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

by leave—Australia is deeply concerned at the situation in Burma. For many years, Burma’s regime, the State Peace and Development Council, has shown a profound disregard for the human rights and democratic aspirations of the Burmese people. Australians were rightly appalled in September last year when the regime used violence to suppress peaceful protests, led by Buddhist monks, in Rangoon and other centres. This was, unfortunately, only the most recent very public instance of the brutal treatment meted out to civil society in that country and to those seeking to make Burma a better society and a nation based on democratic norms and ideals.

The ongoing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, along with that of an estimated 2,000 political prisoners, is a major impediment to political progress. Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest continuously for the past five years, and for 13 of the past 19 years. The Burmese regime has also presided over the stark deterioration of the Burmese economy. Burma has become a poor and isolated country.

Australia has consistently urged the Burmese regime to engage in a transparent political dialogue with opposition parties in Burma, including Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. The Prime Minister and I have raised Burma in discussions with our counterparts from many countries. I expressed Australia’s concerns directly to the Burmese Minister for Foreign Affairs in the margins of the ASEAN related meetings in Singapore in July. I have recently expressed Australia’s deep concerns about the further extension of Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention. Australia’s Ambassador to Burma has also made these representations, at the most senior levels of the Burmese regime, and will continue to do so.

Australia strongly supports efforts by the United Nations to promote a genuine dialogue between Burma’s regime, opposition groups, and ethnic minorities. Australia welcomed very much the fact that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon invited Australia to participate in the Secretary-General’s Group of Friends on Burma. The Group of Friends consults regularly with the secretary-general, and with his special envoy for Burma, Mr Gambari. I met Mr Gambari in New York in September, in the margins of the UN General Assembly.

Together with the international community, Australia will continue to work for progress in Burma. For many years now, since 1988, Australia has had in place visa restrictions against senior members of the Burmese regime and their associates and supporters. In 1991 Australia introduced a ban on defence exports to Burma. Financial sanctions were introduced in October 2007. The current financial sanctions have been in place now for 12 months.

It is the government’s very strong view that sanctions need to be kept current and focused for maximum impact. To ensure this, the Australian government has renewed the list of individuals subject to Australian financial sanctions. The updated sanctions list, which comes into effect and which I announce today, reflects personnel movements in the regime during the last year, as well as information obtained since October 2007. The revised list names 463 individuals, including members of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, ministers, senior military officers, prominent business associates of the regime, and immediate family members of these individuals. The list previously named 418 individuals.

These sanctions will maintain pressure on the Burmese regime, but are not aimed at the Burmese people themselves. Australia remains committed to providing humanitarian assistance for the Burmese people. Australia has provided $55 million in humanitarian aid to assist relief and recovery efforts following the devastation of Cyclone Nargis. Through United Nations agencies and non-government organisations on the ground, Australia is also supporting health, basic education and the protection of vulnerable groups. Australia is contributing approximately $16 million in such assistance during 2008-09.

The initial response of Burma’s regime to Cyclone Nargis was very disappointing. While there remains scope for improved cooperation, I am pleased that the Burmese regime is now working with the United Nations and ASEAN relief efforts. Australia particularly welcomes ASEAN’s collaboration in assessment work and emergency assistance after Cyclone Nargis. Australia responded to ASEAN’s involvement by adding, last July, $30 million in humanitarian assistance to the $25 million Australia had already provided.

It was a matter of great regret that, amid the disaster of Cyclone Nargis, the Burmese regime pushed ahead with a constitutional referendum. This was the fourth step in the regime’s so-called ‘Roadmap to Democracy’. Neither the referendum process nor its ultimate outcome signalled any intention by the Burmese regime to actually listen to the will of the Burmese people on their future. The referendum process itself was a sham.

Australia will continue to press Burma’s regime for meaningful political progress towards democracy. The government’s announcement today on further financial sanctions is a demonstration of the Australian government’s firm resolve and commitment to this. I thank the House.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Goldstein to speak for a period not exceeding six minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Robb speaking for a period not exceeding six minutes.

Question agreed to.

Andrew Robb (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and COAG and Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader on Emissions Trading Design) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in response to the ministerial statement on Burma. I have long had a personal concern with the oppressive regime in Burma. During my time in business I had many commercial interests in Thailand and gained an appreciation of the totally unacceptable conditions that applied across the border. I visited many of the border regions on business and in conversations over meals at night would be told of the horrific incidents that were taking place within that country. As Parliamentary Secretary for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs responsible for the settlement of refugees I had firsthand exposure to the refugee camps and the horrendous experience of many people throughout their lifetime being exposed to a life in a refugee camp and all that goes with it. Earlier this year I attended a meeting of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly and had a one-hour private meeting with a group of exiled Burmese politicians. Again, many of my views of the regime were reinforced. There is an urgency about dealing with the situation in Burma.

The coalition welcomes any well targeted measures that extend Australia’s deep concerns relating to the violation of human rights and the suppression of democratic ambitions in the state of Burma. Burma’s regime, the so-called State Peace Development Council, has overseen economic decay and social disintegration since 1988. The regime has ensured that Burma is now the cot case of South-East Asia. The events of September last year briefly brought the plight of the Burmese people to the world’s attention, but in no way have the problems which have led to such protests subsided.

The ongoing detention of Aung San Suu Kyi, the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, has become the symbol of the brutal nature of this regime. Her release is paramount to reaching a peaceful solution and settlement. The Australian government must persist, as the previous government did, in making formal representations at the highest levels of government in urging the Burmese regime to address human rights and the release of all political prisoners. This must be done in cooperation with our regional neighbours, including China and Thailand, who are among Burma’s leading trade partners. It is also critical that ASEAN be front and centre of such efforts.

The further sanctions announced today by the Minister for Foreign Affairs follow on from the previous sanctions implemented in October last year by the former government. These financial sanctions announced by the former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, were well targeted against 418 individuals, including members of the State Peace and Development Council, cabinet ministers and senior military figures. This coincided with $14 million in humanitarian assistance to the Burmese people, who are the innocent victims of this regime. These funds were directed through a number of organisations and supported basic health, water and sanitation for vulnerable people among the south-east and northern border regions of Burma.

I note the statement by the minister that the initial response of the Burmese regime to Cyclone Nargis was very disappointing—and indeed it was very disappointing and caused great hardship to many hundreds of thousands, in fact millions, of Burmese. However, I also must note that the initial $3 million response from the Australian government was also very disappointing—it was a pittance. The death toll from the cyclone was of 2004 tsunami proportions. It is estimated that over 200,000 Burmese died as a result of the cyclone. As was the case with the tsunami in late 2004, Australia should have been taking a strong and immediate lead in responding to this tragedy. An AusAID team should have been made available immediately and Australia should have indicated that we were prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars, as we did with the tsunami, in assistance to this country in such difficult circumstances. This is our region. We are a successful, developed country with leadership responsibility to respond effectively to emergencies in our region, and especially to emergencies which relate to a country which is in such a dire situation and where the people are so oppressed.

Australia was well placed to respond to the situation in Burma due to the investment by the Howard government in Australia’s ability to respond to regional crises. In the final two budgets of the Howard government, over $100 million was set aside to improve Australia’s response to emergencies in the region. I do acknowledge the final contribution by the Australian federal government to this crisis. I would also like to warmly acknowledge the work of Australian aid bodies, including World Vision and Care Australia. I have met previously with those bodies and was very impressed by the work they had undertaken. As these organisations told me, the effects of the cyclone were comparable to those of the 2004 tsunami yet there was much less media coverage given and consequently private donations were much fewer than they were in 2004. We are a generous country, and I am sure most would be surprised to hear that World Vision received only $5 million in private donations for cyclone relief compared to over $100 million following the 2004 tsunami. (Time expired)