Warren Entsch (Leichhardt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move the motion:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the Tibetan Plateau is:

  (i) the largest source of freshwater beyond the Arctic and Antarctic;

(ii) a major driver of the global climate;

  (iii) the source of most of Asia's major rivers; and

  (iv) an area of great significance to the global environment; and

(b) traditional nomadic herding has provided Tibetans with resilient livelihoods and ensured the health of Tibetan grasslands, including maintaining biodiversity and soil carbon;

(2) expresses concern that:

(a) Tibetan nomads are leaving the grasslands and that their displacement will have harmful impacts on their livelihood and culture as well as on Tibet's fragile environment; and

(b) construction of large dams and water diversion projects in the headwater regions will impact the environment and the livelihood of millions of people in the region;

(3) notes China's many positive steps towards addressing the challenges of climate change, including reducing dependence on coal; and

(4) calls for acknowledgement of the:

(a) important role Tibetan nomads play in ensuring the health of Tibetan grasslands; and

(b) importance of Tibetans having a say over decisions that affect their land and livelihoods.

As the chair of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, I am delighted to welcome a delegation of our Tibetan friends led by the Australian Tibet Council. Over the next two days, they will present a very strong case to the parliament and the government: firstly, that Tibet is central to many of the great challenges of our time, from climate change to inequity and to food and water security; secondly, that Australia and the international community cannot afford to ignore what is happening in Tibet and, in part, to the Tibetan Plateau environment; and, thirdly, that the Tibetan people must be part of the solution in addressing the environmental crisis that is unfolding in Tibet.

As the largest source of fresh water beyond the Arctic and the Antarctic, and the source of most of Asia's major rivers, what happens in the Tibetan Plateau has far-reaching ramifications for the region and the world at large. According to Tibet - an environmental challenge, released ahead of the UN climate summit last year, China has been building dams of a staggering scale at an extraordinary rate. By 2000, China had built 22,104 large dams. By 2010, it had installed 220 gigawatts of hydropower—nearly 60 times the generating capacity of the Snowy Mountains scheme. With the middle and lower courses of its rivers already heavily dammed, the only way for China to reach target capacity is to begin heavily damming the rivers in Tibet. As with large hydropower projects the world over, local communities bear the brunt of these controversial projects and reap few, if any, of the benefits. The Chinese government has an even more controversial plan for Tibetan rivers. The next stage of China's south-north water diversion project, while still on the drawing board, will divert water from the upper reaches of the Yangtze to the Yellow River, defying the country's physical geography. These proposed plans pose questions of water sovereignty, the likes of which the world has never seen before. By controlling the Tibetan Plateau, China has control of Asia's water tap and seems ready to use that power with little regard for the needs of its neighbours. Just as Australia pays close attention to China's activities in the South China Sea, we should also be aware of the developments on the rivers that originate from Tibet and flow into many Asian countries.

Today, I would also like to draw attention to another misguided policy of the Chinese government in Tibet: the forced removal of Tibetan nomads from their grasslands. Only a few years ago, Chinese authorities had reportedly moved over two million Tibetans from their homes on grasslands to newly constructed settlements, profoundly altering Tibet's social and economic fabric. The policy is as self-defeating as it is unjust. Stripped of the livelihoods that have sustained them for thousands of years, a once proud and resilient people now face a very uncertain future. While carried out on the grounds of environmental protection, the controversial policy has further compromised the ecological balance of the Tibetan Plateau. The Chinese government has tried to obscure the effects of its relocation policies by heavily restricting access to media and refusing to allow independent fact-finding missions.

At a meeting with the Chinese ambassador in Canberra two years ago, I asked him about the worsening human rights conditions in Tibet. The ambassador extended an invitation to me and Australian parliamentarians to visit Tibet in order to form well-informed opinions. The Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet quickly put out a request to the Chinese embassy to facilitate a trip to Tibet. Two years on, we are still waiting for a response. In another example, just last week the Chinese authorities announced that the Tibet Autonomous Region will be completely closed to foreign tourists until the end of March, with all foreigners being asked to leave. This annual sealing of Tibet takes place ahead of the Tibetan national uprising day on 10 March.

Our Tibetan friends visiting parliament this week will be asking MPs and senators to call on the Chinese government to end the forced removal of Tibetan nomads and allow former nomads who wish to return to their traditional rangelands to do so, to ensure Tibetans are given a greater say in the decisions that affect their land and livelihoods. I support their call and urge my fellow parliamentarians to join me in supporting the Tibetans' plea to help save their fragile land and their unique way of life.

John Cobb (Calare, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his motion. As a member of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, I welcome the opportunity to speak on the importance of preserving the health of this globally significant water source, the Tibetan Plateau.

Situated between the two emerging regional and global powers, China and India, Tibet has traditionally acted as a peaceful buffer. Tibet is the source of Asia's major rivers, upon which an estimated 1.4 billion people across 11 large downstream nations depend. The Tibetan Plateau, the world's largest and highest, has a significant impact on the region's climate. The plateau is known as the 'the third pole', but Tibet's glaciers are melting, with dire implications for global climate change. Known in China as 'the western treasure house', Tibet is rich in 132 different mineral resources which are presently being exploited by a resource-hungry China. Unfortunately, the benefits are not flowing to Tibetans, whose traditional livelihoods have been taken from them and whose civil liberties have been suppressed and abused.

Historically, the Tibetan Plateau has served as an important refuge from Chinese control for that country's nomadic herdsman. It has provided these indigenous people with a livelihood, allowed them to maintain their traditional culture and, in turn, these nomadic people have been central in maintaining the health of the plateau grasslands. I often meet with representatives of the Australia Tibet Council here in Canberra and with the Tibet Action Group for WA when back home. I note that these groups are often prominent in the increasingly frequent climate change rallies being held around our nation. The lack of sustainable and transboundary water management, the overextraction of minerals and the forced resettlement of more than two million nomadic Tibetans from grasslands are already having a significant impact on the environment and on local communities and their culture.

Australia is home to close to 2,000 Tibetans, many of whom are former political prisoners from Tibet and have moved here as part of the government's humanitarian program. Though their number may be relatively small, they are active in highlighting the cultural, environmental and geostrategic significance of the Tibetan region.

In the lead up to the UN climate summit late last year, the Australia Tibet Council released its report Tibet—an environmental challenge, which highlights the cultural and geostrategic significance of Tibet to Asia and offers tangible solutions and recommendations to address the serious environmental threats that will have significant global and regional implications. The report observes that a peaceful resolution to the Tibetan situation is essential to address concerns around food and water security and acting on climate change.

The human rights situation in Tibet remains dire. Amnesty International's latest report The state of the world's human rights, released last week, noted the UN Committee against Torture's regret that previous recommendations had not been implemented by China, with ethnic Tibetans continuing to face severe discrimination, restrictions on their rights to freedoms of religious belief, expression, association and peaceful assembly, and reports of excessive force used by police during protests.

The Chinese government maintains controls over Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and a number of Tibetan monks, writers, protesters and activists have been detained, with charges and location of their detention unknown. Human Rights Watch reported earlier this month that Chinese authorities have indefinitely extended an intensive surveillance program in villages across Tibet, reflecting the authority's fear, and consequently suppression, of criticism and dissent. In September the Chinese government denounced the 'middle-way' approach advocated for by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a white paper issued to mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, vowing to fight against separatism.

I would like to particularly acknowledge the tireless work of Kyinzom Dhongdue, campaigns manager for the Australia Tibet Council, in keeping this issue in the public domain. She is a candidate in the Tibetan elections this year. This is the first time there has been a seat in the Tibetan parliament in exile for a representative from the Tibetan communities in Australia, New Zealand and East Asia. Kyinzom would be a fantastic parliamentarian and she has my full support.

As the member for Leichhardt has already done, I encourage everyone in this place to join us at 4 pm this Tuesday for the Tibet Advocacy Day reception in 1R1 where you will meet Tibetan delegates who will share their personal stories about the issues facing Tibet. If you are unable to make it, I encourage you arrange a time to meet with them.

As we witness greater international cooperation to achieve the recently agreed sustainable development goals and to address climate change, all nations, including Australia, should be concerned about the situation in Tibet and must work towards finding a peaceful resolution of the Tibetan situation. I call on the government to continue to advocate for improved human rights, including the release of the more than 2,000 political prisoners, and to continue to seek access for Australian parliamentarians to Tibet.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is shocking to hear from the member for Leichhardt about the lock-out of the whole international community from a country of seven million people. The Tibetan Plateau in particular is one of the most important regions of the world—it contains the third-largest amount of ice after the two poles. Indeed, it is sometimes called 'the third pole' and, of course, it is known to most people around the world as 'the roof of the world'. The plateau is one of the most inhospitable places on earth. It has an average of 4½ thousand metres in height and, bordered by the Himalayas in the south, it is the highest plateau on this planet. The Tibetan Plateau is the world's largest plateau—it is larger than Western Europe. In winter its north-eastern corner can dip to minus 40 degrees and what little precipitation the plateau receives mostly comes in the form of hail, not rain. Parts of the plateau have grassland that has only been enough to support nomadic tribes, not settled crop-growing peoples.

The plateau plays an important role in regulating global temperature. The massive ice loss it has experienced in recent years as a result of climate change will have outsized influence on the planet. Indeed, over the last century the Tibetan Plateau has seen its temperature rise faster than the global average. The main reason for this is that ice reflects heat back into space and if there is a lot of ice then more heat is reflected, making the planet cooler. When there is less ice, less heat is reflected. This means that, in a global warming environment, the lessening amount of ice on the plateau will actually speed up the warming.

That the ice is melting on the plateau is of significant concern. Over 3½ thousand glaciers coming down from the plateau are retreating faster than elsewhere. These glaciers feed the rivers in Asia, including the Yangtze, the Yellow, the Mekong and the Ganges, that feed billions of people. About two billion people—one-third of the planet's population—depend on the rivers fed by the ice of the Tibetan Plateau. That this ice is disappearing speaks to a really significant problem, as some of the world's key rivers are in danger and a few decades hence of drying out. I will repeat that: this is happening with the Yangtze, the Yellow, the Mekong and the Ganges rivers. More importantly, warmer temperatures and overgrazing are destroying the grasslands on the Tibetan Plateau step. This is forcing nomads off the land and into permanent government shelters, with the Chinese government finding it difficult to provide people with even menial work.

As the population booms, China is damming the rivers. It is damming the Mekong, which has spread protests into Vietnam. Now it is threatening to dam rivers to India, a country that already has significant water needs, and there is some conflict between China and India. It is not just China—India and Nepal and Bhutan have plans to dam the water and create hydro-electric plants. Environmentalists are warning of the potential for significant damage to the planet in the Himalayas from these plans. There are also geopolitical considerations. China is on the Tibetan Plateau, where it has most of its strategic rocket force, and it is the ultimate controller of the water of 40 per cent of the world's population. There are fears that, whereas land once plagued China-India relations, control of water could now create tension.

I do echo the member for Fremantle's remarks that the 2,000 Tibetans who live in Australia are excellent citizens. Most of them have had terrible experiences as political prisoners in China. I also echo her views that Kyinzom, their representative, will make a fantastic representative in the Tibetan parliament in exile. But the people of Asia have increasing energy, water and food needs—needs that have to be fulfilled for the decades to come—and they are taken for granted by most of the population, but Asia will be relying on this Tibetan Plateau. It is very important that significant and lasting damage not be caused by policies of the Chinese government, which has control of that area, despite the requests of the local Tibetan people and His Holiness the Dalai Lama for autonomy within a Chinese federation.

I conclude by saying that I was shocked on the weekend to see in Fairfax Media a picture of a former foreign minister of Australia with a sacred Tibetan painting given to him by another country. It is disgraceful—imagine someone taking, or being given, an icon or stolen art from the Second World War! It is an outrage to all people who respect other people's religion and other people's traditions, including the 3,000-year-old Tibetan people.

Debate adjourned.