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

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Defence, representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to questions without notice asked by Senator Ludlam relating to the situation in Burma.

Today we are remembering the courage and the endurance of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the democratically elected leader of Burma who, for most of the last two decades, has been under house arrest in some form and who, after a closed-door trial, was yesterday sentenced to be isolated in her home for at least another 18 months. Why will she be locked in her home for at least another 548 days? Because a United States man, uninvited, swam to her residence—a residence that was meant to be guarded by the Burmese military regime headed by General Than Shwe. That is the proximate excuse but, in reality, she will spend another birthday alone because the regime is so terrified of this woman and everything she stands for, her endurance and her determination to non-violently resist the repression of one of the worst military regimes in the world.

The regime is very afraid of her participation in any form in the 2010 elections, which will be entirely illegitimate if they proceed under the constitution that our foreign minister has quite correctly called a sham. This constitution reserves a quarter of representation in the parliament for military personnel. It reserves key portfolios, including defence, home affairs and border areas, for military personnel. The constitution is flawed and it fails to achieve any basic democratic standards, including by precluding women from running for major office.

Burma is being controlled by an oppressive and brutal regime—of this we can be absolutely certain. Australia has a very important role to play in applying diplomatic pressure and assisting with a coordinated and effective international response. We certainly welcome, and I think all sides of politics welcome, the very rapid comments made by the foreign minister and the Prime Minister last night when the news broke about the sentencing of Suu Kyi. I would also like to add a note of thanks or appreciation for the proposal to recommit to broadcasting Radio Australia into Burma. That is very welcome.

But of course the situation in the country is still exceptionally grim and unfortunately much of what we have seen in the last few years from the Australian governments of both flavours has been merely words. In November last year the regime sentenced another 200 individuals to extremely harsh prison sentences for political crimes. That brings the population of Burmese political prisoners to somewhere over 2,000 people. The suffering in this country has been going on for many years and, as such, it does not have the same effect as other conflicts might have on governments and on public opinion. We believe Burma suffers from a form of international fatigue. Behind closed doors and behind barbed wire and the walls erected by the military regime, the people of Burma suffer extreme repression while the military men—and they are mostly men—use all sorts of tactics to delay, threatening of further repression and reprisal, while they appease and placate and line pockets to secure their positions.

A very long list of countries—and I will not read them all out—that includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States have all called for a global arms embargo on Burma. So it is extremely significant that today the Australian government joined those calls. It is more than past time that Australia supported a global arms embargo that other likeminded countries have been pursuing. I was delighted to learn that the government is working with these governments internationally to advance such an embargo through the Security Council. What I would really welcome would be a more detailed statement—certainly more than the Minister for Defence was able to give in a minute or two—of exactly what avenues the Australian government is pursuing to this end.

It is high time that Australia ceased to allow companies to profit from the misery and suffering of the Burmese people and to stop providing legitimacy to the regime by allowing trade and investment in Burma. I think many people would not be aware that there is some flow of investment and trade between Burma and Australia, and it is high time that that ceased. There would never be a better opportunity than right now, in the wake of the sentencing. Targeted financial sanctions and travel sanctions on the regime are important and they are absolutely not enough. Australian companies profiting from oil and gas, pearls, timber and other trade in Burma are profiting from what a brutal regime is doing to an entire nation and it is time to stop. The defence minister this afternoon alluded to a tightening of sanctions. I am very interested to know exactly what that means. But it is high time that we prevented these bilateral flows of trade and investment.

Lastly, over a dozen Nobel laureates, academics and legal experts have called for the establishment of a Security Council commission of inquiry into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. We heard again some tough talk from very senior ALP representatives in the run-up to the last election and it is now time for that to be converted into action, because very little has occurred to date. In an open letter to the Security Council, these Nobel laureates and elders stated, ‘The decades-long struggle to end atrocities and repression and to bring about reconciliation is at a particularly crucial moment’— (Time expired)

Question agreed to.