Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade) Share this | Hansard source

Australians cherish their democratic institutions and the opportunity to go to a regular election. This weekend ASEAN leaders met in Malaysia. We have to admit and we have to now recognise as a country that the unresolved conflict in Burma is now a regional security threat and risk.

In late December there will be sham elections in Burma. The Australian government must stand by and commit itself to the preservation of democratic processes and the respect for human rights in Myanmar by not endorsing and by actively working to make sure that those sham elections, to be held in Burma in late December, are not legitimised—not by Australia and not by ASEAN nations.

The Myanmar conflict, as some call it, or Burma conflict, must be kept top of mind for this Australian government and for this parliament. Nothing should happen in the name of Australians to legitimise these sham elections in Burma in late December.