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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-08-05 Daily Xml
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Taiwan

The Hon. T.R. KENYON (Newland) (15:46): I just rise today to talk briefly about a recent trip to Taiwan that I made, and I must declare that it was as a guest of the government of Taiwan that I was able to travel there. It struck me, having been there for the second time now, that it has been and remains a particularly remarkable society. It is one of our larger trading partners as a country, one of Australia's larger trading partners and obviously a consumer of raw materials: coal, iron ore and others.

Having not much in the way of their own resources and a country that is approximately half the size of Tasmania, of which only 30 per cent of the land can be actually used for settlement and agriculture—despite that, they have still managed to build one of the larger economies in the world and a remarkably free society. It is free in the best senses of the word, in that they are free to go about their business, to have a truly free press, and they have free and fair elections. It has not always been that way, of course, but they have gradually come from what was essentially a dictatorship.

After the civil war in 1949, they removed themselves to Taiwan from the mainland and have progressed from essentially a dictatorship to an interesting democracy to what is now a truly free and fair democracy. It is a remarkable thing to see, because it is not often that that transition is made painlessly—well, maybe not painlessly, but smoothly and in the absence of violence—in the way that Taiwan did. Citizens there are free to go about their business, to build businesses, to become artists and to do the full gamut of human activity and endeavour. They are a free society with freedom of association and freedom of religion; all of these things that we value in Western society they have, and it is a wonderful thing to see in this day and age.

We were able to do a number of things while we were there and we had some pretty decent briefings, particularly on the first day. Mainland Affairs Council got their briefing on the relationship with China—or mainland China, as they call it—and the interesting thing is that I was last there in 2006 and there was at some time—under President Chen Shui-bian—talk of holding a referendum on independence from China. That was causing some consternation inside mainland China and there was quite a bit of tension between the two societies of mainland China and Taiwan. That tension has lessened.

There has been a change in government and President Ma has taken a different approach and has sought to engage less confrontationally with mainland China. They have had 10 negotiations and as a result of that you have seen 21 significant agreements on things like flights in and out of mainland China and Taiwan and free movement of money and investments—a whole range of agreements.

There is greater interaction between mainland China and Taiwan such that there are now 2.8 million tourists a year coming from mainland China to Taiwan. If you consider that the population of Taiwan is about the same as Australia at 23 million—remembering their 23 million are occupying 20 per cent of a land half the size of Tasmania—you are looking at more than 10 per cent of the population of Taiwan in tourists coming from mainland China and returning every year. It is quite a substantial interaction they are having with 40 per cent of their exports now going to mainland China. Taiwan is a significant investor in mainland China being one of the biggest sources of foreign investment into China.

Time expired.

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