Commons Foreign Affairs Committee studies Australian thinking on Commonwealth

Back in Canberra after 28 hours of flights, and straight into a programme with visiting members of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC). Senior backbenchers were in Canberra as part of the Committee’s enquiry into the Commonwealth. Other FAC members were travelling to different parts of the world.

We arranged a busy programme for them, meeting Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs Richard Marles and shadow Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop. They had a useful session with the Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, and I hosted a dinner with a number of Australian MPs. They also had a round table meeting with DFAT and PM&C officials.

They found the Australian government heavily engaged in Commonwealth issues, having just hosted the successful CHOGM in Perth last October, and currently retaining the chairmanship. Foreign Minister Bob Carr’s visit to London for the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) in April, had been one of his earliest international engagements in his new role. He had agreed to be CMAG vice chair. CMAG had played an important role following the unrest in the Maldives earlier this year.

Most of the politicians were broadly positive about the Commonwealth and the role which it can play in the world. Some emphasised the importance of the organisation demonstrating that it could deliver results in the modern world, and not just rest on historic ties. Others noted that it could play a valuable role in promoting its core values such as democracy, human rights and good governance. Some said that the fact that new countries, without traditional links, were seeking to join was a strong demonstration of its value.