Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister advise the House of steps the government can take to assist Australians who have been arrested and convicted for drug offences in Asia?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, can I thank the honourable member for Boothby for his question and for his interest. Let me begin by making this point perfectly clear: the Australian government regards drug trafficking as an extremely serious offence. It is the view of the Australian government that we should do all we reasonably can to stop the trafficking of drugs into Australia. We work with other countries in the region and beyond the region in order to achieve that objective, and we do that unapologetically because we do that in the interests of protecting the Australian community. We know we are protecting the lives of Australians by stopping drug trafficking. A number of Australians are facing charges overseas; there are 223 in total in 56 countries. Of those people, 54 are facing drug charges and 22 are facing drug charges in Asia. In terms of those who have been sentenced, there are 188 Australians serving sentences overseas. Of those, 87 have drug related convictions and 42 of those are in Asia. The simple point is that there are a high number of Australians who have been arrested and convicted for trafficking in drugs, and these people should not have been trafficking in drugs in the first place.

In the second place, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, through our embassies and consulates overseas, do, if people are arrested, provide consular assistance—that is, consular officers visit those arrested as soon as possible; they give them a list of local lawyers; they continue to visit them regularly; they attend trials if possible, which is usually the case; they keep families informed; they monitor the situation to ensure that Australians in custody are treated properly; and they take up with prison authorities any well-founded concerns about a prisoner’s health, ill-treatment or security.

I am sure all honourable members know this, but I think more broadly in the community it needs to be remembered that the Australian government cannot intervene in legal cases in other countries, just as we do not intervene in court processes in Australia in the normal course of events. Of course, we would not tolerate foreign governments intervening in our own courts or legal processes either. We cannot just get Australians released from prison. We cannot, if you like, launch rescue missions into other countries. At the end of the day it is up to individuals to take responsibility for their own behaviour.

In conclusion, and I said this yesterday, when it comes to Australians being sentenced to death, we will always plead for clemency for those people—that is, for the death sentence to be commuted to a substantial custodial sentence. In the case of the two Australians who were sentenced to death yesterday by the Denpasar District Court in Bali, they will be able to appeal that sentence to the Bali High Court and, if they are unsuccessful, subsequently to the Supreme Court of Indonesia. Through this process we have made clear and we will continue to make it clear to the Indonesian government that we would always seek an act of clemency by the President if the appeals fail.

But that is not to detract from the very harsh view this government has of anybody who traffics drugs, including obviously heroin, because the consequences of drug trafficking for the people of Australia are very severe. Drug trafficking costs lives, and we do what we can to protect the lives of Australians, including of course seeking clemency for those who are sentenced to death. We have two Australians who have been sentenced to death in Vietnam, and we are making representations in support of a clemency appeal for them to the President of Vietnam. We have one in China, and we obviously make representations there, although in that particular case the Australian has been given a suspended death sentence. The final sentence will be determined on the basis of his behaviour in prison. We do seek clemency but, having said that, people who get involved in drug trafficking in Asia know the consequences. They should understand the consequences and they should understand that we do cooperate with our regional partners in order to try to crack down on drug trafficking so we can save lives in Australia.