Thursday, 14 November 2024

Bougainville delegation

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:20): I also want to make mention of the continuing support the Victorian Parliament is providing to our friends in the Pacific islands. Earlier this week we had a delegation from Bougainville here. Along with Mr Tarlamis and the members for Shepparton and Mildura, I met with that delegation for lunch, and we had a really great conversation about strengthening our parliaments and about what we can do to provide better support to our friends across the Pacific following a conference we went to in April this year, which was part of the UN Development Programme. We also found out – serendipity – the Bougainville twinning relationship between the New South Wales Parliament and the Bougainville Parliament was partly initiated by my aunt Meredith Burgmann when she was the President of the Legislative Council. We communicated; she is super happy that that work continues.