Damian Hale (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Attorney-General’s motion in the House of Representatives on the 60th anniversary of the Geneva conventions on 12 August 2009. What the Attorney moved was:

That the House:

(1)

notes the sixtieth anniversary of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949;

(2)

congratulates the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement for continuously fostering the principles of international humanitarian law to limit human suffering in times of armed conflict and to prevent atrocities, especially against civilian populations, the wounded, and prisoners of war;

(3)

recalls Australia’s ratification of the Conventions and of the two Additional Protocols of 1977;

(4)

affirms all parliamentary measures taken in support of such ratification;

(5)

encourages the fullest implementation of the Conventions and Additional Protocols by the military forces and civilian organisations of all States;

(6)

encourages ratification by all nations of the Conventions and Additional Protocols; and

(7)

recognises the extraordinary contribution made by many individual Australians, including Australian Red Cross members, volunteers and staff, in carrying out the humanitarian ideals expressed in the Conventions and Additional Protocols.

Tragically, the world continues to experience armed conflict. As Dr Jakob Kellenberger, the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, has said:

We sadly live in a world in which reports of direct attacks against civilians, of forced displacement, and of mistreatment of persons detained in relation to an armed conflict and the denial of their basic rights, judicial guarantees and procedural safeguards, are all too common.

By moving this motion, the Attorney-General is reminding all of us in this House, and Australians across the board, of our support for the Geneva conventions and our respect for the role that the Red Cross, the Red Crescent and now the Red Crystal organisations play in areas of conflict. I am very proud, as the member for Solomon, that I have the 1st Brigade in my electorate. I am very proud of the efforts that many of my soldiers—I call them my soldiers but they are really not my soldiers; Brigadier Michael Krause is the commanding officer—have put in in Afghanistan, Iraq and Timor. We welcomed home 1,200 soldiers on 8 August. They are back safely in the electorate. I recognise the contribution they make.

We also have a lot of people playing peacekeeping roles in different areas of the world—in the Solomon Islands in particular and in Africa in roles with the Federal Police in some 14 different deployments. We have a lot of our Australian service men and women serving us overseas. This motion shows them that we are thinking of them. It shows that the Attorney-General and the rest of us in this place are very much behind and supportive of what the Geneva conventions bring and what they are designed to do in conflict. Unfortunately, wars will occur. We need to make sure that there are rules with regard to the treatment of prisoners of war, and certainly the use of the civilian population during war should be fought against.

I agree with the comments of earlier speakers with regard to war crimes tribunals and how governments need to be thorough and committed in their support, regardless of nationality, race or religion, when it comes to convicting war criminals. This really goes to the core of what war can do, when innocent civilians are used in a way that is against the rules of combat.

As a young guy growing up, I remember Mum talking about my Great-Uncle Con. Great-Uncle Con spent four years in Changi prison during the Second World War. He went away as a 100-kilo man mountain. In the five years he was there, they often had to eat grass to stay alive. He was subject to systematic sterilisation, so he and my Aunty May could never have children. My mother’s father, who was Con’s brother, was able to put his hands around Con’s waist and touch them together when Uncle Con came back. That had a lasting effect on his direct family. When he returned some five years later he was nowhere near the person he was when he went away. That experience caused him great psychological damage.

In the past, wars were fought on a different type of battlefield. When you go to Anzac Day services, often you are consumed by your own thoughts. Although I may be in a crowd of 10,000 or 15,000 people, I feel very alone on Anzac Day and consumed by my own thoughts. We all have a vision of our Anzacs from the pictures that we have seen of them running up the beaches of Gallipoli. In those days wars were fought on fronts and there were stretcher bearers who would go out and retrieve the injured. Generally they were not shot at. My grandfather was a stretcher bearer in the Middle East. He stood on a landmine, which caused him some injuries. But in those days generally wars had fronts.

Now war has changed. Now the conventions have become increasingly difficult to police because of the desperation that war in the 21st century causes. It has taken a different turn. Every day our troops who are overseas are confronted by an enemy that is ruthless and that improvises. It is often very difficult for them to distinguish between the enemy and civilians. That puts an enormous amount of pressure on our service men and women when it comes to the treatment of civilians who have been caught in the crossfire of these conflicts. Conflicts are now more urban guerilla warfare than the war fronts of the past.

I fully support the motion moved by the Attorney-General. As I said, it drives home to us as a parliament the importance of the Geneva conventions and why they were put into place. But it also makes us remember not only those people who are overseas representing Australia and fighting with the coalition forces in Afghanistan and Iraq but also those people who are caught in the crossfire. It makes us remember how lucky we are. Often you will hear chanting and yelling out the front of Parliament House. The reason that we are able to protest, the reason that our newspapers are generally allowed to write what they like, is the wars that we fought in the past. We fought for the democracy that we enjoy living in today.

In conclusion, I remember having a talk to Brigadier Kraus one day. Some adverse comments had been made about the ADF by a former member of this place. We were all outraged, on both sides of parliament, with regard to those comments. I will not repeat them. However, Michael Kraus said to me, ‘I was offended by the comments but I will defend his right to say them.’ That is what the ADF do. So I fully support the Attorney-General. I congratulate him on moving this motion. I congratulate the speakers from both sides of the House. It is something that is above political alliances. It is about our country. I am glad that, when it comes to our military, there is a bipartisan approach.

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