Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At a time when we are seeing sweeping changes in the world, we need more than ever voices advocating peaceful democratic change, non-violent solutions to conflict and freedom of speech. Yesterday, more than 100 members, senators and members of the diplomatic corps welcomed His Holiness the Dalai Lama to this parliament and attended a reception where His Holiness provided an insight into the current political and social conditions under which the occupied Tibetan people are forced to live.

He also delighted the audience with his wisdom and light-hearted observations on such issues as the need for teaching of secular morality and ethics to children and the considerable health benefits of being a warm, open and caring person rather than someone whose hatred, fear and anger makes them closed and isolated.

I am very pleased to say that this Saturday, 18 June, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be attending a function in my electorate that I have helped to arrange in collaboration with the City of Fremantle and Senator Scott Ludlam. That event at the Fremantle Town Hall will give my Fremantle constituents and other Western Australians a further opportunity to hear from one of the world's great spiritual leaders and advocates for peace—an attribute appropriately recognised by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989—a powerful message to the world in the year of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The appetite for this kind of engagement in Fremantle has always been very high, and this was made abundantly clear when the 400-or-so tickets for the audience with Holiness sold out in 27 minutes. I want to acknowledge the work that has been done by Senator Scott Ludlam's office in organising the Fremantle event and I want to thank the Mayor of Fremantle, Brad Pettit, and the officers of the city of Fremantle for their support and for the use of the town hall. This event has been arranged as a fundraiser for the Tibetan children's village and has already raised more than $20,000 for this purpose.

In 2009, Senator Ludlam and I were fortunate enough to be part of a parliamentary delegation to India that also included the Deputy Speaker, Mr Slipper, among others, where we met with His Holiness in Dharamsala. We also visited the Tibetan children's village which houses and educates orphans and refugee children from Tibet. The school mottos are 'Others before self' and 'Individuals can make a difference'. As I noted when I return from Dharamsala, the Tibetan children's village managed to be simultaneously the saddest and happiest place we had seen—happy because the children are welcomed and loved; sad because many have been sent from Tibet into the care of the Dalai Lama and may never have contact with their families in Tibet again. Those families may never find out whether their children even made it to Dharamsala.

To gain some understanding of the situation in Tibet, I urge as many people as possible to see the excellent film What Remains of Us, about a young Tibetan woman from Quebec who enters Tibet for the first time carrying a message from the Dalai Lama to Tibetans inside Tibet. To see the reaction of poverty-stricken Tibetans inside their humble abodes, gathered around a small portable video player, as the Dalai Lama—exiled from Tibet for the past 52 years—spoke to them is incredibly moving. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has touched many lives in his 75 years and I hope he will have a long life and continue to touch many more. Happy birthday to His Holiness for 6 July. (Time expired)

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

History will record that Mr Speaker welcomed His Holiness when he was in the gallery of the House of Representatives chamber yesterday.