Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

This motion calls, amongst other things, for the Australian government to 'maintain Australia's strong record of support for human rights at the 25th session of the Human Rights Council'. Of course we will. Australia is pre-eminent in supporting human rights. We have a country with a culture that acknowledges the oppressed and does its utmost to ensure that if there is anywhere in the world that needs peacekeeping, whether it is in our near neighbourhood or further afield, Australia is there. So of course we will continue to give strong support to human rights at the 25th session of the Human Rights Council. But the motion goes on to say we should:

Well, we have not as yet seen the final text of that resolution and, like all governments and all sensible minded persons, when we do see the final text then we will decide our position.

I do welcome this motion because it is about a country that is near and dear to the hearts of Australians. We long ago drew close to the Commonwealth country of Ceylon. The name of its capital city, Colombo, will forever be celebrated in one of our earliest and most successful foreign aid ventures, the Colombo Plan. Many of today's most influential workers in government and business throughout our near region went through that Colombo Plan many years ago.

The modern Sri Lanka has just come through 30 years of a most bloody civil war, a most difficult time for them when the country was in turmoil. They had extraordinary deprivation and destruction, and the infrastructure, particularly in the north, was decimated. I had the privilege of going there recently at the invitation of the Sri Lankan government. We went up to the north and I was shocked to see the complete destruction of what was once a marvellous irrigation system for rice growing. It was completely destroyed as a result of the 30 years of war. When we flew over the forest we could see wild cattle which were once domestic animals and very important to local agribusiness, but there they were wild in the forest. We went to Jaffna and spoke with the military and the civil service before going on to the camps. You can no longer call them camps of internment, because the gates are all open, but a lot of the population, particularly the women and children, go back there at night to have a meal. It is where their children go to school and they get health services and where they are working from to re-establish the infrastructure, particularly in the north.

The Australian government has helped build schools in that area. We visited one very big new primary school and I must say that the young children lining up, many with bare feet and standing in burning hot sand, showed real perseverance. I felt very anxious that we should walk past them quickly so they could move into the shade. These young children were thirsting for knowledge and their parents were so anxious that they restore the educational opportunity they had been deprived of over the 30 years of war.

Sri Lanka is a country that has a long history as a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multilingual society. It has been a practising democracy for a very long time and has had universal adult franchise since 1931. It is a country which now looks to its democratic roots, including having Tamils represented in the parliament. I met a number of these Tamil parliamentary representatives. We have to understand that Sri Lanka will require a long period of rehabilitation and re-establishment of infrastructure. We stand by all that Sri Lanka is trying to do to bring about restitution and reconciliation amongst its individuals.

We certainly also ask that they implement fully the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission of Sri Lanka, and take credible and independent actions to ensure that there is justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.

I heard that sentiment expressed again and again when I was in Sri Lanka just recently. I think we have to acknowledge the enormous difficulties for a country re-establishing after such a bitter time. I do acknowledge that the diaspora, particularly those in Australia, are anxious to see that the country moves forward. I strongly support a strong, democratic future for Sri Lanka.

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