Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move an amendment to the motion in the words as circulated in the chamber:

Omit all words after “That”, substitute “the Senate—

(a)

notes that:

(i)

the suffering of the ‘comfort women’ in the 1930s and 1940s was an appalling episode in Japan’s history and that of the Asia Pacific region, and that there can be no disputing the facts of what occurred and the pain that it caused to those affected,

(ii)

the position of successive Australian governments has been that the 1951 Peace Treaty, which Australia signed, legally at the time of signing addressed the crimes committed by Japan before and during World War II, and

(iii)

the 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono officially acknowledged the Japanese Government’s findings, including its involvement in the comfort women system;

(b)

encourages the new Prime Minister of Japan to acknowledge and officially apologise to comfort women by introducing such a resolution in the Diet; and

(c)

encourages the Japanese Government to take further steps to recognise the full history of its nation, by taking historical responsibility and accurately teaching the history of comfort women in its schools.

Question put.