Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by telling the story of Mayila Yakufu. Her sister, Marhaba Salay, was here in parliament just last week, sharing the devastating story of what happened to Mayila. Mayila committed no crime. All she did was transfer funds to help her parents, who were buying a family home in Adelaide. That happened in 2013. Years later, the Chinese government has created charges stating that she was somehow financing terrorism. Since April 2019, she has been detained without legal representation or evidence of the crime that she has been accused of. Her family are incredibly concerned for her. From the very limited moments they have been able to contact her, they know that her health has suffered significantly from her confinement. Marhaba is also concerned about the consequences of speaking out here in Australia, seeking justice for her sister. Her family are concerned for her aunt and uncle, who have also been accused of the same crime. Many like Marhaba who are campaigning are also concerned for younger family members and that they may be removed from family care and placed in state facilities.

Tragically, Mayila's story is just one instance in a much larger story of the cultural genocide that the Chinese government has been perpetrating against the Uighur people. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect has summarised the systematic campaign that has been undertaken, stating that a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities have been detained in camps without formal charges or due process. The BBC has published evidence of 'widespread and systematic rape, sexual abuse and torture of ethnic minorities in detention facilities'. Around a quarter of a million children in Xinjiang have lost parents to detention, with many children being placed in state run institutions. The Chinese government is also working to forcibly reduce birthrates amongst Uighur people and other Muslim populations, including through forced abortions and sterilisation. There has been systematic destruction of Uighur cultural heritage, including of cemeteries and pilgrimage sites, with an estimated 16,000 mosques destroyed or damaged. The global centre has concluded:

The government of China is failing to uphold its responsibility to protect and is perpetrating possible crimes against humanity and genocide against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

The Australian Greens have been calling out the cultural genocide committed by the Chinese government for years, and we will continue to do so. The Chinese government should immediately halt its attack on human rights and it must immediately allow for United Nations and other independent international observers.

And there is more that the Australian government should do as well. The Australian government should apply targeted sanctions against the officials who have perpetrated these violations of human rights. It should match the commitments by the US, UK and Canadian governments to ensure that companies within Australia are not benefiting from the forced labour of the Uigher people. It should work with other nations to insist that, at the very minimum, international human rights observers be allowed into Xinjiang.

I want to take a moment to thank the Uigher campaigners who were here last week. To speak truth to power is hard of the best of times, but to do so when the threats against you, your family and those who you know are so close and so real is a testament to your courage. We affirm our solidarity with all the campaigners and activists, and with the Hong Kongers and members of the Tibetan community who are campaigning for human rights and democracy. You are showing tremendous courage in speaking up on these abuses, and the world cannot stand by.

I think it's also worth reflecting that there has been a lot of talk about the importance of standing on principles during the debate on this important motion. For many, many years in Australia, the Greens have been calling out human rights abuses by the Chinese government and by other governments. During the mining boom, when the money was flowing in, we were often lone voices in this place; neither of the establishment parties wanted to raise the issues that we were raising at the time. One might ask what changes have taken place in the US and elsewhere that mean some of these issues are now being brought to the parliament. But so far, the flip-flopping of the Australian government over many years on human rights has had the consequence of undermining our international human rights advocacy. We're in a weaker position to demand that the Chinese government take action because we haven't taken consistent action in the past.

I hope that what we're seeing now is the beginning of a firm position—that we will always stand up for human rights abuses, whoever commits them and in whatever part of the world.

Debate adjourned.

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