Secrets and Lies Destroy Democracy?
Forum held Monday 3 May, 2004, 7:30pm at Willoughby Town Hall to
discuss the impact of decisions behind closed doors on democracy in Australia

Introduction: Shelley Reys:

Let me thank the organisers for inviting me here today, and I do appreciate the invitation, and it's great to see so many of you here. I didn't expect to see so many, although I must admit that I heard the last forum was well attended, and created a bit of a stir, so I was looking forward to being here. Don't let me down

We have a terrific line-up of people for you here tonight, and I think that this kind of a discussion forum comes at a perfect time for many reasons. I'm very interested that the North Shore Peace and Democracy group have a keen interest in the right to have opinions, express those opinions, the notion of peace and finding peaceful outcomes to conflict and difficult situations, and as I said I think that there's no better time to look at that, and to think about some of the questions that have been posed to the speakers tonight.

What we're hoping to do is to inject a bit of civilised and intelligent conversation to the issue of the War in Iraq, and I think that there has been quite a dumbing down of the issue in many respects, not just in recent times but for a very long time, so I'm looking forward to that. It's largely about listening to each other: it's certainly not about attacking one another, or challenging each other in a grandstanding kind of a way. It's all about looking at the issues and seeing if we can explore them, as I said, in an intelligent and civilised fashion. It's a complex issue, and it covers many different issues, and I think that the wealth of information that we will receive from these speakers, and the high calib re of people on either side of me has got to contribute to that.

What we're going to do is start out by putting a few of the questions to our speakers, that have been submitted by some members of the NSPD group, and I will ask each of our speakers to respond to that question formally, then I'll look to the person that put up that question in the first place and see if there's any other issue that they would like to add to that, or any other question or if they feel that their question hasn't been answered appropriately, give them the opportunity to explore some other avenues if needs be. And then I will also give the speakers the opportunity to make any comment they see fit after they've spoken in the light of what other speakers have said.

There's three questions all up [NB - there were in fact five] and I'm hoping after that time to be able to hand it over to all of you, and see if there are any questions from the floor, perhaps there's some issues that you would like to discuss, or for some of our speakers to answer, that they haven't had the chance to do at that point. So, we will move right along.

Let me begin by introducing our speakers to you, and I'll start with Aden to my left here.

Aden Ridgeway, many of you would know, is from the Gumbayngirr people of Northern NSW, is the only Indigenous member of the Federal Parliament and the Australian Democrats Senator for NSW. After stints as a boilermaker and a park ranger, - I didn't know that about you, Aden - he moved on to managerial positions, including Executive Director of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council from1995 to 1999, when he entered parliament. Aden has a passionate commitment to human rights and an ongoing interest in philanthropic and arts organisations, for example as the Chair of Bangarra Dance Theatre. Many of you would know him for his political aspirations and his interest in indigenous issues, but you would also know that his interests also go well beyond that in a much broader world.

Kerry Nettle is the Australian Greens Senator for NSW. She first got involved in campaigning during protests to stop the M2 private tollway from being built in her local area. And in May 2000, Kerry left her job as a youth worker and headed to East Timor, where she worked for two months as a volunteer with the Asia Pacific Support Collective. She was elected to Parliament in 2001. Kerry joined Senator Bob Brown in protesting against President George Bush during his 2003 visit to Australia, over his treatment of Australians held at Guantanamo Bay, and the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

Before his 1998 election as Federal member for Griffith, Kevin Rudd has been a diplomat in the Australian embassies in Stockholm and Beijing, and Director-General of the Cabinet Office of the Queensland State Government. He has written extensively on Chinese politics, Chinese foreign policy, Australia-Asia relations and globalisation, and is currently Labor’s Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Security.

Marise Payne has been a Liberal Senator for NSW since 1997. Prior to entering the Senate, she worked as an advisor in the finance industry. She is one of the most active foreign policy-focused parliamentarians. Currently she is Chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs (Legislation), and of the Human Rights Sub-committee. She is involved in the Parliamentary Group of Amnesty International and is President of the Parliamentary Association for UNICEF.

Would you please welcome all our speakers here tonight. (Applause)

Our first question tonight comes from Tina Jackson, and it's on the screen behind me to my left, and I'll read it out to you ...

© NSPD 2004. Last modified 09/05/04.