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

to move:

That this House:

(1)

congratulates the courageous people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain and other Middle Eastern countries who have demanded the resignation of long-ruling authoritarian governments and the holding of free elections in their countries;

(2)

welcomes the decisions of Presidents Ben Ali of Tunisia and Mubarak of Egypt to resign rather than plunge their countries into further bloodshed by clinging on to power;

(3)

condemns the tyrannical regime of Muammar Gaddafi for using deadly force against the people of Libya, and calls on him to resign and leave the country rather than cause further bloodshed;

(4)

calls on all Middle Eastern governments, including Iran, to allow peaceful transitions to democratic government, cease using force against peaceful demonstrators and respect human rights, including the rights of women and of all religious minorities;

(5)

calls on the United Nations Human Rights Council to suspend Libya from membership as long as Muammar Gaddafi is in power, and to take a firm stand in support of democratic freedom and human rights in all countries of the Middle East;

(6)

calls on all Western governments to assist the people of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other Middle Eastern countries by all means available to safeguard their new freedoms, to establish stable governments and to hold free elections; and

(7)

asserts that the best way to defeat anti-democratic forces such as extremist Islamism in the countries of the Middle East is for the West to show by word and deed that it supports the people of these countries in their aspirations for freedom and democracy, and to assist them in establishing stable, democratic, secular governments that uphold human rights and live in peace with their neighbours.

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