Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to rise today to speak in support of this motion moved by my colleague and good friend, the member for Goldstein. Seventy years ago, the United Nations unanimously voted to adopt the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Earlier in this parliament, I had cause to return to some historical documents of my parents and grandparents regarding why they left Poland and their time in Eastern Europe. There was scant documentation. But there was one document from the German government offering reparations for the death of my great-grandparents and my father's aunts and uncles at the hands of the Nazi regime. I can remember saying to the Premier of New South Wales, and to many others: 'How could this happen in a civilised nation?' She pointed me to a phrase, which has been mentioned by a number of other speakers, that Hitler spoke at the time, which was: 'Who, after all, remembers the Armenians?' That is why the crime of genocide is so critical.

Seventy years on, we are no closer to eradicating this scourge on humanity. It was Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer from Poland, who coined the term 'genocide'. Raphael said: 'I became interested in genocide because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians, and after the Armenians there was a very rough deal at the Versailles conference because the criminals who were guilty of genocide were not punished.'

Since 1948, we have seen genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and, as recently as 2003, in Darfur. Of these, convictions of genocide have been made. But the international community lacks the capacity to enforce those decisions. In some cases, the offenders have brazenly shrugged off these convictions.

In my electorate of Mackellar, I'm proud to host one of the largest Armenian communities in the country, which includes Galstaun College, an Armenian school, which I have had the pleasure and privilege of visiting many times. Many of its students, who I recently spoke to, are descendants of survivors of the Armenian genocide. Many are from Syria, which has also gone through a civil war.

When the UN was founded in 1945, it set out, as its mission, the institutionalisation of fundamental and inviolable human rights. This plight should be close to the heart of every Australian as we recognise our foundational role in the establishment of the United Nations, the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our facilitation of the convention that I stand in support of now.

Australia has always been a strong advocate in the defence of those fundamental rights and freedoms. This is no better encapsulated than in the spirit of the Anzacs at Gallipoli. What our soldiers witnessed only confirmed this. They saw the unspeakable horrors perpetrated against the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christian minorities of Anatolia. In October, I stood in the House to recognise Anzac prisoners of war who suffered alongside Armenians held captive in desecrated churches—those Anzacs that rescued Armenian men, women and children, against all odds. This act of kindness out of the sheer belief in not letting evil prevail must not go unnoticed.

The experience of the Armenians was one of the first, but, unfortunately, it wasn't the last. As others have mentioned, we still see the world remain silent while genocides are perpetrated. Armenians to this day struggle against the efforts of a genocidal regime to eradicate their presence in their historic homeland. The Armenian Republic of Artsakh has been from the late 1980s, and is still today, in a state of conflict. In Baku, many are subjected to racism, discrimination and marginalisation because of their heritage. This must stop.

If history has taught us anything, it is that we must be prepared to speak out against these atrocities to prevent escalation and to prevent future genocides. That is why I stand to recognise the 70th anniversary of this convention. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide was not conditional. If we are committed to ensuring these acts are never repeated, we must begin by acknowledging them.

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