Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This motion before us is extremely important to the over 800 Sudanese Australians living in my electorate and I know it is extremely important to many members in this place. It has attracted a huge amount of interest in the community, as evidenced by the attendance in the gallery tonight. I want to acknowledge some people who have helped to drive this motion, namely Mr Sascha Nanlohy, president of A Billion Little Stones, an organisation dedicated to preventing genocide and mass atrocities around the world; Father Peter Confeggi, the parish priest at St Patrick's Parish in Blacktown; and Father Martin Ochaya Lino, secretary-general of the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba, South Sudan. These people and many others have worked with me in my local community to shape this motion and I would like to personally thank them for their respective contributions.

Since South Sudan's independence last year we have seen continued conflict around the newly crafted border regions, with hundreds of thousands now displaced from Sudan's Blue Nile and South Kordofan states since the Sudanese army's offensive began in May 2011. Something must be done to stop the bloodshed, to stop the displacement and work towards a long-lasting, sustainable peace. I strongly believe that the international community has a responsibility to foster peace in the region. I believe that Australia as a good international citizen has a responsibility to do all we can to empower the peacemakers and help to end this suffering. We in this House all have a responsibility to drive political will, not just token support but hard political will, for effective policy and tangible results. With knowledge comes responsibility.

When American journalist Nicholas Kristof visited the Nuba Mountains in June he told the story of Katum Tutu, a 28-year-old woman who had lost her two-year-old daughter to starvation and had no food for her four remaining children. Her children, like many of those who remain in the Nuba Mountains, try to live by eating mice, leaves and roots. They do not have the strength to reach the refugee camp and believe 'it is much better to stay and die here'.

With the humanitarian crisis now resulting in child mortality four times above emergency levels, Australia must be ready to contribute rapid humanitarian efforts in delivering food to internally displaced persons and refugees in South Sudan and Ethiopia. We must lobby for the creation of humanitarian corridors and safe havens.

While few may have heard of the conflict in Sudan, many more struggle to see any interest that Australia might have. But I point to the decision of the government of South Sudan in January this year to shut down oil production in part of a long-running stand-off with the north over the sharing of oil revenues accrued in the pipeline. As a result of that shutdown, the price of oil rose and the price of petrol hit the hip pockets of Australian families. In the words of Kofi Annan, 'Ours is a world in which no individual, and no country, exists in isolation.' Quite apart from the economic consequences, these conflicts do not exist in a vacuum, and we have an interest in peace beyond the simple moral compulsion to act.

I would like to highlight in this motion:

That this House … notes that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudan’s President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, on five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape), two counts of war crimes (attacking civilians and pillaging), and three counts of genocide.

I feel it is extremely important to note that, despite this warrant from the ICC, there are countries that continue to harbour al-Bashir and allow him safe passage throughout the world. Prior to the genocide in Darfur, for which he is charged, al-Bashir and his inner circle were responsible for the genocidal campaign in the Nuba Mountains in the early 1990s, where the tactics later used in Darfur were honed.

It is not too much to say, even as we see the devastation wrought by Bashar al-Assad in Syria, that President al-Bashir's 23-year reign has been the most deadly and brutal of any head of state in the world today. Currently Australian sanctions only cover those who have been active in the Darfur region of Sudan. Given the horror and calculated destruction that is clear in the intentions of the Sudanese government in the Nuba Mountains, Australia must work with the international community and broaden individual travel sanctions and asset freezes and push for an International Criminal Court investigation into the conflict. It is also appropriate for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to strongly lobby its counterparts in Africa and the Middle East to commit to their responsibilities under the Rome statute and arrest President al-Bashir and other indicted war criminals should they set foot in a signatory country.

In my electorate of Greenway, there are some 826 people who identify as Sudanese or South Sudanese, and in the wider Blacktown LGA, also represented by my colleague the member for Chifley, who is here this evening, there are over 2,000 people. The Sudanese community I represent in this place are active participants in Australian society and contribute greatly to the vibrant multicultural nature of the Greenway electorate.

In closing, I believe it is appropriate to reflect on the question asked by General Romeo Dallaire, who led the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda as the world turned its back and 800,000 people were slaughtered in 100 days. He asked: 'Are all humans human or are some more human than others?' When we hear of these conscience-shocking acts, we must all ask ourselves this question. We must recognise we are all human and we are all endowed with indivisible and inalienable rights. We in this House have a responsibility to shine light on places where people are forced to flee from their homes and live in caves, their fields burnt and their lives destroyed, all because of the colour of their skin.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 9 July 2011 South Sudan became the newest country in the world. The Republic of South Sudan was the result of a six-year peace process which began with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005. An agreement reached between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement ended more than two decades of war. The agreement called for a referendum to determine the status of South Sudan, and this was held in July 2011, with 98.83 per cent of participants voting for independence. That is a remarkable statistic.

The outbreak of violence in Sudan in the lead-up to the 2011 referendum was of great concern to the coalition, as it was to the whole Australian parliament. We joined with the United States of America and other members of the international community in urging all parties to remain committed to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. In April this year, the Minister for Foreign Affairs announced that the government is providing up to 25 Australian Defence Force personnel and 10 Australian Federal Police to the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan, to provide ongoing humanitarian and development assistance to South Sudan.

UNMISS has three key mandates: (1) support for peace consolidation and thereby fostering longer term state building and economic development, (2) support the government of the Republic of South Sudan in exercising its responsibilities for conflict prevention, mitigation and resolution and protect civilians and (3) support the government of South Sudan in developing its capacity to provide security to establish rule of law and to strengthen the security and justice sectors.

The coalition welcomes the government's additional assistance to the people of Sudan during this period. This has built on Australia's humanitarian program in Darfur initiated by the Howard government. Australians are concerned about reports of ongoing violence in regions such as Southern Kordotan and the Nuba Mountains which are deeply troubling. UN Mission in South Sudan Chief Hilde Johnson said on 5 July this year:

The tensions and the crisis between Sudan and South Sudan have impeded state and nation building efforts. In many ways, these unresolved issues have been like chains on our feet of the new and independent country. They have also constituted significant problems for Sudan.

There are a number of key issues which are yet to be resolved between Sudan and South Sudan, concerning disputed territory particularly the Abyei administrative regions and resources as well as the problems which arise in granting nationality and citizenship to people. These issues have already caused conflict in the region and have led to more than 110,000 people being forced south and into Ethiopia.

South Sudan needs to develop a constructive relationship with Sudan on such important matters, and to work on ways of controlling the border and the need for legal frameworks for refugee returns. Refugees returning to South Sudan from the north is a difficult matter and there is no easy way to measure South Sudanese presence in Sudan. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports violence affected various part of the south in 2011 and by the end of August it was believed that more than 3,070 people had been killed in intercommunal and militia related violence. It is expected refugees, people at risk of statelessness, returnees and internally displaced persons will continue to increase in South Sudan should the conflict in Southern Kordofan and Darfur worsen. The people of Sudan have already suffered immensely and it is pivotal both Sudan and South Sudan protect their citizens and comply with international law.

In my electorate of Riverina there is a vibrant Sudanese and South Sudanese community who celebrated the first anniversary of South Sudan with a traditional lunch and dances on July 14. Mr Deng Jot organised the festivities and said that the day recognised the freedom for which the South Sudanese people had fought long and hard. He also said the day was 'a way for us to remember those who have died'.

I am really pleased so many Sudanese Australians are here in the Federation Chamber tonight and I welcome them. The coalition has always been and will always be committed to fundamental human rights, as has the government, including freedom of worship. We call on the Sudanese authorities to ensure members of all faiths are able to practice their religion free from fear. I commend the member for Greenway for this motion. She, like me, has a presence of Sudanese and South Sudanese, all wonderful people, in her electorate in western Sydney and I know how committed she is to those people. Again, I commend her for this motion.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too commend the member for Greenway for this incredibly important motion. It is important in general terms but also particularly important to a large number of people in my electorate of Parramatta. I also have a large community mainly from South Sudan and some members from Sudan. In fact, I celebrated last July with the South Sudanese community on the day that independence was declared. I was at the University of Western Sydney and was due to make a speech and I should have been two speeches away but the crowd kept breaking out into revolutionary song so it took quite a while to get to my speech. It was a day of joy and hope. It is incredibly sad to note the recent appalling escalation in violence. So much of that hope if not shattered has certainly been severely damaged. The member for Greenway is right in that governments in the region and governments around the world must condemn this violence on both sides and call for both sides to adhere to the memorandum of understanding.

The people of South Sudan that I know are extraordinary people, in fact some of the most extraordinary people that I have met. I had not even begun to understand the lives that some of them had led when I was talking to one young man who was telling me of some advice his mother gave him. When I was young my mum gave me advice when I ate too much, that if I got a tummy ache and stuck my finger in my bellybutton it would make the tummy ache go away. That is what she told me. Well, this young man's mum had told him if he did not eat for five days he would grow really tall. Can you imagine in an Australian context a mum being in the position where she had to make up a story like that, to make it acceptable for her son that he was not going to eat for five days? It is a world that most of us in Australia simply could not imagine. He still believed it, by the way. His mum told him and he still believed it. He was in his 30s, I think, and he still believed what his mum told him. He thought that was why he was so tall. So that was a sign of great love from a mum. I still believe sticking my finger in my bellybutton makes my tummy ache go away as well. Again, what a—

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I know. I only found out recently it is not true, so it is a bit sad. But they are exceptional people. They are people of great resilience who have arrived in this country with appalling stories in their lives who have knuckled down to build a life here with such incredible commitment. They are people who give back to their own community in the most extraordinary ways. A young man I know who arrived at 18 with four younger brothers and sisters put himself through law school and his four younger brothers and sisters through high school and university. All that time, from the first year, he set up community organisations to work with other youth, as if he did not have enough of his own to do. Right from the beginning, he had this incredible commitment to making life work in this new country. These are extraordinary people from both South Sudan and Sudan—people that a country should be proud of; people capable of building great countries if they have peace; people capable of making real contributions not only to their own country but to the world. For this reason as well, we really should argue very, very strongly as a government for an end to this conflict.

The member for Greenway has talked about some of the dreadful things that have happened there and the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for the arrest of Sudan's President, Omar Hassan al-Bashir. I agree also with the member for Greenway that people who are guilty of such crimes should not find refuge anywhere. They should not find refuge when they cross a border. They should not find refuge anywhere, nor should anybody who perpetrates the kind of crimes that have been perpetrated against the Sudanese people, both north and south, or the people who perpetuate the violence that has led to, essentially, the destruction of a nation and the displacement of a people.

We are incredibly lucky to have people of this calibre in this nation. Again, as I said earlier, some of the most extraordinary people I have met have come from that part of the world, and I know they will make extraordinary contributions here. But I look forward to the Sudanese people being able to make those extraordinary contributions in their homeland.

Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to support the private member's motion of the honourable member for Greenway. Obviously the member for Greenway has quite a significant population in her seat who are people from Sudan and South Sudan. I have just a few—not too many, because I live in Lismore in northern New South Wales. It is nowhere near like the population you have but, as you said, that helps make the cultural and economic life. It is in the emotion, which is much richer and more diverse.

The reason that I am speaking in support of the motion is that it is something that of itself deserves to be supported. In the lead-up to the creation of the world's newest state, South Sudan, I had a fair bit to do with the diaspora in Australia. I had a friend who worked with the government of South Sudan's liaison office in Australia. They asked me for some assistance, and I worked with them by helping them with access to meetings with various departments and agencies, such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and AusAID. I helped them with contact with the Australian Electoral Commission and the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and the like in the lead-up to the new state coming into being. In addition, to formalise things, they had to set up a bank account. We might think that is easy, but it was not straightforward. There were a whole lot of formalities that had to happen around that because they are receiving public moneys and the like. I was able to assist them with that in a small way. I have an email here that I will read out:

Dear Janelle

On behalf of myself and the GOSS Liaison Mission Office in Australia and Oceania, I would like to take this opportunity to express our profound and heartfelt gratitude to you for your very active support that has ensured that the GOSS Liaison Mission Office in Australia establishes the first formal bank account in the Western world. We were also very thankful for your presence and the ongoing support that Barry Hanson has continued to offer us as he guides our steps during the process of establishing the account. Your commitment has enabled this mission to successfully achieve its first goal towards its main objective. Once again, please accept our sincere gratitude and appreciation.

Yours truly

Mariano Deng Ngor

Principal Liaison Officer

GOSS Liaison Mission Office Australia and New Zealand

It is something that I have never talked about, but tonight seemed the appropriate time to read that into the public record.

What has been going in the Sudan is an absolute tragedy. I listened to the member for Parramatta talking about the humanitarian situation, which the members for Riverina and Greenway also talked about, and it is just really awful. I know the extent to which the Australian government has been helping to try and address the human rights situation. I have looked at the reports on the actions that we have taken and at how we are working with the United Nations to address the human rights situation in the Sudan. I know that the government supports the call of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for 'an independent, thorough and objective inquiry' and for unhindered access for human rights monitors and humanitarian actors in Southern Kordofan, including the Nuba mountains.

We also know that the International Criminal Court has issued two warrants for the arrest of the head of state of the Sudan, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for the following crimes, as stated in the text of this motion:

… five counts of crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape), two counts of war crimes (attacking civilians and pillaging), and three counts of genocide …

As the member for Parramatta said, nobody should be able— (Time expired)

Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is not often in this day and age that we are able to celebrate the birth of a nation. Most of the time, histories are well entrenched and nations have been in existence for quite some time, and we do not get to experience what it is like to see new boundaries drawn within which people can set up their own government. But we got to see it last year with the creation of South Sudan. People might not be aware of its impact—the joy and, importantly, what this does for identity. It is truly a miracle to see and a blessing to be there and be able to be a part of it.

While we recognise and celebrate this event, with this motion the member for Greenway has pointed out that there are, at its edges, concerns about the future of this new fledgeling nation, to ensure that we lend our support to ensure that the birth of this nation does not remain a concept but something viable and lasting that provides opportunity for the people of South Sudan. Political independence is one thing, but it needs to be matched by economic independence—the provision of opportunity and the ability to fully prosper in peace.

In our part of Western Sydney, the member for Greenway and I have been able to see for ourselves the growth of a vibrant Sudanese community. I certainly saw it firsthand as the chairperson of the Blacktown Migrant Resource Centre, where we did quite a lot and were able to tap into assistance from the Australian government to aid in the settlement process. What I saw was that Sudanese who were settling into Blacktown were overcoming major obstacles. They fought to get education for their children, they worked hard to get housing and they also worked hard to get jobs and ensure their families had adequate opportunities. It cannot be stressed enough that these challenges are still present today, but there is a determination in the Sudanese community to overcome them.

I want to highlight in particular some of the achievements of this new community in this country. In the AFL, Majak Daw is playing for North Melbourne, the first Sudanese player in the AFL and a great one, as the member for Riverina points out. Another person born in Sudan who came to Australia and went on to play for the University of Connecticut as well as for the Perth Wildcats and the Gold Coast Blaze in the game I love, basketball, is Ater Majok. He played in the NBL and trained with and was elected with the Lakers. He is someone who started in Sudan, came to Australia and is now doing us all proud. Again, you can see the migrant experience shining through. So many Sudanese, as many migrants do, welcomed the chance to rebuild their lives. They also have high aspirations for friends and family back in South Sudan.

This highlights the point in the motion by the member for Greenway that we should look to see whatever we can do to help ensure those people who breached human rights and treated life so cheaply are pursued and held to account. That is critical for the process of reconciliation. But, importantly, we need to do whatever we can through development assistance to ensure when we celebrate a new nation that it is not just a concept but will continue and will not wither. If I have seen anything with my own eyes about the Sudanese people I have had the pleasure and honour of knowing, it is that if you give them a chance they will seize that chance, they will work on it and they will prosper. That is how it should be for South Sudan.

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

I will speak briefly to place on record my gratitude to the member for Greenway for this very important motion and to all those who have spoken in this debate. I also want to welcome the members of the Australian Sudanese and South Sudanese community who are present in the parliament tonight. It is wonderful to see you here. As a former lawyer with the United Nations I feel a great deal of affinity with the work of the International Criminal Court, which will celebrate what I believe is the 10th anniversary of its Rome Statute on 10 December this year, which is also International Human Rights Day. I know that members of the Australian Sudanese community are very interested in that.

One of my staff members, Ronald Mizen, who is an aspiring journalist, visited South Sudan on the occasion of its first anniversary just a few months ago and had a wonderful experience there. He has put it all on film, which is great for those of us who have not yet had the pleasure of visiting. I am pleased to be the secretary of the newly established Australia-Africa Parliamentary Friendship Group and I hope that this will lead to many future occasions when the African diaspora, parliamentarians and diplomats can engage with Australian parliamentarians to improve our people-to-people links.

Debate adjourned.