Did I ever tell you Federal Parliament is a joke?

Despite the Prime Minister's total apathy towards the world's greatest current humanitarian crisis, the Government hasn't been totally quiet on Darfur. DFAT announced on September 1 an additional $5 million in food aid for Darfur, and $510,000 to Austcare for "protection officers who will work with United Nations agencies increasing security for civilians in internally displaced person camps in both Darfur and southern Sudan."

Bruce Baird is one of the better Liberal MP's in the House of Reps. The member for Cook (which includes Cronulla within its boundaries), chairman of the Amnesty International Parliamentary Group and a committed Anglican, Baird has a social conscience the likes of which his colleague, the member for Bennelong, could never comprehend. On May 29 Baird introduced a motion to the House of Reps as private member's business:

That this House calls on the United Nations to:

(1) substantially increase the level of aid to the Darfur region of the Sudan;
(2) call upon member nations to provide peacekeeping forces to quell the civil war currently taking place in the country;
(3) lift the profile of this catastrophic situation that confronts Darfur and the conflict which has already claimed 300,000 lives and seen 2.4 million people displaced;
(4) work effectively with the NGOs to ensure a substantial lift in the level of privately sourced aid going to the region; and
(5) ensure that maximum cooperation is given to peace negotiations.

Thirty minutes allotted for six speakers with a maximum of five minutes each: Baird, shadow Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, Petro Georgiou, Michael Danby, Cameron Thompson, and Laurie Ferguson. All totally in support. And then, as is normal procedure:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Barresi)—Order! The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

You guessed it. The debate hasn't resumed. It might. Do a word search for "darfur" on this page and see how far down the queue it is.

There's been a couple of mentions of Darfur in Federal Parliament since that debate. Last Thursday (September 14) in the Senate, Helen Coonan outlined Government policy on the possibility of sending peacekeepers in relation to UN Resolution 1708. She at least has a better grasp on events than did her Liberal stablemate Senator Marise Payne on June 21. Poor Senator Payne thinks Darfur is in the south of Sudan.