Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is United Nations Day, a day to pay tribute to the most important body we have for maintaining international peace and security, devising and upholding international frameworks and protecting human rights worldwide. With challenges like the Rohingya humanitarian emergency, a combative and volatile US President, global poverty and the threat of climate change, the role of the United Nations has never been more critical.

It's a great privilege for Australia to have been recently elected to the UN Human Rights Council, but with this opportunity comes a very serious responsibility to ensure that our own human rights record is exemplary. So it's time to reverse this government's shameful record of indefinite detention of asylum seekers and our abject failure to address Indigenous disadvantage in all its forms. Upholding human rights at home is essential if we are to respond with moral authority to human rights breaches abroad. This is an unprecedented opportunity for Australia and one that we should absolutely grab with both hands.