Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I would like to make a similar response. The first thing I would point out here is that that is the same response we got from Labor over the issue of self-determination for the people of East Timor during the 26 years in which that beleaguered people were under the boot of the Indonesian military. The second thing is that the minister has said that there is no evidence that Miss Rebiya Kadeer is a terrorist. Well, I submit that there is a lot of evidence that the government in Beijing creates enormous terror, particularly for people who are seeking democracy, religious freedom, their human rights and their right to the health of their own cultures. I would ask the government, if it is going to make a reverse implication that there is no evidence, to refute, if it will—and silence on this will be noted—that the government in Beijing serially breach international law, including through torture and the death of prisoners whose only crime is to seek self-determination or freedom, whether they be in Tibet or East Turkistan, or democrats simply campaigning for the rights and freedoms that we have in this Australian democracy in their home country of China.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.