By Martin Banks - 5th February 2009
It is a small delegation – it will be a lean and mean
Giles Chichester
The leader of parliament’s nine-strong delegation to Australia has hit back at criticism of the planned trip.
“This is an important delegation which does good work,” declared UK Tory MEP Giles Chichester.
He was responding to comments by independent MEP and former investigative journalist Hans-Peter Martin, who questioned the validity of the week-long visit, asking, "I would like to know what is the point of this delegation? What are they going to discuss?
“What possible interest is there in sending a parliamentary delegation half way round the world?”
Martin said the visit represented unnecessary expense at a time of global financial crisis and was environmentally unsustainable. At the same time he stressed that he was not critical of all parliamentary delegations, saying that such exchanges to certain countries were important.
Parliament usually sends a delegation to Australia every two years and the trip from 20 February follows a visit to parliament in Brussels by a delegation of Australian MPs last year.
In his response, Chichester alluded to the fact that Martin was a member of the delegation to China late last year.
He said, “For Hans-Peter Martin to attack the Australia delegation is a bit rich. The China delegation, of which he was a member, had 40 people on it and, I would have thought, will have left a substantial carbon footprint.
“The Australia delegation does very good work in maintaining relations with our parliamentarian counterparts over there.
“There is a new government in Australia so this is a particularly good time to get the shape and direction of the new administration.”
He said the exchange was more important given that commission president José Manuel Barroso had recently cancelled his own planned visit to Australia.
Chichester said the delegation will, apart from himself, comprise five MEPs and about three others, probably parliamentary staff. But he pointed out that it will not include any interpreters.
It will visit Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne with, he says, debates on the current financial crisis as well as climate change "uppermost" on the agenda.
Martin told this website last month, "Why go all the way to Australia, particularly at the present time just a few months ahead of the European elections.
“Also, in light of the ongoing global recession which is biting hard here in Europe I am sure that the money spent on this delegation could be put to much better use on, for example, social projects."
Chichester said, “Martin is speaking out of turn. This is a small delegation - it will be a lean and mean,” he said.
“Martin is entitled to his views but he would be well advised to look at the value of the China which he seems to think was worthwhile.”
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