Page 2931 - Week 09 - Thursday, 18 September 2014
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centre; a meeting with the general manager of the Kiribati Housing Corporation; lunch with the chairman and members of the climate change committee; a meeting with team members of the medical service, focusing on maternal and child health; and, finally, discussions with the Speaker, Clerk and Deputy Clerk, where we identified a number of areas to follow up, which are documented in the report.
Once again, many thanks to those in the OLA, including, but not limited to, the Clerk, who assisted with the planning of the visit. Thank you to Dr Cullen, Queanbeyan Football Club and Capital Football for sporting equipment that was donated to local schools. And thanks once again to Ms Rafferty for all her assistance, guidance and excellent driving and navigating. It was a fascinating insight into the Kiribati parliament, nation and people, and I will look forward to hearing about future cooperation and exchange of ideas.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (12:19), by leave: I would like to add my thanks and appreciation for all the help and assistance and to those who have spared their time to meet with Ms Lawder, me and Janice Rafferty from the Clerk’s office whilst we were on our trip to Kiribati, with particular thanks to President Tong, for his kind hospitality; to Speaker Iuta, for the time that he spent with us, for access to his parliament and for the assistance that he allowed his staff to provide us, particularly the Deputy Clerk; and to the ministers and members that met with us whilst we were over there on our trip. Also, particular thanks go to the heads of department that we met whilst we were over there. Again, a warm thank you should be extended to the Australian High Commissioner over there and the staff within his office.
Whilst it often seems likely that such trips will not necessarily make a substantial difference, the twinning arrangement that this parliament has with the Republic of Kiribati parliament is an important one, particularly as they are an emerging democracy and a relatively close neighbour—if not geographically, certainly within our minds.
Many of the challenges that Kiribati faces do not differ, as far as topic is concerned, from what we discuss here in this parliament regularly, such as employment, the need to diversify our economies and the need to ensure that social services are maintained. But the scope and breadth of the issues are far vaster over there, given that their economy has a very narrow base and employment is only at 20 per cent—and I think that about 12 per cent of those that are employed are in government employment. So the need to develop and establish new industries is certainly a challenge.
The United Nations measure places gross domestic product, GDP, of a citizen of Kiribati at about $1,000 per head. That compares with $57,000 for an Australian citizen. It shows that the depth of their economy is the basis of a lot of the challenges that they have.
One of the main issues that was raised with us whilst we were on our trip was the need to assist in establishing and maintaining some expertise amongst their committee systems. They expressed the need for a more regional approach, particularly with their public accounts committee. It is an issue that I have already raised with you, Madam Speaker—a suggestion was that perhaps there could be consideration of the Australian
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