The President of the Legislative Council of the New South Wales, Hon. Matthew Mason Cox and four members of the NSW Parliament on Tuesday 25th October 2022, made a brief visit to the National Parliament office where they met with the Speaker of the National Parliament Hon. John Patteson Oti and Parliamentary officials.

The brief meeting allowed the Parliament of New South Wales delegation to share and discuss with the Speaker and Clerk of the National Parliament of the Solomon Islands about parliamentary practices and procedures, and the continued forging of people-to-people links.

During the meeting, the Speaker of Parliament Hon John Patteson Oti also highlighted the challenges faced by the National Parliament and acknowledged the support received by the NSW Parliament over the past years, particularly under the parliamentary twinning program.

This is evident through exchanging of gifts following the brief meeting.
The partnership between the National Parliament of Solomon Islands (NPSI) and the NSW Parliament was established in June 2007 as part of the partnership arrangements of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association’s (CPA) twinning program.
This twinning partnership promotes collaboration and understanding between these two parliaments and other Parliaments in the Pacific to ensure they fulfill their legislative, representative, and oversight roles.

President Matthew Mason Cox and his delegation also took the opportunity to visit and meet officers of various departments of the National Parliament.

The President also joined the Speaker in opening the second Parliament Teachers Resource Book workshop for Guadalcanal Secondary School Teachers at the Paul Tovua Complex.

Participants of the second Teachers Resource Book Workshop who are mostly Head Teachers and Social Science Teachers of year 8 or form 2 of 42 High Schools in Guadalcanal Province were so privileged to listen directly to the President of the NSW Parliament and the Speaker of the National Parliament who spoke highly on the benefits of having a Parliament Teachers Resource Book in their schools.

The NSW delegation later had a brief meeting with the Transparency Solomon Islands (TSI) before winding up their first-day program with sight visits to World War 2 sites.

Other engagements during their week-long program include visits to the Australian Funded projects in Guadalcanal and meeting with the Leader of the Opposition, Leader of the Parliament Independent group, Committee Chairs, Auditor General, LCC, and Ombudsman before a final courtesy call to the Prime Minister on Friday 28th October 2022.