Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to join with the member for Herbert in welcoming Commander Michael Rothwell, the former commander of HMAS Tobruk, who is on temporary assignment to my staff. The assignment is part of the Defence Force program where we participate in the ADF’s parliamentary program, and some of the people from the various services get the opportunity to serve here in Parliament House. I hope it is a great education for them.

I want to use this opportunity to welcome to the parliament Han Dongfang, the son of a peasant. He was a railway worker and electrician prior to the Tiananmen Square massacres in 1989. He was the convener of the Beijing Autonomous Workers Federation, the first independent labour organisation in mainland China in 50 years. He wished to build a workers federation that could monitor the Communist Party of China, especially in their treatment of workers. The Workers Federation was shut down as the Tiananmen Square protests came to a bloody end when the protestors were crushed by the tanks of the Chinese government on 4 June 1989. After the Tiananmen Square massacre, Han Dongfang was jailed for 22 months without trial, during which time he contracted tuberculosis. He was released from jail on the verge of death and soon after received an American visa for urgent medical treatment. He recovered in the US and since 1994 has operated the Hong Kong based China Labour Bulletin.

Han Dongfang is a great representative of the Chinese working people. Two nights ago he was interviewed on the PM program and he made some cynical but true comments about the recent decision of China’s National People’s Congress to legalise private property. In his view, it is very much like that of the Russian nomenklatura, after the fall of communism. In China’s case, the Communist Party is still in charge. This new law will give people the legal entitlement to enterprises that were illegally grabbed by members of the Chinese communist nomenklatura. His view is shared by Will Hutton, the famous author, who said: ‘Future Chinese economic growth while extraordinarily spectacular is very fragile, and without democracy this growth will not be able to continue.’

Han Dongfang and the Leader of the Hong Kong Democratic Party opposition, Albert Ho, will be in the parliament on Thursday to speak to the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. They will also, thanks to the member for Fadden, meet with the Hong Kong parliamentary friendship group. Both men will attend a major seminar in Melbourne on the weekend entitled ‘Forum for a democratic China’, a non-partisan group which I am involved in together with former member of parliament Victor Perton. Topics will include: a democratic testbed for China in Hong Kong and China’s peaceful rise: will economic prosperity lead to political liberty? These two guests, Albert Ho and Han Dongfang, are welcome to Canberra and to Australia. (Time expired)

See this speech in context