Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of this House, I welcome the President of the Senate and honourable senators as guests to this sitting of the House of Representatives. We're gathering in this manner in order to hear an address via video link from His Excellency Mr Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine. Welcome, Mr President.

His Excellency Mr Volodymyr Zelensk yy having been announced and a video link having been made—

On behalf of the Parliament of Australia, I'm proud to be able to extend a very warm welcome to you from the House of Representatives chamber as you join us from Ukraine. Now I invite the honourable Prime Minister of Australia and then the honourable Leader of the Opposition to make some welcoming remarks.

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, Ukraine and Australia are separated by half the earth. Our languages, accents, histories and cultures are different, but we share an affinity for democracy, freedom, freedom of speech, expression and a free press, for the right to live free of coercion, intimidation and the brute fist of force and a belief in our shared human dignity. Mr President, the people of Australia stand with Ukraine in your fight for survival. Yes, you have our prayers, but you also have our weapons, our humanitarian aid and our sanctions against those who seek to deny your freedom. You even have our coal. And there will be more. Today, I announced an additional package of defensive military assistance to assist in the defence of your homeland, including tactical decoys, unmanned aerial and unmanned ground systems, rations and medical supplies. Mr President, our pledge is that, when freedom prevails, Australia will help the people of Ukraine rebuild as well.

Here, today, in the home of Australia's democracy, we welcome you, Mr President, as a lion of democracy. We honour you and the incredible courage of your people, who you lead. We are witnesses to it, with all of those around the world. They are, as you call them, strong people of an indomitable country, and may that be so. We stand with you, Mr President, and we do not stand with the war criminal of Moscow. I know that man; you know that man. We know that man, Mr Speaker, and we know his regime. We have seen them unleash unspeakable horror against your children, your hospitals and your shelters. We remember the downing of a civilian airliner carrying 298 innocents, including 38 Australians, and we remember them also on this day. In their name, and in the name of 25 million Australians and their elected representatives, I welcome you, Mr President. I welcome you to our parliament. I welcome a great friend of Australia.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) | Link to this | Hansard source

Your Excellency, our parliament is honoured by your presence here with us and your address. You and the brave Ukrainian people are pushing back the tide of tyranny. For you to share precious minutes with us at a time like this is an act of profound generosity, and we thank you. What we see in Ukraine are terrible echoes of the devastation inflicted by Hitler's forces in World War II, a devastation that was felt by your own family. Vladimir Putin's aggression in the name of a poisonous, nationalistic lie is abhorrent. Putin, and the regime that enables him, will be met with determination and escalating consequences if he continues to prosecute this illegal war. Putin's attempt to divide the West has drawn us closer together and strengthened our commitment to our shared values, values that include the very freedom and sovereignty that rightfully belong to Ukraine. The Ukrainian people have known the cruelty of tyrants before. Those tyrants are gone, but Ukraine goes on.

As you stand up to this latest tyrant, you are showing us what true courage is. Your Excellency, it is a courage that is embodied by you. You are fighting for your country and your people. You are fighting for your own family. We are here to hear your words. So let me conclude with the words that resound amongst democratic and freedom-loving peoples the world over: slava Ukraini!

Andrew Wallace (Speaker) | Link to this | Hansard source

President Zelenskyy, Your Excellency, I now invite you to address members of the House of Representatives and senators. You have our attention. You now have the floor.

HIS EXCELLENCY Mr ZELENSKYY (President of Ukraine) (17:37): [by video link] [Translation] Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition, ladies and gentlemen, members of the cabinet, senators, members of the parliament and the people of Australia: thank you for this honour to have this address today. In May 2016, thousands of Australians came to the city of Perth to see for the first time the Ukrainian plane Mriya—Dream—as we call it. This was our plane, An-225. Mriya in English means 'dream'. Having travelled almost 15,000 kilometres, it brought urgent cargo, a power generator of 130 tonnes, which was very important to one of your companies. If they had to wait for the shipment to arrive through the sea, it would have taken months. The Ukrainian plane did it in a couple of days. We have always been proud of Dream, not because it was the largest but because it was helping people in all countries of the world, bringing food, water and equipment for humanitarian and peacekeeping missions.

In 2019, after the beginning of the COVID pandemic, our Dream was delivering the most urgent medical cargo, things that were saving people's lives—adults and children—all over the world, in different countries. Our Dream was bringing life. Now this is not possible. This is not possible because there is a country which holds to completely different values—different from our values, from your values, from the values of the civilised world. This country started a full-fledged war against us. They are shelling our cities and villages. They are killing our civilians and children. They are creating sieges of our cities and holding hostage hundreds of thousands of people in these cities without water and food. They are abducting thousands of children, whom they transport to their territories.

On 27 February, as a result of fighting, our plane, our Dream, was destroyed. We can say that Russia destroyed our Dream. No: they just burnt down a plane—hardware, a shell, but not the essence, not the freedom, not the dignity, nor our independence. We know that our Dream is undefeatable and indestructible, especially if we can count on the support of the free world—on your support, on your assistance. Like in the history that I just told, we need it not just in a couple of months; we need it urgently—now.

Ladies and gentlemen, the people of Australia: the distance between our countries, as you said, is big. It's thousands of kilometres. We are separated by oceans, seas, territories of dozens of other countries, and time zones. But there is no such thing as distance for the brutality and chaos that Russia brought to the east of Ukraine, into the region of our Black Sea and Azov Sea, to our Ukrainian land. Whatever is happening in our region because of the Russian aggression that is destroying the lives of people has become a real threat to your country and to your people as well, because this is the nature of evil. It can instantly cross any distance, any barriers, and destroy lives.

Over dozens of years, there hasn't been this threat of nuclear attack as we have now, because Russian representatives, officials—official propagandists—are openly discussing the possibility of using nuclear weapons against those who don't want to be subdued by Russian commands. For dozens of years, it has never been the case that a country would block the whole sea for other vessels, from any country. But this is exactly what was done by Russia. These days any vessel trying to come into the Black Sea and Azov Sea can simply be destroyed by the Russian navy. Hundreds of trade vessels under different flags have been blocked by Russia in our ports for dozens of years, but we haven't seen this in the world—for a country to start a war against their neighbouring country, openly declaring their enslavement or destruction and not leaving even the name of that nation, not even giving any opportunity for this nation to live freely.

The worst pages of the 20th century have been brought back by Russia already. The biggest threats of that century came back—the evil that humanity thought they had forgotten about a long time ago. But the most terrible thing is that if we don't stop Russia now, if we don't hold Russia accountable, then some other countries who were looking forward to a similar war against their neighbours will decide that such things are possible for them as well. The fate of global security is decided now. No-one can manage winds or precipitation. That means no-one can save any part of the world from the radioactive contamination which will come if nuclear weapons are used. No country in the world can have even a theoretical possibility of blocking trade fleets and blocking the seas for other countries. There shouldn't be even a theoretical possibility of doing so. No leader of the world can count on being unpunishable if he's thinking about prospective war.

Ladies and gentlemen, the nation of Australia, after more than a month of the full-fledged war against Russia, we can surely say that the only way of bringing global security is bringing Russia to peace and silence and responsibility and accountability for everything that Russia has done against global security. A country which is using nuclear blackmailing should receive the sanctions which would show that such blackmailing is destructive for the blackmailer itself. There has to be an effective toolkit to hold responsible any country which is blocking trade navigation, so no-one will have a temptation to close any sea and make a 'Dead Sea' out of them.

So far we don't have such instruments, so the leadership of Australia can be paramount for global security, which is now strengthened by our antiwar coalition, which is working on bringing peace back to Ukraine. We need to also enhance the capabilities of the international institutions which were created to hold military war criminals responsible, and anyone who would commit such crimes to be punished by the solidarity of the whole world, and not one country. Had this been done in a timely manner, life in this world would have been more secure, times more secure.

I'm sure that any of you and any of us remember the MH17 tragedy, when the Malaysian Boeing was shot down by Russian occupants over the Donbas sea. Two hundred and ninety people died at that time, and my condolences to all those who lost relatives and their kin. But did we manage to hold accountable those who caused this tragedy? No. They are hiding in the territory of Russia, and obviously they've got security guarantees from Russia. Has Russia paid compensation to the dead and their families? No. And they are still denying their fault in this tragedy. Eight years later, justice was not achieved. We don't know how much longer it will take for at least one tragedy to have a proper response from the international community, from all of us—how many new tragedies Russia has created or will create. So the unpunished evil comes back. I would say unpunished evil comes back with inspiration, with a feeling of almightiness. If the world had punished Russia in 2014 for what it did, there wouldn't be any of this terror of invasion in Ukraine in 2022. We have to correct such horrible mistakes and correct them now.

The bipartisan support of Australia for Ukraine, the support that has been provided—we are extremely grateful. There is 70,000 tonnes of coal for our energy. But this is only the beginning. Together we can and should do more. We need new sanctions against Russia, powerful sanctions, until they stop blackmailing other countries with their nuclear missiles. They have to pay the highest price for blocking the sea. No Russian vessel should be allowed in other international ports. Buying their oil means paying for the destruction of global security. We have to stop any business activity of Russia. No single dollar should be spent on the destruction of people, no single dollar should be spent on the destruction of global security. And we have to stop any intention of Russia to bypass the sanctions. What kind of sanctions are those if you can bypass them by using simple, non-cunning schemes?

Most of all we have to keep those who are fighting against this evil armed, for the evil to be looking for peace. This has to be decided on the battlefield. For example, you have very good armoured vehicles, Bushmasters, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment could strengthen our position in terms of armaments. If you have an opportunity to share these with us, we would be very grateful. In Ukraine, they will do much more for our common freedom and common security than staying parked on your land.

Ukrainian people have demonstrated to the whole world how much we appreciate freedom and how committed we are to the protection thereof. Our heroes are fighting against an army which is considered one of the strongest of the world, but all of our people without exception are already thinking about the future, about how we are going to live after the war, about restoring our country, our Black Sea region. We invite prominent countries of the world, leading companies and the best experts to join the project of restoration of Ukraine, to take a city or a sector under your auspices that would require restoration.

Your country has provided a special status, a like-minded country, and we are like minded not only in our thoughts but also in our longing for peace. So I would like to invite and welcome your country to have a look at our southern regions, at our Black Sea shore, the development of such ports and cities like the city of Kherson, which is fighting for its freedom. The rebuilding of the naval sector in Ukraine could also be a great contribution in the restoration after the war. The protection of free naval training would be a big contribution, because those who can protect freedom in the sea can protect it in the world, and I believe that you can do it. I am sure that our Ukrainian community will join this common work of ours and that you will support us as strongly as you have done in the past.

Dear friends, the geographical distance between us is huge—thousands of kilometres. But what does this distance mean for those who have common understanding, who see the world with the same vision for those who are similarly hurting at what is happening? When the enemy comes, when children are killed, when cities are destroyed, when refugees are shot on the highways, when Ukraine is turned into the burnt-out territory then any distances disappear. Geography doesn't matter then. What matters is humanity and the dream—the dream of bringing back peaceful life, the dream that we will implement, indeed, together. Thank you, Australia. Slava Ukraini.

Mr President, on behalf of the House and the Australian parliament, I want to thank you for your address. Over recent days, we in this parliament have debated the situation in Ukraine and, of course, we have been shocked and horrified by the images from across your country. Today, you have added to our understanding with your powerful words about your experiences, the experiences of your people and the tragic situation in your country. It is apparent that you and your fellow Ukrainians have faced this challenge with great courage. We acknowledge and admire your strong leadership. On behalf of this parliament, we wish you well for the future. Our prayers are with you and the people of Ukraine.

Sitting suspended from 17:55 to 19:30