Protecting the Integrity of Government and Parliamentary Institutions

SPEECH TO THE ASIA-PACIFIC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM - TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2020, PARLIAMENT HOUSE CANBERRA

My name is Patrick Gorman, I am the Australian Labor Party Member for Perth in Western Australia.

I add my welcome to all of you who are visitors to our country.

Especially I welcome those of you who are first time visitors to Australia or first time visitors to Canberra.

I still remember the first time I visited this Parliament House as a university student.

Being overwhelmed at the size of this monument.

Seeing first-hand this massive building, and getting lost.

Admiring this piece of public art, that embodies the values of democracy.

The architect of this building, Romaldo Giurgola, an Italian architect, living in New York who eventually came to live in Canberra.

Another part of Australia’s multicultural success story.

Romaldo Giurgola designed this parliament to capture the values of openness and accountability. He said;

"This building does not turn its back on anyone – you can enter from every side, there is no 'back of the building'.

Every side, north, south, east and west is open, just as the first Australians sitting on this hill could welcome people from every direction."

And while the security challenges of violent terrorism have changed this building. The values which it embodies stay the same.

I believe that Parliaments can solve problems.

But the problems that we face this decade are testing our parliamentary and government institutions.

• Preventing irreversible Climate Change to maintain our way of life

• Building lasting peace in our region

• Lifting people out of poverty

• Delivering true gender equality

• And achieving our 2030 targets for the Sustainable Development Goals

Rightly citizens question our collective capacity to solve these problems.

And our capacity to solve them with the urgency which they demand.

The 2019 Global Democracy index reported increased voter turnout at elections.

But decreased confidence in political institutions

And a 2019 report from the United Nations Secretary General noted women’s representation in Parliament increased over the decade from 19 per cent to 24.2 per cent.

But there are still national parliaments with zero per cent women.

Zero.

This isn’t good enough.

And our progress on global challenges shows that we are falling behind.

And looking to our progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 16 “Peace, justice and strong institutions” it is clear there is a long way for us to go.

The Global Alliance for SDG 16 reported last year some sobering facts:

• Today 650 million children lack proof of legal identity.

• Come 2030 - 80% of the extreme poor are expected to live in countries affected by violence and conflict

• And while young people make up the majority of the world’s population, less than 2 per cent of the worlds parliamentarians are under 30

These are challenges that can only be achieved by working together.

Though local, national, regional and global cooperation – including institutions like the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum.

And that requires building trust amongst APPF members and trust in our institutions.

• A free press often tells us where trust is eroded

  • Corruption, such as in Western Australia.

  • And where governments have missed opportunities to mitigate disaster, such as the current bushfires.

Trust is one of the hardest things to build.

Therefore, the challenge for us as Parliamentarians to ensure there is trust in our governments and trust in our parliaments

Like many of you, I have been a citizen active in the democratic process.  

• Joining a political party.

• Working on election campaigns.

• Attending the occasional protest rally.

• As an observer for the 2014 Afghanistan Presidential Election

• And eventually finding myself here in my nation’s Parliament.

For most citizens  - their engagement with their parliament is mainly through the ballot box. We can only defend parliamentary and government institutions by bringing others in. Increasing their participation.

It is not something for Parliaments alone.

The Australian motion makes this clear.

Civil society, business, and governments all have a role in protecting the integrity of government and parliamentary institutions.

Thank you.