Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am particularly pleased to be able to join in the adjournment debate in the Main Committee today. I would like to highlight the tragic events which are unfolding on a daily basis in Zimbabwe. I have had a lot to do with the Zimbabwean community on the Sunshine Coast. I get a lot of information coming out of Zimbabwe, and none of that information is good.

We have a situation where for many years there has been a dictator, Robert Mugabe, who has had scant regard for the rule of law. Black and white Zimbabweans have been tortured, they have been arrested, they have been maltreated, they have been thrown out of their properties and their businesses have been stolen. It is a tragedy that a country that once was the breadbasket of Africa is now a country which is on the brink of famine.

Despite that, an election was held recently. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission declined to release the official results. Unofficial results showed that Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader, was well ahead of the incumbent President Mugabe, but this went on for quite a considerable period. Application was made to the court in Zimbabwe. The situation is that ultimately it has transpired that even on official figures Robert Mugabe has lost the election and Morgan Tsvangirai has been announced as the winner of the first round.

With respect to elections for the parliament, the ruling party for the first time in living memory has actually lost control of the Zimbabwean parliament. We have a situation where, under the Zimbabwean law, there is a requirement that there ought to be a run-off election within a very short space of time. I was particularly concerned to read in the Age of 6 May:

Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga said ... that the run-off may take place in three weeks but could take up to a year ...

Under Zimbabwean law, the run-off is supposed to take place within three weeks of the original election, held many weeks ago, but the commission has the power to extend the period between the votes.

You also have to ask yourself: what are the United Nations and the world community doing about the tragic situation in Zimbabwe? What is South Africa, the major power in the region, actually doing with respect to the ongoing unfolding events in Zimbabwe? One has to be pessimistic that there is going to be any action from southern America or, for that matter, from the United Nations to see that the rights of the people of Zimbabwe are respected. I want to publicly call for more sanctions against Zimbabwe. I would also like to call for the election to take place as soon as possible so that the people of Zimbabwe are able, for the first time in over 20 years, to elect a person who the Zimbabwean people want to be their head of state.

Human rights are basic, right around the world. If you live in Zimbabwe, you have the same right to have your human rights respected as we who are fortunate enough to live in Australia. The world has not done enough to bring pressure on Mugabe, on the regime and on Zimbabwe to ensure that the democratic will of the people of Zimbabwe, as expressed at the ballot box and as belatedly released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, can in fact be implemented.

It is simply unacceptable that in 2008 we have this leader, who has reduced his country into a country that has the highest inflation in the world, a country where there are no human rights, a country where even independent people who were working for the Electoral Commission during the election were attacked because they would not come out in support of the ruling party. Enough is enough. It is time for the run-off election to take place. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai has said that he is prepared to compete in that run-off election. I believe that the world ought to ensure that that election occurs as quickly as possible, and once and for all the world will see the end of Robert Mugabe, aid will be able to flow into Zimbabwe, the lives of people in Zimbabwe will be improved and their rights, like the rights of other people around the globe, will be respected.