Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to congratulate the Charles Sturt council on its recent decision to allow the South Australian Vietnamese community to fly the Heritage and Freedom flag, also known as the yellow flag, at culturally significant occasions—most notably, Tet festivals. The Port Adelaide electorate is blessed with a very large Vietnamese-Australian community. Many thousands of them over the last four decades have built an important and welcome place in our society. They obviously retain a deep spiritual connection to Vietnamese culture and their homeland, a connection that is recognised and signified by the yellow flag and its important cultural and historical significance. Flying that flag demonstrates our respect for that cultural attachment to their homeland. This decision does not, of course, detract from Australia's longstanding recognition of the national flag of Vietnam, but it comes after a number of discussions that I had with the Vietnamese community, particularly officers of the association—the president, Mr Tin Le, and the vice presidents, Mr Toan Ho and Mr Paul Avina.

I want to congratulate the association for the hard work that they have done gathering together a petition to lobby the councils in the Port Adelaide electorate to be able to fly this flag. As a dear friend of the Vietnamese Australian community and the son of a Vietnam veteran, I am delighted we can show our recognition of the importance of this community in South Australian society.

I had the honour of joining members of the South Australian Cambodian community to celebrate Cambodian new year on 15 April at the popular temple on Burton Road in Paralowie. We were privileged to be joined by the Hon. Mr Kem Sokha, the new opposition leader of Cambodia. Mr Sokha is the President of the Cambodia National Rescue Party, the official opposition, and assumed that position after the forced resignation of Mr Sam Rainsy. As a result of a number of changes introduced by the Hun Sen regime to the electoral laws in February this year, sweeping power is given to the regime to dissolve opposition parties on a range of grounds that are recognised around the world in many cases as quite spurious. Mr Sokha, I understand, met with a number of DFAT officials and also organised a number of other events around Australia.

There are 30,000 Australians who were born in Cambodia and many more who are of Cambodian descent. They have a deep interest in the third pillar of the peace accords, in which Australia played such a significant part, being implemented. That is the granting of civil and political freedom to the Cambodian people. On 4 June elections will be held at a local level, and the rest of the world will be watching to ensure that those elections are free and fair. I have written to the Minister for Foreign Affairs to seek advice as to what the Australian government is offering to support those elections on 4 June.