David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A few short weeks ago I received contact from a brave woman called Caroline Graham. Caroline had lived a full and passionate life. She was a retired senior lecturer in international politics at UTS in Sydney and had for decades been a staunch supporter of the free Palestine movement. Caroline was also 87 years old and suffering from an incurable terminal illness and was only a few hours away from ending her life, using, as she described it, the wonderful voluntary assisted dying process. There was something Caroline needed to tell the world before her life ended. Standing here, I want all of those who knew and loved Caroline to know I feel humbled that she entrusted this truth with me.

Caroline sent me a video that commenced:' I'm Caroline Graham and I'm recording this myself on my iPhone from my home in Willandra retirement village. I wanted to say a few things before I go.' Because of time, I can't put every word that Caroline said on the record tonight, and I can't share the video outside of this chamber, because, if I did, I would likely be arrested and charged for breaches of secrecy laws protecting ASIO's supersecret questioning powers.

So here are the core parts of what Caroline wanted the world to know before she died. She described how in the late 1970s she hadn't really known much about Israel-Palestine conflict until she got into a taxi with a Palestinian driver. He changed her. He told her the truth about the conflict, and they started a radio show together and formed a group called the Palestine Human Rights Campaign.

Caroline then said in this video: 'I want you to know the main point in making this recording is because I'm pretty angry at the way ASIO has been able, through legislation started under the Howard government in 2003, to call people in to secret hearings. They're called questioning warrants. They can come to the house of anybody—doesn't have to be suspected of doing anything bad. It's anybody who might be of the slightest bit of interest. This was to combat terrorism—anybody who might be of interest. Plus their husbands, fathers, mothers, relatives and friends can also be taken in for serious secret questioning. And, if you don't obey in going to these hearings or being questioned, you're liable to be jailed for as much as five years.'

Caroline said this because it happened to her. She said: 'I just wanted to say my experience was in 2013. My husband, from whom I'd been separated for about 40 years, rang me—he has now passed away—to say that the antiterrorism squad from the federal police had called in looking for me. He wanted to warn me. He'd probably be arrested for that too. So the police rang me, and in the end they came. I lived alone. These two people from the federal police antiterrorism squad came three times to interview me, and they took away photos I had of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.'

Caroline then remembered how, in 1982, at the height of some of the most appalling parts of Israel's occupation of Lebanon, she was part of organising a demonstration outside the Israeli consulate in Sydney to protest the killings and massacres. Caroline said that when she arrived there were more police than demonstrators. Two protestors were arrested, and she said, 'The rest of us just had a little demo out on the street.' The next day she was shocked to hear that a bomb had gone off at the consulate and injured a cleaner. Remember that this was in 1982, and they were the events the AFP were questioning her about in 2013.

Caroline then said: 'That's why 30 years later, in 2013, someone like me was called up and interviewed three or four times about my activities organising demos and this and that. The third time they came I said to them, "You must want a cup of coffee," and they said, "No, if you knew what we were going to do, you wouldn't be offering us coffee." At that point they said, "You have to appear before a hearing in Sydney on such and such a day, and, if you tell anyone about this, you're liable to go to prison, so don't mention it even to your children or friends." They made it quite clear from the very start that this thing was highly secret, so I was very scared of telling anyone. Now I no longer care if I go to prison, because I'm going to have a dying dose administered to me. I don't care anymore. I'm really glad I can say this.'

She said: 'It was somewhere behind Margaret Street. There's a downstairs court that's so dim lit. There was just a judge or whoever sitting there on a podium on one side of the courtroom. On the other side were a couple of stenographers taking down the proceedings. At the very opening, the judge said, "We've decided that you're not responsible for the bombing of the consulate in 1982, but we'd like to question you anyhow." So it went on. It didn't go on for all that long, but there was a person who was questioning me about every Palestinian I'd ever met. I don't think they mentioned an Anglo name. But, anyway, it was every Palestinian I'd worked with in all our campaigns, and they were totally innocent of everything. I was released from the court, and nothing more seemed to come of it, except I was terrified to mention it to anyone for years. I have no idea how many hundreds of people would now be walking around having to shut their mouths about anything related to such hearings, be forced to talk about people and be liable to be jailed for five years if they mentioned it to anyone whatsoever.'

Caroline said: 'So, with that, I will sign off and just say I wish, now that I'm about to die, there were better news on the Palestinian front. But I will say, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." I know it will. And I'd be happy to be arrested right now for saying that. And they would be able to learn to live side by side, as many Jews, Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs have already formed good friendships. I know this could happen. And I just wish I were around to see it all. To all my friends, and even to my enemies: goodbye, and good luck.'

That is truth to power, and that is the reality of ASIO's coercive questioning powers. That is why the Greens oppose these laws, because we don't want anyone else to live a life scared of telling their closest friends and family about what they are scared and fearful of, and in this case it's the state.