Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fremantle for bringing this motion forward. I am very happy to follow my friend the member for Berowra, the Father of the House and my co-convener of Australian Parliamentarians against the Death Penalty. By the way, next Friday will mark exactly one month since two Australian citizens, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, along with six of their fellow prisoners in Indonesia, were executed. This was a tragic conclusion to 10 long years of pleas for mercy, not only from the men themselves but from their families, from the leadership of this country and from many Australian citizens—10 years during which these men demonstrated their rehabilitation and showed their genuine remorse and, quite frankly, a period which reminded everybody that the death penalty really has no place in the modern world.

On 29 April, all of our worst fears came to fruition with these executions. It was a moment some of us felt deflated, not only at the executions but at the pointlessness of our fight and that our pleas had not been heard. But I have to say, for the member for Berowra, the member for Fremantle and others, these feelings of being defeated did not last all that long. We became very much reinvigorated for the purpose and determined to fight to see an end to the death penalty in all our sphere of influence, not just in cases that involve Australians but in all cases.

The death penalty is simply wrong. I have fought against the death penalty throughout my political career. Coincidentally, I entered parliament in 2005, when the case of the Bali Nine began. I have been involved since its beginning. As a matter of fact, I met with Myuran Sukumaran, Andrew Chan, Scott Rush and their families when they were in Kerobokan Prison. I personally witnessed their successful rehabilitation in that prison. If anything, that should have been seen as an example of the success of Indonesia's correction system, proof that people can turn their lives around and make a positive contribution to society, even after going down such a dark path as they did.

Recently, together with my wife, I attended the funerals of Andrew and Myuran. They were held a day apart in Sydney. It was clear that their families, innocent of any crime, have been caused deep and abiding suffering by this extreme punishment. They have lived 10 years knowing that their sons, brothers or friends were on death row, 10 years of being haunted by the daily prospect of uncertainty. As a parent, as many in this place are, I know that, regardless of what our children do, nothing ever extinguishes or diminishes the love and the care that we have for them. This is probably the reason why more than 140 countries, including many in our region—and Indonesia's region, for that matter—have already abolished this most cruel and irreversible form of punishment.

The death penalty is an abuse of the most fundamental human right of all—that is, the right to life itself. Indonesia itself has long advocated on behalf of its own citizens held in foreign countries and as a matter of fact has been successful in sparing the lives of 210 Indonesian citizens. The hypocrisy is that Indonesia, to this day, continues to advocate for the lives of its own citizens while declining Australia's request for clemency.

Time and time again we learn from experts that capital punishment is not a deterrent for serious crime in today's society. No legal system is completely free from error and it is tragic to think that an unintentional error could be made that would cost somebody's life. I conclude with the words of the former Chief Justice of the South African Constitutional Court, Ismail Mahomed:

The death penalty sanctions the deliberate annihilation of life … It is the ultimate and the most incomparably extreme form of punishment … It is the last, the most devastating and the most irreversible recourse of the criminal law, involving as it necessarily does, the planned and calculated termination of life itself; the destruction of the greatest and most precious gift which is bestowed on all humankind …

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