Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I condemn the election in Cambodia last month and say clearly that Hun Sen's victory is a sham. The main opposition party, the CNRP, were banned and the opposition leader, Kem Sokha, is still in jail; this week we welcome to our parliament his eldest daughter. The media and civil society groups have been silenced, the electoral committee is stacked, citizens have been harassed, Hun Sen threatened civil war against his people if he lost and the election was a joke. A nonsense official turnout of 82 per cent was reported, yet the opposition boycotted the election. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a death knell for democracy in Cambodia.

Australia now has to toughen its approach. It's time to, firstly, examine sanctions. These are restrictions and asset freezes for regime members and their families. Australia is critical here given our close links. We need to work with other nations and show leadership again. We can bring together the signatories of the 1991 Paris peace accords that Labor's foreign minister Gareth Evans drove. We need to ask the AFP and AUSTRAC to investigate, under money-laundering laws, accusations that were aired on Al Jazeera. We need to see if the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme can expose the community groups operating here in Australia which are just pro Hun Sen regime fronts. We need to review the focus of our aid—humanitarian and civil society aid, yes, but no longer support for the regime. At the very least, the government should apologise and promise not to re-sign the disgraceful refugee deal or send our ambassador to drink champagne with Hun Sen.

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