Kerry Rea (Bonner, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, I present the committee’s report entitled Human rights in the Asia-Pacific: challenges and opportunities.

Order that the report be made a parliamentary paper.

I am very proud to be before the House this evening to present this report. As I have only a short time to speak, I begin by thanking all those who were involved in the preparation of this report and in the inquiry which was undertaken. In particular I knowledge the deputy chair, the Hon. Philip Ruddock, who is in the House this evening, and all those on the committee who participated in the inquiries. I acknowledge the full committee who have also endorsed this report, in particular the chair, Senator Michael Forshaw, who participated in the inquiry on many occasions and was a good contributor. I particularly acknowledge Ms Samantha Mannette, the inquiry secretary, Paul Zinkel, who was the research officer and is now the new committee secretary, Mrs Donna Quintus-Bosz and the administrative officers Mrs Sonya Gaspar and Ms Gillian Drew. I wish to particularly acknowledge the secretariat because, being a subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, they do not have the full support of the committee secretariat. Obviously they have fewer staff and Samantha and her team did a tremendous job in putting together the inquiries, ensuring that submissions were included and, indeed, in putting this report together. I acknowledge the very hard work on their behalf.

This inquiry and report provides a very detailed analysis of the challenges we face in our region when it comes to greater promotion and protection of individual human rights. Indeed, the Asia-Pacific is the only region on the globe which does not have some form of regional human rights mechanism or body. The report identifies quite clearly a very detailed analysis of why that is the case and outlines in a very informative way the challenges we are faced with in this region. For a start you can appreciate that the Asia-Pacific itself is a very diverse area and the committee really focused on two separate subregions—the Asian subregion and the Pacific Islander nations—which have different challenges and face different issues when it comes to human rights mechanisms and improving the protection of the human rights of their citizens.

We received evidence from many organisations and individuals, quite a diverse range who presented some very interesting information. As a result, I think the recommendations reflect the complex nature of our region and the many challenges and opportunities which exist. The recommendations provide some very practical and achievable steps which can be undertaken by this government to support the improving of human rights protection in our area, whether acknowledging the role of individual bilateral dialogues that Australia holds with Asian countries, promoting them as a very effective tool of discussion and debate within our region, suggesting that the committee can play a more formal and significant role in those dialogues, or asking that the committee be briefed on an annual basis by departmental officials about the outcome of those dialogues and how we can use those discussions to advance human rights in the region.

There is also a recommendation calling for a special envoy to promote discussion among the Pacific Island nations because small nations which do not have a lot of resources and are dealing with the many social and environmental challenges can certainly do with assistance from a neighbour such as us who can help them to develop a mechanism within their own country and a regional approach to human rights that would mean greater protection for all of us and would therefore create a more secure and a safer nation. It is also important that we have recommendations that look at the projects AusAID funds, asking that department to have more of a focus on human rights outcomes when making decisions on projects that it is funding. We do not want them to exclude many good community projects because of a country’s human rights record but rather we want the projects to focus on a human rights outcome. (Time expired)

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