Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I start my remarks by acknowledging the member for North Sydney for moving this motion and all those who have contributed to this discussion and who will contribute to it. It takes courage to put your name to a motion such as this, and I acknowledge the member for North Sydney for doing so. As this motion states, 9 December is the United Nations International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. It's been 73 years since the 1948 convention, in which the punishment of the crime of genocide was ratified. The Holocaust had only ended three years earlier, the darkest hour of mankind where over six million Jews, gypsies, political prisoners and other enemies of the state were murdered at the hands of the Nazis. My grandmother was born in Germany and fled in October 1938, only one week before Kristallnacht, the night of the broken glass. Many members of her family were not as lucky. They were unable to escape and they stayed on in Germany. In 1941 they were some of the very first people that were sent to Auschwitz and they obviously didn't survive.

The term 'genocide' was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish Jewish lawyer. He not only coined the term 'genocide' in 1944 when looking at the Holocaust but also referenced the genocide committed against the Armenians, the Assyrians, the Greeks and other minorities between 1915 and 1923 at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. To this day, this genocide has not yet been recognised by the Australian government. This genocide has been recognised by 33 other countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Canada and most recently the United States. President Biden made that historic declaration this year, on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, and he was the very first US President to acknowledge and recognise the Armenian genocide. I want to take this moment to say that, prior to the US President making that recognition, the genocide was recognised by both houses of Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate—chambers from which the Australian parliament drew inspiration and for which we named our chambers, following the US example, our House of Representatives and our Senate—and in their honour and we should follow suit. When houses of parliament seek to make recognitions such as this we don't do it lightly, but we do it in a way that is intent on speaking the truth and intent on recognising history as it was. It was significant that the US houses of Congress did recognise the Armenian genocide, and I thank the member for North Sydney for taking the steps today to replicate that recognition so that Australian houses of parliament have the opportunity do the same. Hopefully, one day the Prime Minister of Australia will follow suit and recognise the Armenian genocide in the same way that the US President did.

I think it is worth mentioning in this debate the differences between Australia and America. Obviously, Australia has an important relationship with Turkey. Each and every year Australians go and commemorate in Turkey, on the beaches of Gallipoli, and the Turkish government has, for decades, collaborated with the Australian government in order to mark that difficult battle and allow Australians to go and pay our respects. That should not be put in jeopardy or diminished in any way shape or form.

What we are doing here today is simply recognising what was. We are simply recognising that, in order to move on and to acknowledge the atrocities committed against the Armenians, the Assyrians and the Greeks, we must be honest. Being honest with the Turkish government and the Turkish people is the least we could do as friends of the Turkish government, the Turkish people and the Turkish Australians who are proudly part of our wonderful country.

This motion for reform and recognition is what must happen. It happens slowly, but it happens purposefully. I'm pleased to add my name, as the descendant of people who understand acutely what genocide is. We recognise that what happened to the Armenians was a genocide. We stand with them, we acknowledge the truth of what happened and we hope for better days in the future.

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