Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

to move:

That this House:

(1)

recognise that:

(a)

across all conflicts, from the Boer War to the Korean War, some 35,000 Australians were held as Prisoners of War (POW);

(b)

PoWs suffered unimaginable trauma with 8000 dying in captivity;

(c)

many PoWs are now in their 80s and that due recognition needs to be urgently given to their experiences; and

(d)

Australian Ex-PoWs have worked to compile the list of Australians held as prisoners during wartime and that their names now appear on a memorial in Ballarat; and

(2)

acknowledge that for Australian PoWs the memorial in Ballarat has national significance.4T4Melham, Daryl, MP 0Mr Melham to move:That this House:

(1)

note:

(a)

the recent report by independent experts for the United Nations Human Rights Commission that calls for the immediate closure of the United States military’s Guantanamo Bay detention centre;

(b)

that United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, has strongly supported the call for the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility;

(c)

that the United Nations investigators held that view that the legal regime applied to the persons detained at Guantanamo Bay seriously undermines the rule of law and a number of fundamental universally recognised human rights;

(d)

that numerous eminent international and Australian lawyers, including former High Court judge Mary Gaudron, have expressed the view that the United States Military Commission process applied to Guantanamo Bay detainees is fundamentally flawed and contrary to the rule of law and the right to a fair trail; and

(e)

that an Australian citizen, Mr David Hicks, has now been detained at Guantanamo Bay without trial for more than four years; and

(2)

call on the Australian Government to:

(a)

repudiate its support for Mr Hicks’ detention and prospective trial by a United States Military Commission;

(b)

take all necessary measures to ensure that Mr Hicks is dealt with according to international recognised standards of justice, most importantly the right to a fair trial; and

(c)

support the United Nations Secretary-General’s call for the immediate closure of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. (Notice given 2 March 2006.)

02/03/2006 116Thursday, 2 March 2006

————

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Hon. IR Causley) took the chair at 9.30 am.