DELEGATION REPORTS

Mr GEORGANAS (Adelaide) (10:08): I too rise to talk about the report, and, without repeating too much of what my good friend the member for Blair has said—and I agree with everything—the purpose of the visit was to strengthen our bilateral relations and to inform ourselves of the key interests of Australia, the United Kingdom, Poland and, of course, Ukraine.

Even though we didn't travel to Ukraine, we had members of their defence departments et cetera travel to Poland on the second part of the trip. It also allowed our delegation to discuss the value of the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, with a fantastic roundtable at the high commission and further conversations about the UK's approach to trade and economic security considering the geopolitical shifts that have impacted the global trade environment.

We were honoured to hear and had the privilege of hearing firsthand perspectives from the Polish and Ukrainian government officials in Warsaw, Poland, detailing the realness of the war on Ukraine and not only the impact on the people who are in need of vital global support but also the impact on the Polish nation. The delegation expressed its deepest respects, on behalf of Australia, for Poland's humanitarian efforts and support for Ukraine.

One of the things that stood out for me in the United Kingdom was when we met staff and government officials of Ukraine and defence veterans who were being trained by the Australian Defence Force. These are people who were on the front line in Ukraine, came over to the UK to be trained up as leaders and then were sent back to the front line. It really brought home the horrors of war and what these people are going through.

We take our hats off to them, especially to the Ukrainian soldiers who were there and also to the Australian Department of Defence, who are doing such a great job. This gave us, firsthand, an ability to understand what is taking place in the trenches in Ukraine. As I said, we were able to meet many Ukrainian soldiers, and they brought to light the effect of drone warfare, as many of them were severely traumatised by just the sound of the flying machines.

I can honestly say that it really gave us an understanding of what's actually happening and how important it is to support Ukraine. We also had many discussions in Poland with Polish officials. We congratulated them on the scale of their international assistance and on becoming the third-largest defence spender of NATO countries.

Poland wanted to talk to us about our digital child protection platform, which opened the door to future conversations on agreements et cetera focusing on cybersecurity. We had many of those Polish members of parliament and deputy ministers visit Australia only a few weeks ago, and these discussions continued. Topics of defence were brought up, including the importance of understanding hybrid warfare, the risks of manipulation by social media and information actors, and the critical state of Russia's drone incursion and disinformation.

I'd like to commend and thank our chair, the member for Blair; the secretariat; and all the members. It was an extremely worthwhile trip which gave us both the experience of seeing Ukrainian soldiers being trained in the UK and knowledge and insight into the horrors of one of the most horrific breaches of international law in Ukraine. I commend the report to the House as well.

The SPEAKER: The time allotted for statements on this report has expired.