific Parliamentary Partnerships program and the Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Project (funded under the Australian Government’s Pacific Women Shaping Pacific Development Initiative). The major focus of the Pacific Parliamentary Partnerships program during the year was on capacity-building to support the re-establishment of the Fiji Parliament (in collaboration with the Victorian Parliament and the United Nations Development Programme). This program was extended until 30 June 2018. An agreement was made during the year to provide capacity-building support to the Parliament of Samoa in collaboration with the Tasmanian Parliament. The initiatives with the parliaments of Fiji and Samoa were made possible by funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

During the year, the major activities of the Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Project were the exchange of women members between Australian and Pacific parliaments; the annual Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Forum (which was held in Apia and considered women’s economic empowerment); the attendance of Pacific parliamentary educators at the Australasian Parliamentary Educators’ Conference in Wellington, followed by a workshop in Wellington for the parliamentary educators and Pacific clerks (to refine the gender equality learning program being developed by the project for use in Pacific parliaments); and scholarships for three Pacific parliamentary staff (from Nauru, Samoa, and Tonga), who undertook research attachments at the Parliamentary Library for a month.

The PSC continued to provide support for capacity-building programs while responding to requests for assistance from other parliaments and international organisations, including through collaborative work with colleagues in the Department of the Senate and the Department of Parliamentary Services. One highlight of professional development activities at the international level was the regular Inter-Parliamentary Study Program, which was coordinated by the PSC and took place over 10 days in February 2016. Participants were senior staff from the national parliaments of Fiji, France, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, the People’s Republic of China, Solomon Islands and Vietnam, as well as the European Parliament.

Departmental staff and colleagues from all parliamentary departments, through the coordination of the PSC, contributed to study programs for members and staff of a number of parliaments, including Myanmar, Pakistan, Samoa, United Arab Emirates and Vanuatu.

Improving performance

Late in 2014–15, the approval process for additional outgoing delegations (that is, ad hoc additions to the formal delegations program for each year) was replaced with a devolved process whereby the Presiding Officers were authorised to directly approve, on the Prime Minister’s behalf, up to 12 additional delegation places in each calendar year.

This streamlined process meant that in 2015–16 the parliament responded more promptly to valuable opportunities for international engagement. Examples were international discussions on counter-terrorism measures by members of the parliament’s Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and participation by members of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade at the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review of Australia’s fulfilment of its human rights obligations. The latter visit allowed the parliament to respond positively to the current Inter-Parliamentary Union Strategy and to a June 2014 resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which emphasised the desirability of greater parliamentary involvement in the Universal Periodic Review process.

Following the restructure in 2014–15 of administrative support functions for the international program, attention turned in 2015–16 to better documenting rules and corporate knowledge to promote consistency in its administration. Updated manuals for delegation members and delegation secretaries were published, and work commenced on recording internal procedures in operational manuals for staff, with an expected publication date before the commencement of the Forty-fifth Parliament.

The digital app formerly used to provide briefing material to outgoing parliamentary delegations was replaced with an online portal that improves the speed at which international program staff can make new and updated information available to delegation members.

Outlook

As with the second half of 2015–16, incoming and outgoing delegation activity in the first half of 2016–17 will be relatively modest as a consequence of the federal election. A full program of delegation visits will resume from 2017. An indicative program of outgoing delegations for the Forty-fifth Parliament (2016–19) will be developed for the Presiding Officers’ consideration and will continue to prioritise engagement with parliaments in the Asia–Pacific region.

An early priority for the 2016–17 incoming visits program will be the second annual MIKTA (Mexico, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Turkey and Australia) Speakers’ Consultation, to be hosted by the Australian Parliament. MIKTA is an informal consultative partnership between the five countries, based on regular meetings between their foreign ministers. Australia is the host country in 2016. The Speakers’ Consultation will enable the presiding officers of the five parliaments to exchange ideas and discuss issues of mutual concern, building on links established at the first Speakers’ Consultation, held in the Republic of Korea in 2015.

Parliamentary strengthening programs administered through the PSC will remain a priority area for the international program, and initiatives and activities established under the Pacific Parliamentary Partnerships program and the Pacific Women’s Parliamentary Partnerships Project will continue to be supported. As the Australian Parliament relies on funding from government—or other sources such as the United Nations Development Programme—to support much of its parliamentary capacity-building work with other parliaments, the extent to which the PSC is able to secure such funds will influence the level of the parliament’s contributions. The PSC will continue to respond to invitations to the parliament to collaborate on parliamentary strengthening activities, giving due consideration to the limited resources available for such work (including staff with the requisite knowledge and skills), and it will continue to apply for funds when grants and other funding offers are available.

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