Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Hansard source

Yes, we do stand with the people of Ukraine in the condemnation of Russia's war of aggression. This is an illegal war based on a discredited idea of Russian imperialism in Eastern Europe. Ukraine is its own country with its own history. It has sovereignty. It has the right to territorial independence. It has the right to make its own decisions within its own borders. It has the right to live in peace. This war is an irrational act of brutality. It's bad for the people of Ukraine and it's also bad for ordinary Russians.

Ukraine, led by President Zelenskyy, has shown remarkable bravery in front of the advance of the Russian military. It's incredible, when you look at the ordinary Ukrainians who have taken up arms—teenagers, teachers, bus drivers—people like you and me, saying, 'We will not surrender.' Fighting for your own country is such a powerful motivation, and invaders almost always underestimate the willpower of people fighting for their own country.

I was in Slovenia in 1991 when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from the former Yugoslavia, which started the process of what was called the 'Ten-Day War'. In Slovenia, a military was stood up almost overnight. You had ordinary people driving their family car onto the highway to try and block the path of the tanks. You had middle-aged people, who hadn't picked up a gun since their military service as an 18-year-old, picking up a gun and going out, prepared to fight and prepared to die. I see that same spirit in the Ukrainian population. People are saying, 'I would rather not live if I have to live under Russian occupation.' It is just phenomenally courageous.

It's been inspirational, but it's an inspiration that has come with so much tragedy and, honestly, so much waste attached to it, so much loss of human life. It's not just the thousands who have lost their lives. It's the four million refugees, with another 50,000 leaving every day. It's the buildings, the cities, that will have to be rebuilt. It's the poverty and the lack of food as transport lines are broken. It's all of the suffering that the people of Ukraine will endure for years to come—even if peace were declared tomorrow—because of this mad decision by Vladimir Putin. The cost of it is so extraordinary.

We've seen so many alarming, disturbing reports of protesting civilians being shot at, of schools and hospitals being bombed, despite having declared that there were only civilians inside. We've seen families who've fled, carrying their few possessions on their shoulders, away from the face of the war. There are millions affected, and the impacts will last for years for the people of Ukraine. But this also really challenges the system that has, by and large, kept the world relatively safe and relatively conflict free since the Second World War. The principle that countries don't invade their neighbours, that all of us obey the international rules based system, has, by and large, meant that we have lived through a relatively peaceful few decades.

I don't want to try and predict the future. If Vladimir Putin gets away with this, who knows what his next target will be? Also, what message would that send to other totalitarian regimes and other large countries that have territorial disputes with their neighbours? That's why it is absolutely critical for Australia to stand with the United States, stand with Europe, stand with NATO and, most particularly of course, stand with the people of Ukraine to say: 'This shall not pass. This shall not happen. We won't let it happen.' As the Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres said:

The use of force by one country against another is the repudiation of the principles that every country has committed to uphold.

This applies to the present military offensive.

It is wrong.

It is against the Charter.

It is unacceptable.

But it is not irreversible.

I think this is an important point. We work for peace, but we don't take it for granted.

Australia has traditionally played a role in the international community as a country that is dedicated, at times of conflict, to helping parties come to a resolution. We played an extraordinary role in Cambodia to do that. We played an extraordinary role in supporting the East Timorese independence vote. There are so many examples where Australia has had a role that, perhaps due to the size of our population, you wouldn't necessarily expect. It is important that we not just do whatever we can to help the people of Ukraine in the immediate need that they have but also reiterate and do whatever we can to support an international rules based system. That is the only way countries have of peacefully resolving differences.

It is the responsibility of Vladimir Putin—no-one else—to stop this aggression now. We, Australia, along with other nations, are putting pressure on Vladimir Putin and the people around him with sanctions, including the targeted sanctions that are directly, we hope, impacting on people who might have some influence on President Putin. But I have to say that it is also important that other large nations, including permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, such as China, do whatever they can to put pressure on the Russians to stop this madness. That's why so many of us were alarmed by the no-limits friendship arrangement that has been recently entered into by Russia and China.

I want to finish by just focusing for a moment on the people of Russia. It is obviously 100 per cent the responsibility of Russia to stop this aggression, to withdraw its troops and to accept that this was wrong from the very beginning. I am so impressed by the people of Ukraine and how bravely they have fought this invasion, but I am also impressed by the bravery of those Russians who've stood up to an authoritarian president. We know that there are Russians being arrested in their thousands for saying exactly what I am saying here today—that this war is wrong and that it should be opposed. You can go to jail, and not for a short time, for saying that, in Vladimir Putin's Russia. So all of my thoughts and all of my support are going out of the people of Ukraine today, and also to those brave Russians who are calling out this madness and demanding it stop.

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