Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If an Australian citizen is imprisoned abroad without just cause it's an attack on the freedom of all Australians. Today I want to highlight the plight of one particular Australian citizen. He is a 71-year-old retired baker. His wife and two sons, who live in Bankstown in Sydney, are desperately worried about his welfare. The reports that have come from inside the prison are that despite his age and frail health the Australian is being subjected to hard labour and is being denied basic health care. In 2019 the man was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His crime was to be a member of an organisation that promotes democracy and human rights. His crime was to disagree with the Vietnamese government. The man is Van Kham Chau. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have both called for him to be released from a Thu Duc prison in Vietnam from what they say is surely a death sentence.

He was arrested in Vietnam on charges of terrorism, but the source of this charge was solely due to his membership of a pro-democracy organisation, Viet Tan. Chau's wife, Trang, told the ABC early this year:

My husband went to Vietnam to monitor the human rights situation on the ground there. Within hours of arriving, he was arrested and I haven't spoken to him since. We miss him so much – just to hear his voice, hear that he is OK – would be better than this terrible silence.

I want to add my voice to others in this place who have called on the Australian government to do everything in its power to secure the safe return of Mr Chau to his family in Australia. We know that Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has sought to build his relationship with his Vietnamese counterpart. It will be important for the future relationship of our two countries that we can raise challenging issues like this one. I urge the government to do what it can to press the case for Mr Chau.

On to a further matter regarding the Vietnamese communities, or Australians of Vietnamese descent, who contribute to much of our country. There are some 300,000 Australians with Vietnamese heritage and they are rightly proud of this heritage and proud of their history and culture. That is why it was so disappointing to see that the yellow flag, a strong and beloved symbol for many in the Vietnamese community, was recently desecrated in Sydney. A young man was deliberately filmed ripping the flag off a telegraph pole in Sydney's inner west, stamping on it and yelling that the flag should be burned. The video was circulated on social media in what was a deliberately hurtful act, coming one day after the 30 April national day of mourning to mark the end of the Vietnam War.

Australians should be free to celebrate their heritage and their national days and for their flags to be flown without fear of desecration. I note that members of the Vietnamese community in Sydney have taken their concerns to local police and to the Department of Home Affairs, as is their right. I share these concerns and would not want to see these kinds of acts continue to cause fear and hurt amongst the Vietnamese community. It is evident this young man knew what he was doing. It is clear that others deliberately spread this provocation on social media to further inflame the situation. It will ultimately be up to our independent legal system to determine whether or not this act constitutes a crime, but regardless of the outcome I think we can all agree that there is no place for wilful harm like this in our democratic and multicultural society, a democracy that supports the right of everyone, no matter where they were born or where they trace their heritage, to celebrate their national symbols in a climate of tolerance and respect.