Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak to the motion regarding human rights abuses in Vietnam. In doing so, I would state from the outset that I do not believe that the motion has been raised with anything other than genuine concern as the member's primary motive. I do take the line, though, that Australians tend to take the high moral ground when dealing with other countries whereas we may not apply that to our own country. We, as a nation, can be very upfront in pointing out the shortcomings of other nations, but we can be very thin-skinned when the critique is pointed at us.

I will state at the outset that I have never been to Vietnam and have only spoken to a small number of people with Vietnamese heritage and contacts, and one of the things that this debate has shown me is that I do have a lot more work to do. But what we have here, as far as I am concerned, is a country which has only been around for some 40 years. Would we have appreciated other countries critiquing us in 1828 over the way we treated our convicts or, much less, how we treated the first inhabitants of this country? It is a long bow, I grant you, but I do believe that we should be careful. We, as a nation, criticise the Japanese for eating whale, but we will brook no such correspondence from countries who inform us that we are the only nation on the face of the earth which eats its own national symbols. We criticise India and tell them they should not have nuclear energy, but if they told us we were barbarians for eating beef we would look at them as if they had two heads.

I come from a multicultural city. Townsville is home to a huge number of races from all over the world. Our Cultural Fest started in 1994 with a couple of card tables and a Lions service club burger van. From this it has grown, under the stewardship of Dr Farvardin Daliri, a refugee himself, to a week-long festival of the most incredible food, colourful national costumes and fluid and passionate national dance, and the camaraderie of people pointing their children in the one direction. It is a truly joyous occasion.

I was part of the delegation from this House which met the politicians from the ASEAN delegation last week. We hosted politicians from Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Brunei, Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam. They spoke highly of their work together to make a better Asia, to be more inclusive, to look after human rights, to raise the standards of debate and accountability, and to look after their people. I believe that they were honest in their approach.

If we look at things from a great distance, in isolation, we must be open to having the same game played by others. Vietnam is a great country and friend of Australia. We need to build bridges to open communication and commerce. I will also state my self-interest here: my brother, his wife and two children holidayed in Vietnam last year. They had a fantastic time, met a beautiful race of people and gloried in the culture of a peace-loving people.

As I said before, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a young nation but one with a history and culture dating back to the Bronze Age. There are over 90 million people living in Vietnam and, sure, there are some very, very bad people there. But I would be willing to wager that the vast majority of the people in Vietnam want what we want in Australia—an education for their children, a job, and for their government to support them. Institutions such as James Cook University, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, the CSIRO and the coalition-backed Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine can assist them in this endeavour and should be supported.

Again, I would like to stress that I do not believe that the member has proposed this motion for anything other than honourable intentions. And, again, I would like to suggest that the next time an Australian athlete is caught with a banned substance we do not automatically call foul and that, the next time another nation questions us over our treatment of people on Palm Island or in the Northern Territory or in Redfern, we appreciate that perception is neither right nor wrong—it just is.

Debate adjourned.

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