Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

I rise today in sadness and in anger to express my deep concern about recent human rights abuses in Cambodia, and I ask today that the Australian government join me in speaking out against recent actions of the Cambodian government. We condemn violence against protesters. We ask that Cambodian authorities release those detained for social and political activism. We ask for a Cambodia free of corruption and a democratic Cambodia free of violence.

I do so on behalf of all of my constituents in Hotham, because we have the great privilege of sharing our home with so many Cambodian-Australians. There are about 11,000 Cambodians living in Victoria, and 2,000 of them have made their home in my electorate of Hotham. It is a community with driven, passionate leaders who are engaged in political life both here and back at home in Cambodia—leaders such as Hong Lim MP, the member for Clayton and very proudly Australia's first Cambodian-born member of parliament; Councillor Youhorn Chea, a community hero and City of Greater Dandenong councillor and former mayor; and Councillor Meng Heang Tak, a young leader who is already a respected and distinguished person and is just starting out his journey as a councillor with the City of Greater Dandenong. They are representative of so many other leaders, some of who are joining us here today in the chamber from Cambodian associations from around Hotham and beyond.

We are also very lucky to benefit from the spiritual guidance and leadership of monks from the significant temples in my electorate of Hotham: Wat Buddharangsi in Clarke Road, the Khmer Buddhist Centre of Victoria on Springvale Road and the Dhammaram temple in Balmoral Avenue. I want to pay my respects to those religious leaders who are represented here in the chamber today. Soum swa-khom—welcome to our parliament.

For Australia, Cambodia is a neighbour but, more than that, a friend. We have welcomed Cambodians to our country since the 1970s and have welcomed people to build new lives here. We enjoy a strong trading relationship, and the relationship between Australia and Cambodia is really that of a genuine friendship. In such a friendship you can have frank discussions, and that is what I want to do today.

In July 2013 a general election was held in Cambodia. There was a fear that those elections would not be fair—a fear founded quite reasonably on the unwillingness of the Cambodian government to implement the recommendations on corruption and electoral fraud of the United Nations special rapporteur in 2012, and the fact that Sam Rainsy, Cambodia's opposition leader, was not given free rights to stand in that election. Concerns about the election process quickly turned to civil unrest, and perhaps the most shocking incident occurred in January, when we saw garment workers shot and imprisoned simply for participating in protests demanding a higher wage. Five people were killed, 23 were arrested and assembly was banned.

Recently I was lucky to join the shadow minister for foreign affairs and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, the member for Sydney; and the shadow Attorney-General and member for Isaacs to speak with Professor Gareth Evans. Professor Evans is a legend in this place and has a significant and longstanding history with Cambodia. Professor Evans indicated—in private, but also in his public statements on this matter—that enough is enough. In a recent newspaper article he said:

So what has our government's response been? Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has been conspicuously silent on these points. She has failed to mention these terrible abuses on her visit to Cambodia, focusing instead on negotiating a new asylum seeker agreement. And it does make one wonder: is the silence strategic? What else could possibly explain turning a blind eye to this conduct?

The loud megaphone broadcasting our condemnation is in order, and we call on the government to voice Australia's deep concerns at the situation in Cambodia, because I have sat with Cambodian leaders and felt their agony while they have told me about abuses in their home country. I was appalled to hear their concerns about the electoral process; I was horrified to learn that there was a ban on assembly; and I was sickened and saddened to hear that citizens were shot dead. The actions were unacceptable. They were unacceptable by Australian standards, they were unacceptable by the standards of the Cambodian community and they were unacceptable to my constituents in Hotham.

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