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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 3024 ..
MS CARNELL (continuing):
That this Assembly agree to the ACT Government signing a sister city proclamation with the Beijing Municipal People's Government for Canberra and Beijing to enter into a sister city relationship.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I think it is appropriate to set the scene a little by indicating what has happened up until now. Despite being approached by numerous capital and major cities round the world, the current ACT government has not entered into any official sister city relationships since the one with Nara in Japan under the previous Labor government. The ACT government has purposely adopted a cautious approach to such relationships, instead concentrating on enhancing and adding value to the existing official sister city relationship that Canberra has shared with Nara since 1993.
In the past three years the following cities have approached Canberra with regard to developing sister city relationships: Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea; Zakapone in Poland; Samara in Russia; Atlanta in the USA; Ottowa in Canada; Canakkle in Turkey; Pretoria in South Africa; and, of course, Beijing in China. The ACT government's response to all of these proposals has been that before entering into a sister city relationship there needs to be strong community involvement from a range of sectors and in particular business. To date, only Beijing has actively pursued those requirements and has really been quite dedicated to meeting our criteria.
The purpose of the ACT government's cautious approach to sister city relationships is to ascertain whether benefits to the ACT exist and whether there is real community support. In the case of Beijing, the ACT government has satisfied itself that such benefits do exist and that the objectives of both cities with regard to the proposed relationship are understood by all involved.
Both sides of politics at the state and federal level have recognised the importance of improving and formalising our relationship with China. Every other Australian state, territory and capital city has either a sister city or economic cooperation agreements with Chinese provinces and cities. Indeed, at the recent ALP national conference in Hobart, the Labor Party agreed to have in its platform:
Labor strongly supports engaging and integrating China with the emerging Asia Pacific security community. The rise of China is the single biggest geopolitical force in the ongoing transformation of our region. Australia's interests are best served by China's positive involvement in the international political and economic community. It is imperative that Australia seek to work with China, bilaterally and regionally, and in global forums.
Mr Deputy Speaker, that was an extract from chapter 15 of the ALP's platform, entitled "Securing Australia's Place in the World".
At 5.00 pm, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 34. The motion for the adjournment of the Assembly having been put and negatived, the debate was resumed.
MS CARNELL: In 1972, Gough Whitlam entered into the first relationship with China and it is interesting to read the joint communique that was signed. I think that it is important to quote just a little bit of it. It reads:
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