Craig Kelly (Hughes, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I have some amendments to move before the third reading, but I'd like to briefly make a few comments on these particular bills, the Customs Amendment (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2021 and Customs Tariff Amendment (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation) Bill 2021. They relate to the implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which Australia is a party to with other nations. I would like to quickly go through those: Brunei; Cambodia; Indonesia; Laos; Malaysia; Myanmar; the Philippines; Singapore; Thailand; Vietnam; Japan; New Zealand; South Korea, formally the Republic of Korea; of course, us, Australia; and, finally, the behemoth amongst all of those nations—China.

I am a great supporter of free trade, but all nations also have to respect the rules. If each nation is able to take advantage of its competitive advantage, it benefits us all. We all end up with greater resources and greater wealth. But the problem we have, amongst the many madnesses that have come across this nation over the recent few years and especially this recent year, is the idea that we will enter into some other international agreement which will put brakes and limitations upon our economy—I am talking about good old net zero by 2050—but those exact same brakes will not apply to China, who of course is a partner in this economic partnership.

When we go down the track of grandstanding in this place, as we all often like to, and say, 'We're going to support net zero by 2050,' and that doesn't apply to our largest trading partner, China, let's be very clear what we are doing. We are putting our nation at a competitive disadvantage—economically, politically and militarily—against the Chinese Communist Party, which is currently running China. Everything under that net zero policy puts our economy at a disadvantage but strengthens the Chinese economy. What type of politician would get elected to the Australian federal parliament or one of our state parliaments and implement and advocate for policies that put our nation at an economic, political and military disadvantage next to China? Unfortunately, that appears to be over 95 per cent of the politicians who have been elected to this parliament. We need to think very carefully about the security risks that our nation has ahead. We cannot simply focus on the idealistic world of free trade if, in doing so, at the same time we are going to be putting our economy at a competitive disadvantage.

One of the amendments moved by the opposition—amendment (2)—calls for the government to adopt the recommendations of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties in relation to Myanmar to introduce Magnitsky-style laws and place targeted sanctions on regimes. There is a good argument that we should employ those Magnitsky-style laws to greater effect and try to put sanctions on those other nations that are abusing human rights—nations that authorise their police force to fire rubber bullets into the backs of unarmed, fleeing protesters. If we see that, we should call it out internationally. There are nations where police officers take a rifle, turn it upside down and spear it into the spine of a protester laying on the ground. When we see things like that, we should call it out. When we see someone laying on the ground, being held down by a police officer and having his head stomped, we should call out those human rights abuses. When we see knees flying into the kidneys of an unarmed protester, we should call that out because that is a violation of human rights. I am not talking about what is happening in some totalitarian regime in some developing nation. I have just given examples of what is happening here in the nation of Australia when it comes to abuses of human rights. So if we're going to go on some frolic—and we rightly should call out Myanmar for their abuses of human rights—we've got to clean up our own act first. We've got to stop those abuses of human rights happening in our country.

Let me give you another example of why Magnitsky laws are important. There is an article that we are a signatory to—the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights. And where we see breaches of that declaration, anywhere around the world, we should call it out. I'll give you one section of that particular declaration of human rights, article 3, which states, 'Human dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms are to be fully respected.' One of the greatest fundamental freedoms is the right to go to work, the right to do your job, the right to employment. And yet that fundamental freedom is being taken away and suspended around the nation of Australia today. Also, article 6 reads:

Any preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic medical intervention is only to be carried out with the prior, free and informed consent of the person concerned, based on adequate information. The consent should, where appropriate, be express and may be withdrawn by the person concerned at any time and for any reason without disadvantage or prejudice.

And yet every state government in this nation is currently violating that section of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights by putting sanctions and prejudice and disadvantage on people simply because they have not wanted, for whatever reason, to participate in a global medical experiment. If we're going to ahead and criticise other nations for their abuse of human rights, we firstly need to clean up our own act here. As I foreshadowed, I will otherwise support these bills, but I will be raising a couple of amendments in the third reading stage.

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