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

I thank the member for North Sydney for giving the parliament the opportunity to consider this very important matter.

Last week we commemorated World Day Against the Death Penalty, with representatives of Amnesty International and many parliamentarians attending in the parliamentary courtyard. We lit candles in demonstration of our united front against the death penalty and pledged to continue our advocacy against those who continue this cruel, inhumane and degrading form of punishment.

As co-chair of Australian Parliamentarians Against the Death Penalty, firstly with the former member for Berowra, Phillip Ruddock, and now with Senator Dean Smith, I am committed to strengthening our public advocacy for the right to life, arguing that capital punishment has no place in modern society.

Most credible research indicates that capital punishment does not deter crime. The death penalty offers no observable change to criminal activity and only serves to satisfy the urge for vengeance. A 2009 survey conducted by the American Society of Criminology found that 88 per cent of criminologists did not believe the death penalty had any deterrent effect on crime.

One hundred and forty countries have now abolished the death penalty, compared with only 16 in 1977. However, according to the latest statistics published by Amnesty International, there has been a 54 per cent increase in executions across the globe since 2014. Although the majority of nations have now abolished the death penalty, five countries, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United States, account for the majority of executions. While China keeps its numbers secret, according to Amnesty International it is suggested the Chinese figure is in excess of 2,000 people per annum.

Last year two Australians, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were executed in Indonesia. For many of our citizens, this was probably the first time they had thought seriously about, or been confronted by, the death penalty abroad. The reality is that there are still 17 Australians on death row in foreign countries as we speak.

In May the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade presented a report to the Australian parliament entitled A world without the death penalty: Australia's advocacy for the abolition of the death penalty. I gave evidence to that committee regarding the importance of active participation in this debate and being prepared to assert our values when engaging with foreign governments. The report makes several important recommendations which I fully support, including that Australia should allocate additional resources in support of worldwide abolition of the death penalty. I agree with Amnesty International's view that Australia, and particularly those of us privileged enough to hold public office, should continue to build upon efforts to end the death penalty, particularly in our region.

I am happy to support the government's quest for a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council, for amongst other things it would serve as a platform to pursue the worldwide abolition of the death penalty and assist in strengthening the yes vote for the 2016 United Nations General Assembly's death penalty moratorium resolution. I am proud of the bipartisan commitment by members of this parliament to abolishing capital punishment, and I look forward to a world free of the death penalty.

I would like to conclude with the words of former Chief Justice of the South African Constitutional Court, Ismail Mahomed, who said this:

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.

The death penalty has no place in the modern world and we need to work together to ensure that no more lives are lost through this cruel, barbaric and inhumane practice.

See this speech in context