Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calwell for moving this important motion today. The exodus of the Rohingya people from the northern Arakan and the Rakhine state of Myanmar—and the persecution, attacks, killings and human rights abuses that precipitated it—is a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions, which is unfolding in our own region. United Nations officials have described the crimes committed against Rohingya as a 'textbook example of ethnic cleansing'. Human Rights Watch called them 'crimes against humanity'.

Those who have been able to escape this terror confront a new horror—trying to survive in the extraordinarily overcrowded and under-resourced refugee camps of Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh. In the time between the tabling of this motion last year and today's parliamentary debate, the number of Rohingya forced to flee into refugee camps in Bangladesh has increased to over 650,000. It is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world.

I want to thank one of my constituents, Mat Tinkler, from Save the Children, for telling me about the reality of life in these conditions at the Cox's Bazar refugee camp, after his recent visit to the site. Those who arrive at Cox's Bazar have frequently been walking on foot for days, sometimes weeks, in the face of aggressive persecution during their escape. As a result, they are often exhausted, sick and starving—not to mention traumatised and separated from family members. Almost 70 per cent of those arriving are children or pregnant and breastfeeding women. The provision of food and clean water, shelter and sanitation, medical care and protective services for children to so many vulnerable people arriving in this short a period of time is extremely challenging. Many more lives are being lost in these camps as a result. The fate of hundreds of thousands of human beings is currently in the balance.

There are many things that the international community, the Australian government and the general public can do in response to this crisis. I want to recognise Senator Singh, from the other place, and the member for Mallee for their recent visit to Cox's Bazar and their work in helping to raise awareness of this crisis with UNICEF. I want to also congratulate the ABC for its Myanmar-Bangladesh crisis appeal.

On behalf of the Australian Labor Party, I want to echo, in this chamber and in this debate, the call of our shadow minister for foreign affairs. We call for the full implementation of the Kofi Annan report and the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which seek to prevent violence, maintain peace and foster reconciliation. We call on the government to work to establish an independent UN investigation into human rights abuses in Myanmar and to continue holding the government of Myanmar, especially the military, to account for their conduct, and for their continued obligation to respect the human rights of all people. We call for the government to support unimpeded humanitarian access to the camps in Bangladesh and to work closely with our regional partners on medium- and long-term responses to the refugee crisis, seeking to ensure that the Rohingya population has a secure place to live in peace. The situation presents State Counsellor and Nobel Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the government more broadly, with an opportunity to exercise moral authority to protect the human rights of the country's citizens and to mediate a peaceful resolution to the current crisis. We believe it is in Myanmar's own interests for this conflict to be responded to and fairly resolved.

I want to add to this a comment about the importance of the government and the general public investing in Australian aid to support not only the immediate humanitarian needs of those affected by this crisis but also the longer-term development needs of those impacted by violence in the Rakhine State, including support for Rohingya refugees who may wish to return to Myanmar on a voluntary basis in the future, when and if it is safe to do so. I encourage my constituents to donate to the aid agencies who are providing humanitarian support on the ground in these refugee camps, including the Australian Red Cross, Australia for UNHCR, Save the Children and many more.

The current crisis has been building for many years. And, like the Rwandan crisis of a generation ago, in the future people will look back on this crisis and judge the actions taken by the international community to protect the lives of the human beings caught in the middle of it. That is why in April last year I travelled to the Rakhine State in Myanmar to meet with Rohingya people living in the internally displaced persons camps and to hear the stories of Rohingya refugees living elsewhere in the region, in Malaysia and Thailand. Even at that time, before the present catastrophe, it was clear to me that the relationship between the Rohingya and the broader Myanmar community and the government held the seeds of a future catastrophe. I heard many stories of the horrible conditions confronting Rohingya in the Rakhine State—the official and social persecution they faced and the heartbreaking stories of loss that resulted from it.

I wonder what has become of the many people I met in the Rohingya community in the Rakhine State last April. I know that the least I owe them is to add my voice to the call in this parliament for the Australian community and the Australian public to do everything we can to support the services being provided in Cox's Bazar today.

See this speech in context