Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on and support this motion. I thank the member for McMahon for raising such an important issue, an issue we should speak out on, and I acknowledge his commitment to the vibrant, diverse community that he represents, which is very similar the community in my electorate of Adelaide. I would also like to welcome the Assyrian leaders and community from around Australia who are here today. What happens around the world directly affects us and our communities here in Australia. That is why advocating for peaceful resolutions in other countries is also good for us here in Australia. This is precisely the purpose of this motion.

Assyrians in Iraq are an ethnic and linguistic minority group. They are the indigenous peoples of Upper Mesopotamia. Most of the world's two to four million Assyrians live around their traditional homeland, which comprises parts of northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. According to a report by the Centre for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights at Rutgers University:

The Assyrian people have been repeatedly victimized by genocidal assaults over the past century… Massacres, rapes, plundering, cultural desecrations, and forced deportations were all endemic. Around 750,000 Assyrians died during the genocide, amounting to nearly three quarters of its pre-war population. The rest were dispersed elsewhere, mostly in the Middle East–

but all around the world. When we think of the Middle East and the conflicts that have taken place over the past few years, we have to remember that the Christian minorities in the Middle East are some of the oldest Christian religions, ongoing, since the birth of Christ—some of the oldest Christian religions in the world—and that population has been diminished, gradually, slowly and systematically.

So today I join members on both sides of the House in calling on the Turkish government to immediately cease its military campaign in civilian areas of northern Iraq, which has resulted in the evacuation of dozens of Assyrian villages and the displacement of thousands of Assyrians. This is something that has gone on for too long and must stop.

It is estimated that 60,000 Assyrians, and maybe more, have settled here in Australia. I know that our Australians of Assyrian descent are desperate, as all of us are, to see peace for their people. Everyone has the right to live in peace and to live in harmony. We must speak out for the fundamental human rights of all people, including minorities, such as the Assyrian Christians. That includes their freedom to practise their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions. That is why I too call for a protected enclave, as we have heard, in the Nineveh Plain for the Assyrian people. As we heard previously from members, this could take a number of forms, including an independent state or autonomous region of a city state. However, it must guarantee a safe haven, and stop the annihilation of the Assyrian people. Governments of all persuasions here in Australia must speak out on human rights violations, and today we need our government here as well to speak out for the Assyrian people and other persecuted minorities.

I would also like to talk about our aid budget, which has been assisting people in the Middle East. Australia's aid budget has shrunk under this current government. In 1995 Australia was ranked ninth in the list of OECD countries; in 2020, we were ranked 21st. So more aid is needed to assist these people. We have a moral obligation to help countries and to help people around the world, such as the Assyrian people, who have suffered immensely through wars, destruction and the displacement of people—things that are unacceptable today, in a modern world. We need to stop this, we need to speak out and we need to ensure that these people have the same rights as everyone else to practise their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions, and to live in peace.

See this speech in context