Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, support the report's recommendation that Australia adopt a new standalone targeted sanctions legislation to significantly strengthen Australian and broader international efforts to deter gross human rights violations worldwide. As members of parliament in a great democracy, I believe it is our collective duty to stand up for human rights and speak up when we see those rights diminished or abused.

We have a duty as a wealthy nation to lend a hand when it's needed and, as a democracy committed to human rights, to speak out about atrocities and condemn and sanction the perpetrators of these crimes. In this place I've tried since being elected in 2016 to speak up on human rights abuses around the world, whether it's speaking up about the Uyghur people's persecution in China, the religious persecution of the Baha'i in northern Yemen or in Iran, the Rohingya from Myanmar who've been forced into IDP camps or across the boarder into refugee camps in Bangladesh, the Kurdish communities in northern Syria and in Turkey, or even here at home with regard to upholding the rights of Australians. We should always try to do this as part of our democracy and as part of our responsibilities in this place.

Respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms has long been recognised as essential to efforts to build a more peaceful, harmonious and prosperous world. We know that, since 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other widely endorsed international human rights conventions have established a global framework for promoting respect for human rights. But, as important as it is to speak up and as important as it is for advocacy, our ability to deter human rights violations and enforce accountability for these actions has proven to be very difficult. In that sense, action and leverage with action is what is needed. It's clear that we need this new approach.

The human rights subcommittee has watched with interest the recent developments across many democracies. Canada, the US and Britain have all already enacted Magnitsky-style laws, and the European Union's new European Magnitsky Act will be formally signed off on by member states on 10 December—fittingly, on World Human Rights Day.

The US act was named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who in 2008 uncovered a deep web of tax fraud linked to the Kremlin and later died in mysterious circumstances in a Moscow prison. That bipartisan bill in the US was passed and signed into law by President Obama in 2012. It applies globally, authorising the US government to sanction those who it sees as human rights offenders, freeze their assets and ban them from entering the United States. It was the first bill of its kind in the world, and it was thanks to Magnitsky's friend Bill Browder, a prominent American-born businessman working extensively in the Russian Federation after the collapse of the USSR, who publicised the case and lobbied American officials to pass legislation sanctioning Russian individuals involved in corruption. Browder has also played a significant role in our own inquiry into the laws and in other nations worldwide.

Rather than sanctions against an entire nation, as we've heard, these Magnitsky-style laws allow governments to sanction organisers, accomplices and co-conspirators of human rights abuse directly and personally—individuals. These laws seek to make those responsible for human rights violations and corruption accountable by imposing restrictive measures, including entry bans and financial sanctions, including asset freezing.

The second-most-important function of these laws is to expose publicly the names of human rights abusers. As Amal Clooney, one of our witnesses at the inquiry, put it when she appeared during our committee hearings:

You may not be able to solve every … abuse, but you can make sure that your country is not a safe haven for despots and war criminals.

When Britain legislated their Magnitsky laws in 2018, 49 individuals were immediately sanctioned, including Alexander Bastrykin, a former first deputy prosecutor-general of Russia, who failed to investigate the death of Mr Magnitsky. It also included six members of Saudi Arabian crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's inner sanctum and members of Myanmar's military responsible for the genocide against the Rohingya population.

The human rights subcommittee launched our inquiry into Magnitsky laws on 4 December last year, and since then we've received over 150 published submissions from a wide range of organisations and individuals and we've heard testimony from a number of prominent international witnesses, including human rights lawyers—as I mentioned, Amal Clooney as well as and Geoffrey Robertson QC, who did a power of work and contribution in his submissions—former Canadian Attorney General Irwin Cotler, former president of the British supreme court Lord Neuberger and the man credited with founding the global Magnitsky campaign, Bill Browder himself.

I would also like to put on the record that a lot of people did great work to get us to this point in this place. I acknowledge too the former member for Melbourne Ports, Michael Danby, for his tremendous efforts. He was tireless, he was insistent and he was persistent, and sometimes that effort of an individual really can make such a big difference. He should be commended for that. I also want to acknowledge the efforts of my fellow members of the Human Rights Subcommittee. I would like to acknowledge the committee chair, the member for Menzies, and thank him for his terrific work. I acknowledge the deputy chair, the member for Fowler, Chris Hayes, and the secretariat for their great work in putting such a great report together.

I believe that this is a step we should take. We have to take it; we must take it. Labor's shadow foreign minister, Penny Wong, often speaks about the need to have Australian values, like respect for human rights, at the centre of our foreign policies and as the core elements of how we do our foreign affairs. Most would agree that the world we live in today shows that this is really more important and necessary than ever. It doesn't matter where in the world human rights abuses are occurring, it is our responsibility and possibly our duty. I would say it is our duty, as political leaders, political representatives, within a democracy such as we have in Australia, to speak out against those human rights abuses and sanction the perpetrators. Magnitsky style laws will allow us to do that. They would add to our existing legislative framework and help to combat human rights abuses abroad, as well as to defend our democratic institutions. Such sanctions would have a particularly powerful effect in Australia, given our position of influence, particularly in our region. We should do so because it also adds to our ability to show leadership in our region. It is, in many respects, our most obvious next step. The Australian government should move forward without delay with Magnitsky style laws to promote and defend human rights and to curb sustained and systematic human rights abuses. I commend this report and hope that the government—with our support, with bipartisan support—moves quickly towards passage of such legislation.

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