During the 67th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) in New South Wales, Commonwealth Parliamentarians attended the 2024 CPA General Assembly on 7 November 2024.

The CPA General Assembly was presided over by the CPA President (2023-2024), Hon. Ben Franklin, MLC, President of the Legislative Council of New South Wales and was attended by Members from 128 CPA Branches. The CPA General Assembly, the Association’s supreme authority, is constituted by delegates to the annual Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference.

The CPA General Assembly also included a topical debate on the role of Parliament in strengthening democratic resilience in an age of fake news and synthetic media with presenters from CPA Branches including Australia Federal, Punjab (Pakistan), The Maldives, Wales, Canada Federal, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, and Northern Ireland.

Some of the key decisions and outcomes from the 2024 CPA General Assembly were:

• Delegates welcomed the work undertaken to enable the CPA to create a new non-charitable organisation and the passage of the CPA Status Bill in the UK Parliament to legislate to recognise the CPA as akin to an international, interparliamentary organisation.
• Delegates approved the 2023 CPA Annual Report (including the audited Financial Statements), the CPA Membership Report, the CPA Budgets and Financial Management Reports.
• Delegates endorsed reports from the three CPA networks – the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP), the Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities (CPwD) and the CPA Small Branches.

During the 2024 CPA General Assembly, CPA Members elected Hon. Dr Christopher Kalila, MP (Zambia) as the new Chairperson of the CPA Executive Committee for a new three-year term.

Delegates also looked ahead to the next Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference – the 68th Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) to be hosted by the CPA Barbados Branch and Parliament of Barbados in October 2025.