Chris Bowen (Prospect, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I have done previously, I rise today to speak about human rights in Vietnam, a matter I know is also particularly important to the honourable member for Oxley and the honourable member for Fowler. Since February, there has been a crackdown on human rights in Vietnam, which has made a bad situation even worse. This picture of Father Nguyen Van Ly being gagged in a court in Vietnam is nothing short of a disgrace. It is an example of democracy being undermined in a country very close to Australia.

I would also like to pay particular reference today to the plight of the Khmer people in Vietnam. The Khmer people suffered in Cambodia, and the Australian government played a significant role in bringing democracy to Cambodia. But the Khmer people continue to suffer in Vietnam. There are eight million Khmers in Kampuchea-Krom who are suffering under human rights oppression in that southern region of Vietnam. Everybody in Vietnam suffers from human rights abuse, but the Khmer people suffer particular abuse. An officer of the United States Embassy to Bangkok, John Crowley, who also served in Australia, wrote that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam seeks to destroy Khmer culture in Vietnam through subtle means such as forbidding the construction of new temples and the repair of old temples and banning the ordination of priests under the age of 55. All people, not just the Khmer people, in Vietnam deserve to have democracy. All people in Vietnam deserve the basic rights that we in Australia expect. (Time expired)