New Zealand Speaker and Clerk visit Australian Parliaments
New Zealand Speaker and Clerk visit Australian Parliaments
Speaker the Rt Hon David Carter and the Clerk of the House Mary Harris will be in Australia next week as guests of the Australian Parliament to meet with colleagues in the Australian Federal, Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales State Parliaments.
As well as meeting with fellow Presiding Officers and Clerks, the visit programme will include discussions on parliamentary broadcasting, accessibility issues for members and persons with disabilities, members’ attendance and parental leave, information management, and members’ professional development. The Speaker and the Clerk will also give a joint presentation on recent developments in Parliamentary Privilege in New Zealand to the New South Wales chapter of the Australasian Study of Parliament Group.
While in Canberra, the Speaker will also visit the Australian National War Memorial to lay a wreath of behalf of the New Zealand Parliament. He will also meet with the New Zealand High Commissioner, HE Chris Seed.
The Speaker recently hosted his counterpart the Hon Bronwyn Bishop in Wellington, but this will be his first bilateral visit to Australia since taking up his role.
“I am very pleased to have this opportunity to visit a number of Parliaments in Australia. Exchanges of this kind serve to strengthen ties between parliaments and enhance relationships between countries. Australia is our closest international friend and ally, and while there is much that our Parliaments have in common, there remains much we can still learn from each other.”
The Speaker’s Australian visit runs from 23 - 28 March.
ENDS