Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to raise in the parliament an issue that has been receiving a lot of media attention of late—that is, the situation of the Australian citizen David Hicks, who is being held in Guantanamo Bay. This issue has received very little attention in our parliament and I think that comes from the fact that he is charged with some serious offences, and I think no-one on any side of the House would be supportive of people being involved in such activities. However, Mr Hicks has not been convicted of any offence. He has not had the opportunity yet to put his defence anywhere in a fair trial process. He has been held now for 4½ years without trial in circumstances which none of us would ever contemplate a constituent in our electorate being held in were they detained or even charged with serious offences, such as murder and others, in Australia.

This is something that we do need to address as a country. It is an embarrassment to us that we have not been able to argue with the US that at least a fair trial process should apply. I am extremely concerned, as I would think members on both sides of the House would be, at the recent reports of three suicides at Guantanamo Bay. I have to say frankly that I was shocked at the language from the Pentagon that described these suicides not as acts of desperation but as ‘asymmetrical acts of warfare’. I think that, somehow or other, we have lost our way in this fight if we can use language in such an appalling manner.

I think it is up to the government to make all attempts to assure itself and to be able to confirm to the Australian public that, as he is an Australian citizen, it has made proper consular attempts to ascertain both the health of Mr Hicks and the conditions in which he is being held. A very well regarded academic expert in the US has said in recent weeks that holding people in solitary confinement in the conditions that have been reported widely, such as those in which Mr Hicks is being held, is a form of sensory torture. None of us is there and none of us can know exactly what the conditions are, but all of us should stand united against the use of torture. It is something that as a parliament we have opposed and which is not party political; it is something that we have never conceded is a proper method to be used in either the detention or the prosecution of any case against people. I do not think that the government has done enough to satisfy itself as to whether these claims are true, whether Mr Hicks as an Australian is being subjected to these sorts of conditions and whether more should be done to ensure that people are being held in proper conditions.

I also note that in the last couple of days the US has announced that it is suspending the military commission process. That obviously is mixed news. Labor have argued for a long time that the military commission process is not a fair process, and we know that a number of military insiders have argued that as well. However, to suspend the military commission process but then keep people in detention for year after year after year, in an apparently endless way, obviously does not resolve what has become quite a shameful situation.

We have also heard recent reports that Mr Hicks has had to turn to the UK government and is seeking citizenship there. Again it is an embarrassment for Australia that we cannot assure a citizen of their basic rights being argued for, such that that person goes to another country to try to get the protection of its citizenship. The reports say that the US is refusing the UK any consular access to Mr Hicks, which apparently is required as part of the citizenship application process that he is going through. The poor man is in no man’s land as it is, and he continues to be both in a legal sense and in a military sense.

I do not have any sympathy for people who are charged with being involved in terrorist acts. I do not have any sympathy, frankly, for people who are charged with acts of murder. But every day in our courts in Australia those people are still entitled to the basic rights of a fair trial and to basic humane treatment while they are being detained awaiting that trial. That is what I am asking for. This Australian citizen has now been detained for 4½ years and it is an embarrassment to us that the Australian government is not paying more attention to the conditions he is being held in and ensuring that he gets a fair trial.