Sharryn Jackson (Hasluck, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak in support of the motion on Zimbabwe moved by the member for Fremantle and seconded by the member for Cook and to endorse the comments of other speakers in this House. I note, with some pride, that this is a bipartisan position taken by members of this chamber. I especially want to acknowledge the member for Fremantle and her experience and expertise in international human rights, and thank her for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. As I said, I am confident that her concerns are shared not only by all member of this House but also by all members of this parliament. The Australian government have expressed our grave concern about the ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in Zimbabwe. The situation in Zimbabwe has already deteriorated to the point where human rights simply no longer exist in this once-proud nation. Over the weekend Robert Mugabe said that the Opposition Movement for Democratic Change, the MDC, would never rule Zimbabwe and that he was prepared to go to war to prevent them doing so.

Media reports of Mugabe’s stepped-up rhetoric quote him as saying ‘Should this country be taken by traitors ... it is impossible’ and ‘It shall never happen ... as long as I am alive’. I think this is a stark example of Mugabe’s blatant disregard for the democratic rights of the Zimbabwean people. It makes clear his unwillingness to accept their will at the forthcoming presidential run-off election scheduled for 27 June. The situation is spiralling downwards to its sad, horrific and almost inevitable conclusion. If this downward spiral is allowed to continue, a further generation of Zimbabweans will be lost to this unimaginable tyranny.

In question time today the minister spoke of the Australian government’s grave concerns about the situation in Zimbabwe. He made clear the Australian government’s condemnation of the Mugabe regime’s campaign of violence and fear against the opposition and the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe. It is a deliberate intimidation of opposition leaders and supporters, as well as ordinary Zimbabweans, designed to pervert and obstruct the will of the Zimbabwean people.

We have read about the arrests of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai while campaigning—some five times in the last nine days—and of the fact that the MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti remains in detention accused of treason, and there are confirmed reports of state-sponsored violence against Zimbabwean citizens.

Reading reports from media sources around the world is heart-wrenching. The Guardian newspaper in the UK is reporting that, as of last week, at least 66 opposition supporters had been killed by activists from the ruling ZANU-PF Party in order to intimidate voters before the presidential run-off. The Reuters news agency reported on Friday that the ongoing violence is, of course, damaging Zimbabwe’s children. They report that, according to UNICEF, the Mugabe regime’s ban on international aid organisations has left hundreds of thousands of children without health care or food.

As of this afternoon, the BBC’s news website is reporting that violence against opposition supporters is no longer confined to rural districts and has now spread right to the capital, Harare. Even later this afternoon, there was a terrible report in the Independent newspaper of the UK, by a journalist in Johannesburg, that Mugabe had already secured a comfortable head start of at least 130,000 votes through rigged voting by members of the security forces in this month’s run-off election against the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. He said:

Members of the army, air force and police have been forced to cast ballots in favour of Mr Mugabe at their barracks and stations.

He went on to say:

Although coercive voting of this kind has been attempted before, military sources said it was considerably worse this time, with spouses and children—particularly those living in barracks and police camps—also being forced to fill ballots for Mr Mugabe.

The Zimbabwe government’s suspension of humanitarian NGO activity in Zimbabwe is the greatest as well as the latest affront to human rights. It is an outrage, and many people will suffer as a result.

It is, as the Hon. Senator Faulkner said today, ‘immoral and represents a callous move by the Mugabe regime to use food security as a political weapon against its own people’. I also agree with the Hon. Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, that it is not enough for the United Kingdom, the United States or indeed Australia to act; African Union states must unite against this denial of democracy.

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