Wednesday, 13 November 2024

Department of the Legislative Council

Report 2023–24

Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (17:30): I rise to speak on the Department of the Legislative Council’s annual report and specifically on the work that the Victorian Parliament has done with regard to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. Last week I was privileged to join eight fellow MPs from both chambers here and three of our magnificent clerks to visit Sydney for the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. It was wonderful to have our friends and neighbours New South Wales be the hosts this year. It was an incredibly well run conference. I would like to give a particular mention to the conference chair Ben Franklin, the outgoing President of the Legislative Council in New South Wales, who ran an absolutely superb conference that was done consummately well, and also acknowledge the many wonderful staff from the New South Wales Parliament who supported us all week. It was a well-attended event and well supported by the CPA, in particular the outstanding secretary-general Mr Stephen Twigg and his team.

Amongst many interesting events, we had a very engaging lecture from the great Michael Kirby on the role of discrimination and the work that has been done in the Commonwealth, particularly with regard to human rights and how the Commonwealth charter, that he helped draft, calls on us to be implacably opposed to discrimination of all kinds. It was a really, really engaging speech.

We also had the vote for the new chair of the CPA following the election loss of the outgoing chair in the UK election this year, and we had three strong candidates. Dr Chris Kalila from Zambia, the Honourable Arthur Holder from Barbados and Zainab Gimba from Nigeria all throw their hats into the ring. It was a very exciting, close-fought race, with Dr Chris Kalila winning by a single vote. I would like to acknowledge both him and all the candidates, in particular the Honourable Arthur Holder from Barbados, which will be the host of the next year’s conference, who showed incredible fortitude and very strong engagement when it comes to those principles of discrimination that were spoken about by Mr Kirby.

We saw all the excitement of raw politics in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference. In particular it was wonderful to catch up once again with some of our wonderful Commonwealth youth parliamentarians. I spoke previously in this place about my time in New Zealand as a mentor for the Commonwealth Youth Parliament. It was really terrific to see in particular Dolph from Nauru, Jack from Jersey, Olly from Gibraltar and Kokulaan and India from New South Wales. It was great to spend some more time with them. I know they enjoyed meeting some other Victorian MPs as well.

As the voting delegate the main reason that I attended the conference this year was to speak at a workshop. Last year’s conference was held in Ghana in the midst of some rather distressing laws that that country was bringing in with regard to gay people. It was really good to see a changed tone in Sydney this year. I was privileged to present and lead a workshop which was about LGBTQIA+ participation in our parliaments. It was incredibly good to be joined by other speakers, including Tina Browne, the Leader of the Opposition in the Cook Islands, who have recently decriminalised same-sex activity, the United Nations Development Programme and others.

It was great to be able to share my experiences and those of others from this chamber and also to engage in that really valuable conversation with MPs from across the Commonwealth, an overwhelmingly positive conversation, it has to be said, with really good feedback, including from the Honourable Arthur Holder from Barbados, from members of English and Welsh parliaments and members of parliament from India and Ghana, which was particularly good to see. There were some less positive contributions as well, and I will not dwell too long on them for the sake of brevity. Overall, it was an incredibly good experience to be part of that conversation, a respectful conversation, which it was and which it needs to be as well. Indeed it is a conversation that is still in many parts of the Commonwealth in its infancy but one which we have an important role as members of a Parliament such as here in Victoria to engage in, to have those conversations in a respectful but firm manner.

I would particularly like to thank the support of all of my Victorian colleagues who were there with me and strongly showed their support – most particularly of all, though, to you, President, for your extreme support and for proving what it is to be a genuine ally.