Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Two weeks ago I met with Yari, Marcela, Sara, Anais and Camilla of Chile Woke Up Brisbane to discuss the ongoing human rights abuses being perpetrated in Chile. In October 2019, Chileans staged demonstrations against the rising cost of public transport—a country where many rely on this transport. The protests subsequently expanded to address broader inequality and cost-of-living issues facing the country. More than one million people took to the streets of Santiago, demanding a more just society and government action to secure their rights to health, water, education and social security.

Despite some lumpy economic progress in recent decades, inequality is still deeply entrenched in Chile. Many folk, even those with professions, including medical expertise, struggle with the cost of living, high prices, low wages and a privatised retirement system that leaves many older people in bitter poverty.

Faith in politics in Chile has been eroded by a series of corruption and tax-evasion scandals. The people want things to change. Rather than taking action to address the demands of Chilean citizens, on 19 October this year the President, Sebastian Pinera, declared a state of emergency. He cancelled APEC 2019 and he cancelled the climate change conference COP25 due to be held in the country. He called on the government's security forces to suppress the protests.

Throughout the weeks of protests, Amnesty International has raised concerns about the excessive and indiscriminate use of force by the Chilean national police and possible arbitrary detention of demonstrators. By late November, reports indicated that at least 26 people had been killed. At a small march in La Serena, soldiers opened fire on protesters. Twenty-six-year-old Romario Veloz was walking calmly in the peaceful protest, and died from a gunshot wound to the neck. Forty-one-year-old Rolando Robledo was shot in the chest and spent several days in a coma. Officials did not help either of those men. In fact, the army fired again on protesters who were trying to help them and on others who were wounded.

In Corico, 25-year-old Jose Miguel Uribe was shot in the chest by a soldier at an improvised roadblock. Officials did not help Jose, and he died from his injuries. Alex Nunez, 39, was crossing a demonstration in Santiago when he was stopped by three police officers. Alex was thrown to the ground and kicked violently. He later died from injuries sustained during the vicious beating. Manuel Rebolledo, 23, was run over by a soldier and killed.

The Chilean Public Prosecutor's Office has recorded numerous complaints of rape or sexual abuse by security forces. Yari and Marcela told me of female friends who had suffered violence and who were now too scared to attend protests. Misuse of teargas and riot weapons is rife. A 15-year-old girl at a peaceful gathering in Santiago was hit by multiple pellets fired by a police officer from a moving car.

The National Human Rights Institute in Chile reports thousands more injuries, including more than 1,400 people with gunshot wounds and more than 200 suffering eye trauma from beatings, pellets and tear gas, and that more than 7,000 people have been detained. This is just a sample of the abuses that Yari, Marcela, Sara, Anais and Camilla raised with me just a fortnight ago. According to Amnesty's Americas director, Erika Guevara-Rosas:

The intention of the Chilean security forces is clear: to injure demonstrators in order to discourage protest …

For Yari, Marcela and others in the Brisbane Chilean community, this violent repression of protests is particularly distressing. That's not just because they're worried about their own families and friends back in Chile but because many of them recall the horrifying incidents of the Pinochet dictatorship that led to their families seeking refuge in Australia in the first place, decades earlier.

The growing civil unrest is not isolated to Chile. From Extinction Rebellion protests in the UK and Australia to the uprisings in Hong Kong, Bolivia and Lebanon, communities are increasingly frustrated by inequality, by politicians who won't listen and by governments that favour the interests of their corporate donors over the interests of people and the planet. In Australia, we've seen massive climate strikes met with draconian anti-protest laws enacted in Queensland. There are even worse laws being considered in Tasmania, and the Prime Minister of the nation is proposing to crack down on secondary boycotts against those who speak against corporate interests. We need to turn this trend around. The Australian government must speak up against the human rights abuses being committed in Chile, but it must also recommit to democratic principles. It must listen to the legitimate concerns being raised by people across the country and respect the right to protest.