Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the motion be amended to read—that this House:

(1) condemns the actions of the Islamic State in Iraq which amounts to attempted genocide of minorities including the Assyrian, Chaldean, Mandaean and Yezidi people;

(2) re-affirms the rights of the Christian and other minorities of Iraq to live in peace and freedom and calls for all steps to be taken to ensure that all members of the affected communities can live in freedom in Iraq;

(3) calls on the Australian Government and the international community to provide humanitarian, financial and other forms of appropriate assistance to support those Christian and other minorities who have been internally displaced within Iraq;

(4) notes the aspirations of the Assyrian and Chaldean people for the establishment of an autonomous region in the Ninevah plains and welcomes the in-principle agreement of the Iraqi Government to this request earlier this year; and

(5) calls on the Australian Government through its seat on the United Nations Security Council and the international community to take appropriate steps to protect the rights of minorities in Iraq, including the Assyrian and Chaldean Christian people.

This House has considered resolutions on the plight of the Assyrian and Chaldean people of Iraq in the past. But yet again we are obliged to speak out on behalf of Iraq's Christian minorities. The Assyrian and Chaldean people have suffered so much in the past and now perhaps face their greatest ever threat—and this is a very substantial threat indeed.

This year and over the next four years Christians of Iraq will be remembering 100 years of attacks and they will be remembering when Australia's famous soldier Lieutenant General Savige rode to the rescue of Christian people—and now, 100 years later, Australia is being called on again to stand up for the Christians of the Middle East. As I said, this is perhaps the most serious threat ever faced. The scourge of the Islamic State seeks to eliminate Iraq's indigenous people.

Let me say this very, very clearly: the Islamic State is seeking to commit genocide. And I ask the House to send the strongest possible message that we will not stand for it. Even more importantly, it is important that the House says that once the scourge of ISIS has been dealt with, once the scourge of the Islamic State has been expelled from Iraq, let us not miss that opportunity to ensure ongoing protection for the Christians of Iraq—real protections for the Christians of Iraq—and let us move to ensure that the Christians of Iraq have a safe haven where they can live in peace and prosperity and they can live with reassurance. This has been agreed to by the former Iraqi government in principle, but we must keep moving forward.

Today the House must say, 'No, there is a fourth option: to continue to live in Iraq and to continue to practise their Christian faith without interference, in freedom, as they have the right to do.' Today the House must say, 'No, there is a fourth option: to continue to live in Iraq and continue to practise their Christian faith without interference and in freedom, as they have the right to do.'

The Assyrians and Chaldeans have faced, as I said, thousands of years of persecution. But, in just in the last 10 years or more, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, it is the Assyrians and Chaldeans who have suffered so much. By some reports, before the fall of Hussein, there were well over 1.4 million adherents to the Christian faith in Iraq. Now there are potentially somewhere between 250,000 and 500,000 left. Churches have been desecrated and destroyed. Murders and rapes have been committed. Towns like Mosul and Tikrit, the Nineveh Plains, home to the Christians of Iraq, have been taken over or are under threat. The Christians of Iraq in Iraq need to know and those in Australia need to know, and those around the world need to know, that Australia stands with them—and that this House stands as one, across the divide, with them.

It is very important that this message go out from this House today as strongly as possible, as it has from many individual members and as it has from the Christian Iraqi community in Australia. I want to acknowledge the work of so many leaders, some of whom are represented in the gallery today and others who could not be with us. In no particular order, the Assyrian Universal Alliance, the Assyrian Australian National Federation, the Young Assyrians, Christian Faith and Freedom, the Australian Chaldean Federation, the Chaldean National Congress, the Chaldean Australian Society and the Batnaya Australia group are just some of the groups represented in the House today and other groups represented in the community. I want to acknowledge and thank Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek, the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Opposition, for making time to meet with representatives of the various groups so that they could be properly briefed.

Today the House sends the strongest possible message, as we have done in the past, and may we never have to do it again in the future because the Christians of Iraq can live in freedom— (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is indeed a very important motion that is before the House, and I congratulate the member for McMahon on bringing it forward for debate today. This motion condemns the actions of the Islamic State, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and reaffirms the rights of Christians and other minorities to live their lives in peace and security, free from persecution and free from the threat of death. It calls on the Australian government to provide humanitarian and other assistance to help these people and to use our position on the UN Security Council to protect the rights of these minorities in Iraq, including the Assyrian and Chaldean Christian people.

The Islamic State was born out of al-Qaeda, itself an extremist group with violent jihadist tendencies committed to a world dominated by an Islamic caliphate. It is well funded through such things as kidnappings, piracy and wealthy supporters; and in recent times it has been focused on exploiting the tension in the Middle East, in Syria and in Iraq, to wreak terror and destruction. We have seen, day after day, images of beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions, and recently we have heard very disturbing reports that rape is also being used as a weapon of war.

Freedom of religion and belief is a fundamental human right. To target people for their beliefs and for their religion is abhorrent and we are seeing that happen now, with the Islamic State wanting to destroy and—these words are not used lightly—commit genocide of these minority groups. Thousands upon thousands of innocent people have been killed in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon. The thousands of people who have died have also included fellow Sunni Muslims. It is horrifying to all of us to know that the Islamic State now control large tracts of land in northern and western Iraq and in parts of eastern Syria. Their ambitions are, unfortunately, even greater than that. We must be mindful of the words of John Kerry, Secretary of State of the United States, who said recently:

… no decent country can support the horrors perpetrated by ISIS, and no civilized country should shirk its responsibility to help stamp out this disease.

He went on to say:

Extremists are defeated only when responsible nations and their peoples unite to oppose them.

And that is what we are doing today. Australia has been asked by the United States to join international partners to help the anti-ISIL forces in Iraq, joining with the United States, Canada, Britain, Italy and France, to name a few. On Sunday, the Prime Minister, along with Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin AC, Chief of Defence Force, announced that Australia will help transport stores of military equipment, including arms and munitions, as part of this multinational effort, utilising our RAAF C130 Hercules and C17 Globemaster aircraft. We will be supporting the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. We have been invited by the Iraqi government to help, and we must do so, to avert and stop a humanitarian catastrophe. We also must do all that we can at home to address the broader security threat posed by ISIL. It should be noted that there are about 60 Australians fighting with this terrorist organisation and about 100 Australians at home funding them.

It is very, very clear that we must do more, but we have already been doing quite a bit. We have already committed a $5 million package of humanitarian assistance. Australia has also offered to resettle 4,400 people fleeing violence in Iraq and Syria. The Iraqi Christians and the Yazidis are now listed as eligible for special humanitarian visas.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you seeking a point of order?

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the point that just—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Are you seeking a point of order?

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the House debating immediately whether Australian forces should be deployed to Iraq and that all other business before the House be deferred until the conclusion of the debate.

Mr Deputy Speaker—

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne will resume his seat.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the member no longer be heard.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the member no longer be heard. All those of that opinion say aye, to the contrary no. I think the ayes have it.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The noes have it.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is a division required?

Mr Bandt interjecting—

Really? A division is required. Ring the bells.

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are people in the gallery—

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No division required.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No division required? We will cancel the division.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Has he formally withdrawn?

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, he has withdrawn the division. I call the member for Higgins in continuation.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Before I was so rudely interrupted on this very important motion set out by the member for McMahon, I was saying that the Australian government is committed to helping these people. We have committed humanitarian assistance and we have created a special visa class in order to assist those people fleeing from persecution. It is very important that we do all that we can in this place to condemn the actions that have been taking place, to assist those people who require assistance and to make sure that we utilise the international fora—which we have been doing on many occasions, through a number of UN Security Council resolutions—to make sure that that assistance can be achieved.

Finally I would just like to quote the Prime Minister, who said, I think very eloquently:

… I stress, peaceful democracies, peaceful pluralist democracies like Australia shrink rightly and understandably from reaching out to these conflicts but just because we would prefer to stand aside from these conflicts doesn't mean that these conflicts will stand aside from us.

The people who are active in the terrorist groups in northern Iraq and elsewhere hate us as much as they hate the people that they are currently attacking. They hate us not for what we've done, they hate us for who we are and for what we are.

I commend this motion to the House, and everyone in this place stands in allegiance with those people who have been persecuted so unjustifiably. You have our support. (Time expired)

Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am acutely aware of people in the gallery who have family members who may be affected by the motion that we are discussing today. I rise to support the private member's motion of the member for McMahon condemning the actions of the Islamic State in Iraq, who, since their reign in parts of Iraq, have pursued mass killing of religious minorities living in Iraq, including the Assyrian, Chaldean, Mandaean and Yazidi people. I would like to thank the member for bringing this motion to our federal parliament at this time, a motion that concerns many in the Assyrian, Chaldean and—in particular in my electorate—Coptic Christian communities.

We know that ISIS have systematically abused the human rights of all of those who do not subscribe to their extremist ideology and are continually finding more and more callous and brutal means and ways to enforce their control. Organisations such as Human Rights Watch advise that these groups living in ISIS-controlled Iraq are suffering horrendous persecution based merely on their religious or ethnic identities. They are living in fear and desperation with the knowledge that they are targets of those who wish to perpetrate mass killings or other heinous human rights violations and then, in some cases, broadcast them to a horrified world.

It is widely reported that these groups are being forced to convert to Islam and to pay a religious tax or be killed. Otherwise, they must flee their homes and be asked, or forced, to join almost 2½ million other internally displaced people in Iraq. From July this year Christian minorities in Iraq were having their homes marked by a ISIS fighters, as the member for McMahon has said, with the Arabic letter for 'N', which is a way of identifying that the families living in those homes were Christians, making it very clear they were being targeted and in grave danger. Their churches, places of worship and sanctuary, have been seized and their religious monuments are being destroyed. There are other Islamic minorities, the Shia Shabak and Shia Turkmen minorities, whose homes have also been marked, to identify that they are shias, and they have been subjected to kidnappings and murders like other minorities in the regions. They have been forced to flee their homes in fear of their lives and in fear for their families because they do not share the extreme views of ISIS.

The actions of ISIS are crimes against humanity. This motion talks about us raising these issues with the United Nations Security Council. There is a provision the United Nations Security Council can use, which is called Responsibility to Protect. If there were ever a case to legally mandate actions to be taken under UN auspices to protect the genocide of minorities, this has got to be it.

What we need is a lasting solution, a considered solution, a measured solution to the horrible atrocities that we are seeing. As we know, the persecution of Christian minorities in the Middle East has been happening for some period of time. Being a friend of the Coptic Christian community in my electorate, I have witnessed and heard of the persecutions that have existed—not just those happening now. For example, there have been persecutions occurring in Egypt, where there has been the burning of churches and the murders and kidnappings of Coptic Christians since August 2013; in Libya, where there has been the murder of Coptic Christians because they are Christian; and, as I said before, in Iraq, where there has been the killing and forced evacuation of Christians, and other heinous crimes committed, because they are Christian.

The question for the UN Security Council—and we can play a critically important role in this—is to mandate lasting action to protect these minorities, because they face an extremist ideology that may not go away if we degrade ISIS, or ISIL as we call them now. We must have a lasting solution. The member for McMahon has raised these issues in this House on an ongoing basis. In my time as a member of parliament, I have heard time after time after time when talking to members of the Christian community the stories of the persecution of the Christian community in the Middle East, because they are Christian. These actions, these measures, these atrocities are so grave, it is the responsibility of the world community to take legally mandated action to remove the stain of genocide in this part of the world and, properly, for perpetuity. (Time expired)

Michael Sukkar (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to commend the member for McMahon for moving this motion. I rise today to add my voice to those condemning in the strongest possible terms the actions of ISIL in Iraq and Syria and to assert my support for the Christian Chaldean, Mandaen and Yezidi people. It is difficult to describe in words the depth of the outrage and horror that we, the Australian people, have felt at reports of the despicable atrocities—beheadings, crucifixions and mass executions—being carried out in the Middle East. These examples of the most medieval acts of barbarity, combined with modern weaponry, are a threat to all people who value decency in our world. Perhaps what has shocked and horrified us most of all is knowing that Australian citizens have left our shores to take up arms for these terrorists, betraying this country and furthering their radicalisation in the process. There are some 60 Australians known to be fighting with terrorists in the Middle East and another 100 or so actively supporting them.

The Australian government shares the Australian people's grave concerns for the thousands of innocent victims of ISIL's escalating violence in Syria and Iraq. That is why over the weekend we saw the Prime Minister take prompt action to help these people and respond to the request of the Obama administration in the United States, with permission of the Iraqi government, to airlift military equipment to the Kurds. We join the US, the UK, Canada, France and Italy in coming to the aid of desperate people who find themselves fighting to protect themselves and their loved ones from terrorists whose brutality knows no bounds and who will go to unimaginable lengths to spread their hatred and kill innocent people.

As a government, we could not stand by and watch these innocent people be slaughtered without doing what we reasonably could to save them and avert potential suicide. Not only have we agreed to join an airlift of arms and munitions to the besieged Kurdish Peshmerga region but we are also taking part in the humanitarian effort. The Prime Minister announced yesterday that Australia had participated in a humanitarian drop to the besieged town of Amreli in northern Iraq, again at the request of the Obama administration and the Iraqi government. We stand ready to participate in further humanitarian drops as required. In addition, the government has already provided $130 million in humanitarian assistance since 2011 to the people affected by the conflict in Syria. The Foreign Minister, the Hon. Julie Bishop, recently announced a $5 million package of humanitarian support to Iraq. Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has offered to resettle 4,400 people fleeing violence in Iraq and Syria, and Iraqi Christians and Yezidis are now listed as eligible for special humanitarian visas. Australia has a proud history of coming to the aid of those in need and doing what we can to take up the fight against terrorism—and, I am again proud to see Australia stepping forward.

As a Christian of Middle Eastern heritage, I have some understanding of the persecution that religious minorities can face in the region. Personally, I have been profoundly disturbed by the reports of attacks on minority groups, including Assyrian Christians—spelt out earlier. My heart goes out to them, and I have welcomed the repeated representations that Australian officials have made on their behalf at senior levels with the government of Iraq. As a government, we will continue to raise the plight of religious minorities, including Christians, at every opportunity. To paraphrase the Prime Minister, even though we understandably shrink from readily reaching out to these conflicts, the truth is that these conflicts reach out to our collective conscience. That is why it is out of a sense of decency and our own national interest that we must support the Christian and other minorities of the Middle East. Therefore, I am proud to be supporting this motion and I again commend all speakers today.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to support the motion moved by the member for McMahon. Iraq has gone from tragedy to tragedy over the past decade. We all know the horrors that have befallen the Assyrian, Chaldean, Mandean, Coptic and Yazidi people. When friends and relatives of Australians are being persecuted in their homeland in such terrible circumstances, these Australians deserve a voice in this parliament. I congratulate the member for McMahon for moving this motion and for his long-term commitment to advancing the rights of people in our community.

I am blessed with a very active and passionate Assyrian and Chaldean community in Kingsford Smith. These great Australians value education, are community minded and are the great philanthropists of our area. Last week I was pleased to join members of the Assyrian community, who met outside this parliament to raise their voice against the tragedy unfolding in Iraq. Thousands more around the world have rallied to protest. I want to let the Assyrian and Chaldean community in my local area know that your voice in this place is being heard.

In Detroit, Chicago and San Francisco in the USA, and around the world, the Assyrian diaspora are standing up and people are hearing you. There are around two million Assyrians throughout the world and your voice is giving hope to the 200,000 people displaced from their homes in Mosul and Nineveh Plain. The religious persecution in Iraq has seen some of the most vibrant Middle East Christian communities almost wiped out—forced into religious conversion and, as we have seen, driven from their homes or murdered. We know that 20,000 Assyrians lived in Mosul before ISIS took control of the city. They had a deadline of one week to leave or to convert. We know ISIS will never stop until they have displaced every person they see as an enemy. I want to quote from Mardean Isaac, a British-Assyrian novelist, who says:

The life of indigenous Mesopotamians in their hereditary habitat is irreplaceable. Villages and towns that hold the presence of time and extend rituals and ways of life passed down through generations; the vernacular richness of spoken Aramaic dialects born of shared experiences in the same places; and a disappearing architectural legacy—this living history, the very source of its own future, is at stake. The tragedy of this loss would never be lifted from the conscience of the world.

That perfectly represents what is occurring, unfortunately, at this time in their homeland. As they say, a tragedy would befall the world were this to come to pass.

ISIS is engaged in crimes against humanity on a massive scale. I am proud to say that federal Labor backs calls by Australian representatives of the Iraqi Assyrian and Chaldean Christian communities for the government to help alleviate the suffering of the humanitarian disaster in northern Iraq. The community and church leaders have called on the government to support proposals to establish an autonomous region in the Nineveh Plains, to increase humanitarian refugees from the region and to increase Australian humanitarian aid.

I am also proud to say that federal Labor welcomes the decision by the Iraqi government to support in principle the creation of an autonomous region in the Nineveh Plains. We are hopeful that the new government soon to be formed in Iraq will find ways to ensure security and autonomy for minority religious groups.

We welcome the decision of the Australian government to provide $5 million in emergency humanitarian aid for those fleeing ISIS. We call on the Australian government to use its position on the United Nations Security Council to push for greater assistance for Christian minorities facing persecution in this area. We welcome the government's decision to allocate 4,400 existing refugee places to people from Iraq and Syria, but we regret the Abbot government cutting the humanitarian refugee intake from 20,000 to 13,000. There should be more than this 4,400 available but, unfortunately, because of this cut, that is not the case at this time. I am pleased to support and to congratulate the member for McMahon for moving this motion.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for McMahon for this motion. I certainly support the government's moves in the support of the RAAF flying military supplies to the Kurdish region and also the humanitarian intake, making 4,400 positions available for Iraqi Christians and Yazidis. The main point I would like to make this morning is the fact that we cannot see ISIS as some sort of organisation that can just be destroyed and that that will be the end of it. We have to understand the history. Before the 1920s, the Wahhabism of the Saudi and Sunni Muslim religion was all about unifying Islam under one voice. Everybody else was considered to be a heretic.

In the 1920s, in order to exploit the oil, the Saudi king changed Wahhabism to more of a cultural revolution rather than violent repressions. But what we see now is ISIS being the successor of the Ikhwan movement, which was a militant and puritan moralistic movement which disagreed with the cultural revolution the Saudi king wanted and, instead of the Saudi king being the head of the Sunni Islam, a caliph was to be head of that religion. The Ikhwan and the IS are a violent organisation. Their view of the world is— (Time expired)

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I apologise to the member but the time allotted for this debate has expired.

Debate adjourned.