John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I spoke yesterday in the chamber about the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, an international treaty born out of the tragedy and bloodshed of the Second World War, and about the importance of the convention in providing protections and safeguards to so many who have been forced to flee from their homes and homelands. I said that as Australians we should be proud of our nation's role in the formulation of the convention, as we should be proud of our connection with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a treaty that celebrated its 60th anniversary three years ago and out of which the refugee convention grew. We should never forget that and we should never forget that article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

The Menzies government ratified and acceded to the refugee convention and enshrined into Australian law our commit­ment to some of the world's most vulnerable people.

Sixty years after the implementation of the convention, the international community continues to face enormous challenges in meeting the social, economic and human­itarian plight of refugees. Here in Australia we have largely been shielded from the global movement of refugees because of simple geography and the relative difficulty of arriving on our shores coupled with the very real danger of embarking on such a journey.

In 2010 there were 358,800 applications for asylum in industrialised countries. Of those 358,800 applications for asylum, Australia received 8,250. As a matter of comparison, Sweden, a country with less than half Australia's population, received 31,800 applications. Canada received 23,200 applications and the United States received a staggering 55,530 applications. The UNHCR puts the total number of asylum seekers worldwide at 837,500. I think that these comparisons tell a story in themselves.

Australia has had its own history of refugee movements. Our first real experience with mass arrival by boat—and I use the word 'mass' advisedly given international comparisons—was with those fleeing the newly unified Vietnam after the Vietnam War. The first boat to reach our shores arrived in Darwin in April 1976. Over the next five years 2,059 Vietnamese people arrived on our shores. It is now often forgotten that by the mid-1980s Australia offered a home to another 90,000 people languishing in refugee camps across South-East Asia. When the Fraser government negotiated for the settlement of the Vietnamese people affected by the decade-long war, few would have predicted what a positive and profound effect these people would have on our national identity and what a valuable contribution they would make to Australian society.

The same is true of the Chinese citizens allowed to stay by the Hawke government following the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Not only was this a recognition by the Australian government that Australia must play its part in the international community; it was a signal that we as a nation would not sit by as innocent people suffered for their beliefs and ideals, the very same beliefs and ideals that Australians enjoy and should never take for granted.

Sixty years is a long time. Many instruments and institutions of international law have come and gone over those decades. Few, however, have had the lasting effect of the refugee convention. Australia's role as an original signatory and ratifier is something I believe Australians should be very proud of. I hope that in this, the 60th year of the Geneva convention relating to the status of refugees, we can keep some of this history in mind, that we can keep in mind why the need for the refugee convention arose. An open mind should assist us to appreciate that, while circumstances now may be different to those faced by refugees after World War II, today's refugees are just as vulnerable as those Australia sought to help in previous decades.

The application of the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees to those who come to Australia is paramount. I for one will always stand up to argue Australian government policies must remain consistent with it. UNHCR Australia suggests that the refugee convention has helped over 50 million people restart their lives. This is an extraordinary achievement and one that I believe all nations involved should be proud of as we celebrate 60 years of the refugee convention.