Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House of Australia’s response and that of the international community to developments in Zimbabwe?

Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Can I update the House on developments overnight and update the House following the report to the House yesterday by the Prime Minister. Members will of course be aware that Mr Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the second round presidential run-off ballot on the 27th of this month. The Australian government of course understands, respects and supports that decision. There was no prospect of a full, free and fair election. There was no prospect that in the unlikely event in those circumstances that Mr Tsvangirai would prevail. There was no prospect that the brutal Mugabe regime would respect the will of the people, and obviously the only prospect which Mr Tsvangirai saw was the continuation of the state-sponsored campaign of oppression and violence. Regrettably, overnight, obviously fearing for his own personal safety, Mr Tsvangirai has sought and been granted refuge in the Dutch embassy in Harare. We of course welcome the fact that the Netherlands has undertaken that role.

In a very bleak and grim picture there are some welcoming developments. The Australian government welcomes very much the statement overnight by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, and we welcome the consideration by the UN Security Council, this morning Australia time, and the statement released following consideration by the Security Council of Zimbabwe by the current President of the Security Council. It is worth while, I think, to quote from some of the Secretary-General’s remarks and also to quote from the statement released by the President of the Security Council. Overnight the Secretary-General referred to:

... the understandable decision of the Opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai to withdraw from the run-off election scheduled for this Friday ...

He continued:

... conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe. There has been too much violence, too much intimidation.

The Secretary-General went on to refer to:

The campaign of threat and intimidation ... against the very spirit of democracy.

He further said:

... violence and intimidation must stop.

He also said:

The people of Zimbabwe have a right to live in peace and security, to enjoy the protections of the rule of law.

He indicated that, having been in close contact with a number of African leaders, his view was:

... the elections should be postponed until the right conditions are in place. I would strongly discourage the authorities from going ahead with the run-off on Friday.

The Australian government strongly agrees with that sentiment. I am sure all members of the House do.

Following a report by the UN Secretariat to the Security Council, this morning’s Canberra Times reported that the President of the Security Council released a very strong statement in respect of Zimbabwe. Again, I think it is worth while quoting it in part to the House. He said:

The Security Council condemns the campaign of violence against the political opposition ahead of the second round of the Presidential elections scheduled for 27 June ...

The Security Council further condemns the actions of the Government of Zimbabwe that have denied its political opponents the right to campaign freely, and calls upon the Government of Zimbabwe to stop the violence, to cease political intimidation, to end the restrictions on the right of assembly and to release the political leaders who have been detained ...

The Security Council regrets that the campaign of violence and the restrictions on the political opposition have made it impossible for a free and fair election to take place on 27 June ...

The Security Council calls on the Zimbabwean authorities to cooperate fully with all efforts, including through the UN, aimed at finding a peaceful way forward, through dialogue between the parties ...

The Australian government strongly supports the view that there is no point to a second round run-off on Friday of this week. The brutal Mugabe regime has no electoral or democratic legitimacy so far as Zimbabwe is concerned.

I also welcome, in the last 24 hours or so, much more robust statements and interest by the Southern African Development Community states and the African Union states. I very much welcome the very strong remarks by the President of the Southern African Development Community, the President of Zambia, President Mwanawasa, and I welcome very much the statements by the President of the African Union, the President of Tanzania, Mr Kikwete. I note that the Southern African Development Community foreign ministers met in Angola yesterday, and we very much await a readout of those reports. Can I say that the Australian government regard those statements as very welcome, very robust and, frankly, overdue. But we welcome them very much. There now appears to be a growing chorus from the African states that the campaign of intimidation in Zimbabwe has to cease.

The Australian government continues its diplomatic efforts. We strongly support the statements of the Secretary-General. We strongly support the statement by the Security Council. And yesterday I instructed our posts in Africa to discuss with their counterparts in the Southern African Development Community states the plans by those member states in relation to Zimbabwe and to register Australia’s very strong view that Mr Mugabe had deprived himself of any legitimacy whatsoever, the need for a full, free and fair election in Zimbabwe and Australia’s ongoing support to ensure a political outcome in Zimbabwe which meets the will of the Zimbabwe people. I hope that the consideration of this matter before the Security Council leads to a turning point where Zimbabwe’s neighbouring African states take up the primary responsibility of ensuring that the brutal Mugabe regime stops its campaign of intimidation and violence and we have some prospects of the people of Zimbabwe expressing their will through a ballot and having that will respected.

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, I strongly associate this side of the parliament with the remarks by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in relation to Zimbabwe and encourage and support the Australian government in doing everything it possibly can in a diplomatic and a multilateral way to see that this grave injustice in Zimbabwe is brought to an end. The time is approaching when the world needs to take an even greater interest in Zimbabwe than it has.