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

by leave—Mr Speaker, I wish to update the House on the situation in Zimbabwe. Today is the anniversary of the signing on 15 September 2008 of the agreement which created the Inclusive Zimbabwe Government under the joint leadership of Robert Mugabe as President and Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. That agreement has become known as the ‘global political agreement’. It was not until February this year that Mr Morgan Tsvangirai assumed the position of Prime Minister of Zimbabwe pursuant to that agreement.

On 13 February, I spoke to Mr Tsvangirai to congratulate him and to tell him that the government and the people of Australia stood with him as he confronted the enormous economic, social, political and security challenges faced by the people of Zimbabwe. At that time, the challenges faced by Prime Minister Tsvangirai and the Zimbabwean government seemed overwhelming. Zimbabwe’s economy had collapsed, around three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s estimated remaining population required food aid, a cholera epidemic had already claimed thousands of lives, and the political agreement appeared a last resort and a fragile experiment.

I can report to the House that, while the challenges faced by Zimbabwe remain enormous, some progress has been made. The global political agreement between Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change, or the MDC, and Mr Mugabe’s ZANU-PF remains in place. Improvements in the economy are in no small part due to the strong and sensible reforms implemented by Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s colleague Mr Tendai Biti, the finance minister.

The end of price controls and adoption of hard currency, necessary steps after the total collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar, have put an end to hyperinflation. Goods are returning to shelves as the business environment slowly improves. For the moment, the cholera epidemic has been contained. Schools and healthcare facilities are re-opening. Salaries of teachers and health professionals are being gradually increased. Levels of political violence have reduced significantly.

An agreement, yet to be implemented, has been reached for the appointment of new provincial governors. We are seeing growing signs of a sense of hope and optimism among the people of Zimbabwe. These hard-won gains have taken a long time to achieve and Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his MDC ministers are to be congratulated for the strength of their resolve and commitment.

Australia has played a proud role in Zimbabwe’s recent progress. Australia has been at the forefront of international efforts—both political and humanitarian—to assist Zimbabwe. In recent years, Australia’s assistance to Zimbabwe has been humanitarian. Most of that has necessarily been emergency food aid to assist the people of Zimbabwe during a severe humanitarian crisis.

After the new government was sworn in on 13 February this year, Australia was one of the first countries to deliver assistance in a manner that has become known as ‘humanitarian plus’ assistance. This goes beyond purely emergency humanitarian relief to include longer term measures to help restore essential services such as water, education and health care. Since the establishment of the inclusive government, Australia has provided more than $20 million in assistance to Zimbabwe.

In February, I announced $5 million in assistance through UNICEF for essential water and sanitation works and essential medicines to deal with Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic. In May, I announced a further $5 million, comprising $2 million for seeds and fertiliser to begin revitalising Zimbabwe’s devastated agricultural sector and a further $3 million for water and sanitation mostly through our highly regarded Australian non-government organisations—World Vision, Caritas and Oxfam.

Between these two announcements, on 11 March, as I reported to the House on that day, I announced a $10 million package of measures which went beyond our previous humanitarian-only contributions. Five million dollars was for water and sanitation services, particularly to address the cholera epidemic. This funding was provided through UNICEF to local authorities for water and sanitation safety assessments and urgently needed water treatment chemicals. As Zimbabwe’s local authorities had taken back responsibility for water infrastructure and UNICEF was dealing directly with these local authorities, the prospects of this funding being diverted by Mr Mugabe or his associates was greatly reduced and the more direct work with these authorities increased the likely benefits to the people of Zimbabwe.

The other element of this package was $5 million in short-term incentive payments for health workers delivered through the UK Department for International Development (DFID). This assistance was necessary to restore some level of stability to health services which had been damaged by the exodus of trained staff due to the unreliability of salary payments from the Mugabe regime. In moving beyond strict humanitarian-only assistance and in dealing more closely with Zimbabwe government authorities on these two measures, the risks were increased but sensible risk management strategies were put in place and this more direct assistance provided greater benefit to the people of Zimbabwe. These measures have underlined Australia’s commitment to assisting Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his ministers in the rebuilding of Zimbabwe.

The government supports Prime Minister Tsvangirai in his view that the global political agreement currently presents the best prospect of a better future for Zimbabwe. Australia supports the role of Zimbabwe’s neighbours, through the Southern African Development Community (SADC), in overseeing the global political agreement. It is vital that the parties to the global political agreement fully implement and respect all of its provisions.

In a sign of growing frustration at the slow pace of reform, Prime Minister Tsvangirai over the weekend said that President Mugabe and ZANU-PF were violating the rule of law and pointed to evidence that they were not committed to reconciliation or genuine power sharing under the agreement. One of Prime Minister Tsvangirai’s key concerns is that ZANU-PF is trying to erode the parliamentary majority secured by Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC in last year’s election. Several MDC MPs have been arrested and are at risk of losing their seats on what the MDC believes are trumped-up charges.

Mr Mugabe has refused to reverse his earlier appointments of the Reserve Bank governor and the Attorney-General—further hampering MDC efforts to implement economic reform and ensure an independent judiciary. Zimbabwe’s repressive media legislation remains in place. State media continues to be controlled by ZANU-PF as a propaganda tool. Reports of human rights violations continue, as do farm invasions. Prominent human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, after being grossly mistreated in detention, still faces charges of conspiring to overthrow Mr Mugabe. While the global political agreement stipulates a clear timetable for constitutional reform, progress has slowed to a crawl. Prime Minister Tsvangirai has said he is not able to stand by and allow ongoing violations of the power-sharing agreement to continue and has called on Zimbabwe’s neighbours, in particular SADC countries, for assistance.

Australia recognises the important role the African Union and SADC have played to date in supporting Zimbabwe to address its grave economic, political and social challenges. South Africa itself facilitated the interparty negotiations that led to the current agreement. Regional leaders, including from Botswana and Zambia, have played a prominent role in calling for a just and timely resolution to Zimbabwe’s protracted disputes. SADC, as facilitator and guarantor of the global political agreement, has a critical role to play in ensuring its terms are adhered to. SADC discussed Zimbabwe at its annual summit, held in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, from 7 to 8 September. It referred the situation in Zimbabwe to the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security.

Last week in Perth and again yesterday in Canberra, I met with Mr Oldemiro Baloi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation from Mozambique. As a leading member of SADC and as the current Chair of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, Mozambique will play an all-important role in overseeing implementation of the global political agreement in the coming months. I offered to Minister Baloi and to SADC Australia’s support for this objective. I will continue to discuss Zimbabwe with African counterparts, as I have with the foreign ministers of Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana and Rwanda during their visits to Australia over recent months.

Zimbabwe’s needs are enormous. After decades of neglect, infrastructure has deteriorated significantly. There are not enough schools, hospitals or functioning water and sanitation systems. Zimbabwe’s government and private sectors are run down and are unable to adequately provide essential services. The unemployment rate in the formal economy is estimated to be over 90 per cent. The economy is less than half its pre-2000 level and will take years, if not decades, to regain its strength. Three million people have fled Zimbabwe searching for a better life, taking with them essential skills needed for Zimbabwe’s rebuilding.

Australia will work with the international community to address these challenges. How the international community can further assist Zimbabwe will be addressed by a senior officials’ meeting of donor countries scheduled to take place in Berlin in late October. This will provide an important opportunity for the international community to both assess and assist Zimbabwe’s rebuilding, to both contemplate and support prospects for longer term reform. Australia urges the international community to make this step a significant one. Australia strongly believes that the international community needs to take a flexible, pragmatic and active approach to its consideration of the next steps. We have a responsibility to do what we can to support Prime Minister Tsvangirai and his ministers in their efforts to bring positive change to Zimbabwe.

At the peak of the so-called hungry season in March 2009, almost seven million Zimbabweans relied on emergency food aid. After a better than expected harvest in 2009, the outlook for the coming year is more positive. However, it is still estimated that nearly three million people will need food aid before the next harvest in April 2010. I announce today a substantial assistance package of food and agriculture assistance for Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has tremendous potential in agriculture and, historically, was a significant agricultural exporter. Australia leads the world in dryland agriculture and agriculture science. The first element of the package I announce today is that Australia will provide $5 million in food aid immediately through the World Food Program to help meet the needs of the most vulnerable. Importantly, and for the first time in more than a decade, Zimbabwean suppliers, who have been able to increase production this season, will be able to tender to supply this food. This will have the double benefit of both feeding those who desperately need food and also contributing to the strengthening and rebuilding of the agricultural sector in Zimbabwe.

The resuscitation of the country’s agricultural sector is central to its overall economic recovery. Longer term recovery in the agricultural sector must also address the private sector. The second element of the package is a joint effort between Australia and the Netherlands through the Dutch ministry of development cooperation. Under this measure, Australia will contribute $1 million in 2009-10 to support private sector activities aimed at boosting agricultural production—for example, by contracting farmers to grow seeds for food crops. Creating these links between farmers and the private sector is the first step in reinvigorating private sector interest and engagement in Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector. It is an area of significant Australian experience and expertise.

Australia is also continuing to support agricultural recovery in Zimbabwe by funding the distribution of more productive and disease resistant maize seeds, through the World Bank’s global food security fund. The fund was announced in July 2008, and Australia was one of the first countries to contribute, providing $50 million to the global food security fund. Nearly $9 million has now been allocated to Zimbabwe from the fund.

Australia believes it is time to carefully consider working directly with select Zimbabwean government ministries and agencies, to help build capacity and support the restoration of essential services for the long term. Education and health are important areas for such consideration. Today I announce that Australia will contribute $2 million through UNICEF to help Zimbabwe’s ministry of education reinvigorate the education sector. Australia’s funding will support the procurement and distribution of textbooks and learning materials for Zimbabwean schools, as well as teaching materials. It will also address capacity constraints and assist the ministry of education in policy development and implementation. Australia’s assistance to the ministry of education follows support provided earlier this year to help restore the ability of the ministry’s headquarters to operate and function. Yesterday in Harare the minister for education, David Coltart, welcomed Australia’s assistance in that respect.

The Australian government is under no illusions about the political risks in Zimbabwe and the track record of Mr Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Australia’s financial and travel sanctions will remain in place for the present. These sanctions target individuals who have been responsible for, or involved in, acts to undermine the rule of law, corruption, violence and intimidation, and restrictive laws and regulations. The sanctions do not impact on the broader population in Zimbabwe and are not responsible for Zimbabwe’s economic demise over the last decade. Since 2002, Australia has also applied a ban on minister-to-minister contact with Zimbabwean ministers. In recognition of the efforts of parts of the new inclusive government over its first year, Australia will consider opportunities for ministerial engagement on a selective case-by-case basis with those ministers of the Zimbabwean government who we judge to be making a real and genuine contribution to Zimbabwe’s economic and social recovery. Australia is not considering and will not consider at this time a removal of sanctions which target those individuals who have been complicit in the brutality of decades past and who continue to present barriers to Zimbabwe moving forward.

Much more significant progress will be required before the Australian government undertakes any broader review of Australia’s sanctions with respect to Zimbabwe. Australia places the utmost importance on the need for real and demonstrated improvement in economic and political governance. There must be substantial progress towards real reform. Zimbabwe’s long-term future will not be secure without such reform. A united international community must send that strong message to Zimbabwe. Many more improvements will need to be effected before full normalisation of relations, including in the area of development assistance, can take place. Australia’s views in this respect were shared by the delegation from the European Commission which visited Zimbabwe on the 12th and 13th of this month.

All efforts must be made, both in the region and by the international community, to ensure that recent gains are not lost and that Zimbabwe continues to move forward. The terms of the global political agreement must be adhered to in letter and in spirit. Constitutional reform must proceed smoothly and in accordance with the terms of the agreement. This would allow the holding of full, free and fair democratic elections. Restrictive media legislation must be repealed. Mr Mugabe’s unilateral appointments of the Reserve Bank governor and the Attorney-General must be reversed. The rule of law must be respected. The people of Zimbabwe must be given hope for a brighter future. Australia’s assistance announced today, and its ongoing support, adds to this hope for the people of Zimbabwe.

I thank the House.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to speak for 17½ minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Deputy Leader of the Opposition speaking for a period not exceeding 17½ minutes.

Question agreed to.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australian governments and the Australian people have taken a keen interest in Zimbabwe for many years. We have continued to watch developments with hope, trepidation and, at times, deep despair. It is a tragedy that a nation blessed with an abundance of natural resources and large, fertile agricultural areas has been reduced to the point where millions of its people are starving and its economy has been utterly devastated. Yet that is what has occurred under the regime headed by Robert Mugabe—a regime which ruled Zimbabwe from 1980 to 2008, a regime which grew increasingly corrupt and which became increasingly violent as its intolerance to any opposition grew.

As the regime’s behaviour grew increasingly violent, the international community began to express its objections. It culminated in March 2002 when three leaders—President Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Mbeki of South Africa and Australian Prime Minister Howard—were appointed by the Commonwealth of Nations to decide what to do about Zimbabwe. There had been a presidential election in Zimbabwe at that time that was not on any account free or fair. It did not reflect the will of the people. There were allegations of vote rigging. It was conducted in a climate of fear, amidst political and state sponsored violence. I know this from my own observation, as I was in Zimbabwe in March 2002 as a Commonwealth electoral observer, charged with the task—along with about 50 other Commonwealth electoral observers—to report to the Commonwealth heads of government, who, as it turned out, were meeting in Australia at that time.

On 19 March the three leaders agreed to suspend Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth for one year. It was seen as a blow to Zimbabwean President Mugabe’s standing and prestige, particularly among other African Commonwealth nations. While this action did not trigger immediate sanctions, it certainly represented a milestone in terms of the international community’s attitude to the economic, social and political chaos under President Mugabe’s repressive regime. Ultimately, it did result in Zimbabwe withdrawing from the Commonwealth. From September 2002, Australia implemented targeted sanctions against the Mugabe regime and its close supporters. These sanctions have been expanded over time.

I also remember well that, when I was in Zimbabwe in 2002, the then leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, was charged with treason. While President Mugabe and his cronies sought to crush the spirit of their political opponents, they were unable to totally suppress the people of Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans continued to vote at elections, often in the face of extreme violence and, in some cases, the very real threat of death. They would have known that President Mugabe would do everything in his power to steal elections, but they still wanted to cast a vote—and we know that many, many people continued to vote for change.

After significant irregularities in successive elections, there was little genuine hope that the 2008 elections would reflect the true will of the people. Against the odds, the Movement for Democratic Change won a majority of the seats in the Zimbabwean parliament. Mr Tsvangirai appeared to have won a clear majority of the vote for president—but this was a step too far for President Mugabe and fear and violence were the all too familiar weapons he used to keep his grip on that office. However, he was forced to enter into negotiations with Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC.

Then South African President Mbeki played a pivotal role in negotiating the power-sharing arrangement known as the global political agreement, signed one year ago, on 15 September 2008. Under great international pressure, President Mugabe appointed Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister in February this year and a so-called ‘unity government’ was formed. Very few international observers, particularly those who had been to Zimbabwe, gave this arrangement much hope. It was previously unthinkable for members of Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party to be in the same room as Mr Tsvangirai’s MDC members, let alone work cooperatively in government.

There have been some positive developments, particularly since the swearing-in of Prime Minister Tsvangirai. Reports from Zimbabwe indicate that economic recovery, while extremely fragile, is underway. Inflation appears to have subsided from the catastrophic hyperinflation that rendered the nation’s currency worthless and forced Zimbabwe to use the currency of other nations. There is now consideration of the reintroduction of Zimbabwean money. Food is now more widely available. Education and health services are reported to be reopening. And there is hope that food production will be increased. There are also reports of greater personal freedom and improved ability for the media to report independently on developments. However, human rights abuses are reported to be widespread and the violent invasion of commercial farms continues. There are also reports of an ongoing campaign of intimidation and violence against members of the Movement for Democratic Change, some of whom have been charged with crimes regarded by the MDC as spurious.

President Mugabe has still not implemented the full terms of the global political agreement, and there are many signs of his efforts to undermine the agreement both in spirit and in law. This has led Prime Minister Tsvangirai to declare in recent days that the tensions between the parties to the agreement must be resolved in the coming weeks and months to enable Zimbabwe to make greater steps towards genuine, lasting recovery.

There have been calls from organisations such as the Southern African Development Community for sanctions to be lifted—sanctions which apply to key members of the Mugabe regime. This has been rejected by the United States, with President Obama in March this year extending sanctions that were due to expire on 6 March. The US sanctions ban more than 250 individuals from conducting business with the United States.

A delegation from the European Union which travelled to Zimbabwe in recent days also ruled out a lifting of sanctions and said that there would be no increase in humanitarian aid until President Mugabe implemented the terms of the power-sharing agreement. One delegation member, the Swedish Minister for International Development and Cooperation, Gunilla Carlsson, said that, while talks were held with Mr Mugabe, they did not reach any agreement on human rights violations. Minister Carlsson said that ‘much more needs to be done’ and that Zimbabwe was only at the start of a very long journey. European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid Karel De Gucht said that the European Union would like to increase its aid to Zimbabwe but that it depended on greater progress made in terms of honouring the commitments of the global political agreement.

The coalition also believes it is too early to lift sanctions against members of the Mugabe regime, who continue to show a flagrant disregard for the rule of law and international humanitarian standards. It is vital that we keep the pressure on President Mugabe and his cronies so that they are under no illusions about how abhorrent the international community finds their behaviour. The international community will continue to play an important role in providing aid to the long-suffering people of Zimbabwe.

While emergency food aid will be required for some time, I am encouraged by announcements yesterday from the United Nations that the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations has started to implement a program of support for farmers, particularly those with small farms, in partnership with the European Union, to help reduce food shortages this year. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has reported that it will distribute 26,000 tonnes of seed and fertilisers to 176,000 vulnerable farmers, which represents 10 to 15 per cent of all small-scale landholders in Zimbabwe.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations believes that, if Zimbabwe receives reasonable rainfall during the upcoming growing season, it is possible that production could be doubled this year. The Australian government is providing food and agriculture support through a number of international organisations, as well as providing support to Zimbabwe’s education sector. All Australians support the efforts to restore dignity to the everyday lives of the people of Zimbabwe, who aspire to live free from fear and threat of violence and who aspire to emerge from the shadow of oppression and corruption under which Zimbabwe has suffered for decades.