It’s been a landmark year for Tibet in the Australian Parliament. On 10 December the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet capped-off a groundbreaking year by meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Melbourne. The group presented His Holiness with a report on their activities in 2009 and received a briefing from the Dalai Lama on the latest developments in Tibet and the opportunities ahead.

2009 saw the group take several important steps to build and consolidate support for Tibet within the Federal Parliament. The year saw a marked increase in the size and activity of the group and, most significantly, the first Australian Parliamentary delegation to Dharamsala.

Download the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet’s 2009 annual report.

Australia Represented at World Parliamentary Convention on Tibet
Last month Hon. Peter Slipper MP joined 132 parliamentarians from around the world at the Fifth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet. The meeting, held in Rome at the Italian Parliament over the 18 and 19 November, was an important step towards concerted international parliamentary action for Tibet. The meeting ended with the adoption of the Rome Declaration on Tibet.

An international group of parliamentarians attending the convention also wrote an open letter calling for discussion of the Tibetan Environment at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Read the open letter.

Seven MPs and Senators Return from Lhasa
Last month saw the first official Australian delegation to visit Tibet since 1991, with seven Australian MPs and Senators spending 48 hours in Lhasa as part of an official parliamentary delegation to China.

ATC briefed several members of the delegation before their departure and recently caught up with Senator Scott Ludlam and Mr. Sid Sidebottom MP on their return.

Among a handful of more positive observation, the returning delegates noted the presence of a significant number of nomads and pilgrims in Lhasa, suggesting that strict internal travel restrictions following the protests that began in March 2008 may have been eased. On the negative side however, the returning delegates described a visit so tightly controlled and scripted as to preclude any possibility of authentic interaction with local Tibetans. The delegation will table a report in Parliament next year.