Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 30 September this year a group of young people were studying for their exams, just as many young people in Australia are currently studying for the HSC. But the difference is that these young people were studying at a centre in Kabul. They were Hazara. As they were studying, a suicide attack occurred, and 35 young girls lost their lives and 82 others were injured.

Although Australia is a long way away from Afghanistan, I think it's appropriate that this parliament records that it is not a crime to be a young woman studying to go to university, it is not a crime to be born Hazara and it is not a crime to hope for freedom. I've read the diary entries of one of the young girls killed. She recorded her hopes and dreams. It wasn't anything too fancy. She wanted to go to Italy and eat pizza. She wanted to visit Paris and climb the Eiffel Tower. She wanted to study and go to university. These dreams will not be fulfilled.

The Hazara people have been through years of attacks and oppression. There was a window of light for the Hazara community, particularly females, but that window of light was slammed shut with the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan. In September an inquiry was conducted by our colleagues in Great Britain. The British parliamentarians published a report into the dire situation of the Hazara people. They used a term which is not used lightly and should not be used lightly—it would never be used lightly in this House; certainly not by me—and that term is 'genocide'. While it should not be used lightly it is an appropriate use of the term an attempted genocide.

There was a time when the Taliban probably didn't care what the West thinks of them. I'm advised that that time is passed and they now care. Let me make it very clear that this is unacceptable, to the Taliban and to anybody. The Hazara people—Hazara young women in particular, who had the hopes and dreams of an education—deserve the protection of their government, not to be killed with, at the very least, the tacit consent of the government of Afghanistan and arguably worse. I'm sure all honourable members in Australia of all persuasions join with me in sending the strongest possible message to the Taliban that whatever Australia can do—as hard as it is and as far as we are away, we will stand with the Hazara people. We will stand with young women in particular, who deserve to have their hopes, dreams and aspirations protected and respected.