Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House what the Australian government has done in response to the latest crackdown in Zimbabwe?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First, I would like to thank the honourable member for Pearce for her question and her interest; I know the honourable member is very focused on the problems of Zimbabwe. The government has been appalled at the barbaric actions of the Zimbabwe government in violently suppressing the activities of the political opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change, and some of their supporters. I have made my views very clear to the Zimbabwean charge d’affaires here in Canberra. My department also called in the charge d’affaires on 16 March, the day after I spoke to him, and made the government’s views clear again.

The Mugabe government, before this latest vicious and violent crackdown on their political opponents, had already been pursuing policies which have been disastrous for the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has the highest inflation rate in the world at 1,800 per cent, unemployment is at 80 per cent and life expectancy in Zimbabwe under President Mugabe has fallen from 61 in 1990 to 33 today. I think that statistic alone is the most shocking indictment of the Zimbabwean government and the President of Zimbabwe, Mr Mugabe.

Australia has imposed progressively strengthened travel bans and financial sanctions against members of the Zimbabwean government since 2002. A number of other countries have also done that, but we would like more countries to impose those types of so-called smart or targeted sanctions against Zimbabwe. The more countries that do that, the more effective the international community is going to be in addressing the problems of Zimbabwe.

Let me also say that the countries that have the greatest leverage in Zimbabwe are not Commonwealth countries, because Zimbabwe is not a member of the Commonwealth anymore. The countries that have the greatest leverage are the neighbouring countries, members of what is called SADC, the Southern African Development Community. Of course, South Africa is often talked about in this context. I spoke with the South African high commissioner this morning about the situation in Zimbabwe. I said to him we hope very much that South Africa, bilaterally and through SADC, would be able to do still more than they are already doing to place pressure on the Zimbabwean regime to adhere to international norms of human rights and start to restructure the economy. I think SADC is at least persuaded that the situation is dire, and I know from various contacts we have had with those countries that there is a growing mood in SADC and also the African Union to do more to address the problem of Zimbabwe.

We have also been pressing, within the United Nations system, for the United Nations Human Rights Council to pass a resolution putting still more pressure on the Zimbabwean government. Whether it is possible to get the United Nations to do something about this, though, is questionable, bearing in mind there are some countries in the United Nations which have been fairly solid and reliable supporters of President Mugabe.

Finally, I know that a number of members of the House are concerned about specific people who have been affected by this violent crackdown on the opposition. People in this House are concerned about Mrs Sekai Holland, who is married to an Australian and lived in Australia for quite some time. A number of members of the House, including me, have met her over the years. Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, is another person many will have met and will know of. Both of them have been in hospital. Our ambassador in Zimbabwe has visited them in hospital and he has been particularly solicitous in relation to Mrs Holland. We are providing maximum assistance for Sekai Holland and we urge the Zimbabwean government to permit those who are injured to obtain the necessary medical treatment. The Zimbabwean government will not let these people out of the country to get additional medical treatment, in particular Mrs Holland, because the government want to maintain political pressure on these people. They need medical help and they need to get out of Zimbabwe for that medical help, and the Zimbabwean government should let them go and obtain that medical assistance.

We will continue to do what we can, given the limited capacity we have to do so, to place pressure on Zimbabwe. We cannot impose economic sanctions on the country: it is bankrupt already. If we as an international community imposed complete economic sanctions on Zimbabwe, it would be a death sentence for millions of ordinary Zimbabweans. We cannot do that. But, Mr Speaker, we do need to keep the diplomatic pressure going, and the Australian government, you can rest assured, will do that.