Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Our goal, by adjusting sanctions, is to reward reforms and encourage further progress. Should the political process derail, then we will reinstate sanctions. The political situation remains fragile. Violence could return. There have been reports of political harassment and intimidation, including against civil society organisations. These include searches, arrests and detention on dubious charges. The Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights said on 18 January:

We are concerned about the crackdown on non-governmental organisations and dissenting voices seen as critical of President Robert Mugabe’s rule and apparently politically motivated prosecutions …

Nothing would give me and, I believe, all Australians greater pleasure than to see Zimbabwe return to the community of democracies—back to the Commonwealth, for example. That will be achieved by the delivery— (Time expired)