Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Pursuant to standing order 78(3), I do object to the withdrawal of business of the Senate notice of motion No. 1 proposing this disallowance, and I ask that the notice stand in my name. I move:

That the Extradition (United Arab Emirates) Regulations 2010, as contained in Select Legislative Instrument 2010 No. 36 and made under the Extradition Act 1988, be disallowed.

In a nutshell, this debate offers an opportunity for us to put our concerns on the record, and I would like to add my remarks to those of Senator Kroger. Our issues are partly the principles of the issues that are tied up in this extradition treaty, but also the poor governance in the way that the executive determines our treaties rather than the parliament. I have sat on the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties for a couple of years, as has Senator Kroger, and the joint standing committee raised serious concerns in the instance of this extradition treaty once the agreement had been signed. Now the parliament is confronted with it once it has been signed. Our concerns are very similar to Senator Kroger’s. I know that we had very similar correspondence as the minister was receiving. We are not satisfied at all with the statement that has just been tabled by Senator Lundy because it makes no material difference whatsoever to the way that the treaty will operate in practice. I am glad that Senator Kroger moved this disallowance motion; I am very disappointed that the opposition, at the 11th hour, will not be seeking to support it.

The Greens with the minister raised six key concerns with this treaty, most notably that Australia should not be signing extradition treaties with countries not party to important international covenants such as the Convention against Torture and the ICCPR. This treaty sets up a very dangerous and shameful precedent because all of the other 35 countries that we have extradition treaties with are parties to the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, so we are crossing a line with this one this afternoon with the UAE.

Many stakeholders have written to us on the human rights and justice concerns, and these should not be sacrificed in the name of strengthening a trading relationship. We have sought stronger provisions and not ministerial discretion. I have not had the opportunity to go through in detail the statement that Senator Lundy has just tabled, but I understand it does progress the debate somewhat. We were not seeking greater ministerial discretion; we were seeking a stronger treaty.

Other countries such as the UK have safeguards in their treaties with the UAE to protect the rights of their citizens. Quite a high profile High Court case in the United Kingdom ruled that the UK could not rely on diplomatic assurances from the UAE government that one particular individual would not be subject to torture or inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment as per article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. We have no such convention here in Australia and no such benchmarks to protect human rights in Australia or overseas because we have not yet implemented our obligations under the ICCPR into a bill of rights, and that was one of the more important failures of the Rudd-Gillard government thus far.

So the clauses that the government has inserted, the language that has been tabled by Senator Lundy, is certainly welcomed, but it results in no material change whatsoever to the treaty that is before us. Amnesty International’s 2008 report outlines the key risks from the UAE legal system, and this document makes for hair-raising reading: incommunicado detention without charge; torture; imprisonment for criticism of the government; cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment, including death by stoning; and abuse of migrant workers’ rights. The UAE has not signed and is not a signatory to the Convention against Torture or the ICCPR; nor are they a signatory to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or the Convention of the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.

We are about to sign an extradition treaty with the UAE which, for some reason, seems to be entirely content with these lapses. Pursuing stronger strategic partnerships with our friends in the Middle East should not come at the expense of our stance on human and civil rights. I will be, as I am sure Senator Kroger will be, pursuing these issues very strongly within the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, but, as I have taken this disallowance motion in my own name, I strongly commended it to the chamber.