Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to pay tribute, also, to the Armenian National Committee for their involvement with the member for Goldstein and organising this debate this afternoon. It's a very important anniversary, the 70th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and I'm proud to be involved in recalling its passage.

It was Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer from Poland, who coined the term 'genocide' in response to the extent of the atrocities inflicted on the Armenian people—1½ million people, as the member for Berowra said. Apparently it wasn't understood or known before that. Of course, in that conflict with Turkey, many Greek and Assyrian people of the Ottoman Empire were equally badly affected. But the non-remembrance of it had a specific effect. As the member for Berowra said, Adolf Hitler told a leading group of Nazi generals, meeting in the days before the commencement of the Second World War, words to the effect, 'Who remembers the Armenians?' He said this phrase because it presaged what his aggressive plans in eastern Europe were. They were issued at Obersalzberg on the eve of the Second World War to say that Germany was going to launch a racial war in eastern Europe. It was not a war of nation against nation. He was assuring his generals and gauleiters that they could get away with it because of what had happened to the Armenians.

It's so important to go back to the beginning and, as we recall what happened in the Second World War, to remember this genocide that happened in the First World War. If we don't remember these kinds of things, it leads to situations that we've seen to a lesser extent all around the world since—in Darfur, Myanmar, Syria, North Korea and now in East Kazakhstan and Xinjiang in China. For Labor members of parliament, it's great that our then President of the UN General Assembly, Herbert Vere Evatt, who was foreign minister of Australia through the passage of the genocide convention, urged all signatories to ratify the convention at as early a date as possible. Australia was one of the first. Evatt's words were, 'The vote marked the protection of the most fundamental right of all, the very right of human groups to exist as groups.'

I, like the member for Berowra, have a deep personal attachment to this mission. I stand here today as a member of Australia's vibrant Australian Jewish community and the son of a refugee who fled Nazi Germany in 1939. Probably one of the proudest moments of my parliamentary career was to stand, as a junior minister, in Berlin amongst the Commonwealth war graves, and to recount, to the several hundred German and diplomatic dignitaries, the fate of my grandparents, who were murdered by the German state in Auschwitz.

In 2015, I represented the opposition leader at the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre. Michael Koziol, and all of the horrible journalists who follow that particular low road, can be reassured that I paid my own fare there. I thought it was important that there be an Australian who was present with Bill Clinton and others to see what Ratko Mladic and the others convicted of genocide in the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had done there in Srebrenica.

I've also spoken many times on the genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and on the massacres in Rwanda and in Darfur, where international law has had some success in prosecuting those charged with genocide. There have been major inadequacies in the consistency of the genocide convention worldwide. The Armenian genocide remains unrecognised. Again, it was one of the great moments to see a son of Armenian heritage, Mr Joe Hockey, the former member for North Sydney, raise this, and I think it's great work by the member for Goldstein and by the Armenian National Committee to raise this issue. Well done. This is an issue that the parliament will continue to address, until we officially pass recognition of what happened to the Armenians.

Jason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is my great pleasure to rise today to speak in support of this motion moved by my colleague and good friend, the member for Goldstein. Seventy years ago, the United Nations unanimously voted to adopt the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Earlier in this parliament, I had cause to return to some historical documents of my parents and grandparents regarding why they left Poland and their time in Eastern Europe. There was scant documentation. But there was one document from the German government offering reparations for the death of my great-grandparents and my father's aunts and uncles at the hands of the Nazi regime. I can remember saying to the Premier of New South Wales, and to many others: 'How could this happen in a civilised nation?' She pointed me to a phrase, which has been mentioned by a number of other speakers, that Hitler spoke at the time, which was: 'Who, after all, remembers the Armenians?' That is why the crime of genocide is so critical.

Seventy years on, we are no closer to eradicating this scourge on humanity. It was Raphael Lemkin, a Jewish lawyer from Poland, who coined the term 'genocide'. Raphael said: 'I became interested in genocide because it happened so many times. It happened to the Armenians, and after the Armenians there was a very rough deal at the Versailles conference because the criminals who were guilty of genocide were not punished.'

Since 1948, we have seen genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and, as recently as 2003, in Darfur. Of these, convictions of genocide have been made. But the international community lacks the capacity to enforce those decisions. In some cases, the offenders have brazenly shrugged off these convictions.

In my electorate of Mackellar, I'm proud to host one of the largest Armenian communities in the country, which includes Galstaun College, an Armenian school, which I have had the pleasure and privilege of visiting many times. Many of its students, who I recently spoke to, are descendants of survivors of the Armenian genocide. Many are from Syria, which has also gone through a civil war.

When the UN was founded in 1945, it set out, as its mission, the institutionalisation of fundamental and inviolable human rights. This plight should be close to the heart of every Australian as we recognise our foundational role in the establishment of the United Nations, the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our facilitation of the convention that I stand in support of now.

Australia has always been a strong advocate in the defence of those fundamental rights and freedoms. This is no better encapsulated than in the spirit of the Anzacs at Gallipoli. What our soldiers witnessed only confirmed this. They saw the unspeakable horrors perpetrated against the indigenous Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Christian minorities of Anatolia. In October, I stood in the House to recognise Anzac prisoners of war who suffered alongside Armenians held captive in desecrated churches—those Anzacs that rescued Armenian men, women and children, against all odds. This act of kindness out of the sheer belief in not letting evil prevail must not go unnoticed.

The experience of the Armenians was one of the first, but, unfortunately, it wasn't the last. As others have mentioned, we still see the world remain silent while genocides are perpetrated. Armenians to this day struggle against the efforts of a genocidal regime to eradicate their presence in their historic homeland. The Armenian Republic of Artsakh has been from the late 1980s, and is still today, in a state of conflict. In Baku, many are subjected to racism, discrimination and marginalisation because of their heritage. This must stop.

If history has taught us anything, it is that we must be prepared to speak out against these atrocities to prevent escalation and to prevent future genocides. That is why I stand to recognise the 70th anniversary of this convention. The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide was not conditional. If we are committed to ensuring these acts are never repeated, we must begin by acknowledging them.

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the motion on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Last month, Australia and many countries around the world commemorated the signing of the armistice that brought to an end the killing, maiming and horrific cruelty of World War I—but not for all people. For the Armenian people, the horrors and suffering continued. It was estimated that, by 1923, up to 1.5 million Armenians had perished, leading to what has often been described as the first act of genocide of the 20th century. The plight of the Armenian people touched the hearts of people across the world, including here in Australia.

As a representative from South Australia I'm proud to recall our state's involvement in relief efforts for the Armenian people. South Australia was one of the most significant contributors to the Armenian Relief Fund of Australia for survivors, led by Adelaide pastor Reverend James Cresswell, who was unanimously appointed national secretary of the fund. Reverend Cresswell agreed to undertake a tour of the devastated regions, and reported on the work of the Australasian orphanage established in Lebanon to aid child survivors of the death marches. Several years ago I attended a display at the Pilgrim Uniting Church in Adelaide highlighting Reverend Cresswell's work in what was by then described as the Armenian genocide. I also note South Australia's commitment to the acknowledgement and prevention of genocide, drawing particular attention to a motion passed by the South Australian state parliament in 2009, recognising the events in Armenia between 1915 and 1923. In the past I've stood in this place to present a petition calling for the house to assist the Christian and Yazidi minorities in the Middle East facing persecution at the hands of ISIS, and to recognise and respond to that. I also attended commemoration services in Adelaide for victims of the Srebrenica massacre.

We've only recently begun to see progress on these fronts, through international tribunals that have sought to bring to account the perpetrators of these great crimes against humanity. But in many cases justice has been elusive, and for the victims it has been too little too late. As we debate this motion today, we are reminded of the importance of identifying the warning signs to ensure that we are able to act to prevent these crimes from being committed.

Today's motion also refers to the author of the convention against genocide and the man who invented the word 'genocide' 70 years ago, Dr Raphael Lemkin. My understanding is that he did this in order to describe the scale of the atrocities committed against the Armenians during the First World War and against the Jewish populations of Europe during the Second World War. The evidence of Armenian massacre, starvation, poisoning, death marches and even mass burnings is irrefutable.

I make three closing observations. Those who deny the atrocities committed against the Armenians between 1915 and 1923 continue to perpetrate an injustice by contributing to a cover-up. Those who are indifferent to those events are accepting of them or condoning of them and therefore give licence to others to do the same. Indeed, we saw that on many other occasions in the 20th century. Conversely, recognition of atrocities will bring a sense of closure and solace to survivors and family descendants. It will also send a message to the world that such acts of horrific cruelty to others are not acceptable and, if perpetrated, those responsible will ultimately be held to account. To date, some 29 countries have recognised events in Armenia as genocide. On the 70th anniversary of the UN genocide convention, and as a founder and signatory of the convention, Australia should ensure that the convention is honoured whenever and wherever genocide occurs.

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

Firstly, I thank the member for Goldstein for moving this motion. I thank all of the speakers and also the Armenian National Committee for their work. This should not be an exceptional series of statements here today. As my colleague has just said, it is irrefutable that genocide occurred and was perpetrated on the Armenian people. It shouldn't be exceptional that we talk about that and it shouldn't be exceptional that we recognise that as a country. Indeed, on the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, it's absolutely certain that Australia will soon recognise this genocide. I'm very proud that we're one of the first to have become a signatory to this convention, but we've got to remind ourselves why we signed it. Why on earth did we sign up to that convention 70 years ago? It's because we cannot, as a parliament and as Australians, be complicit to an act of genocide. By allowing the denial of genocide, sadly, you become complicit to some extent.

The genocide in some respects is still taking place. It takes the form of eradicating the last remnants of a people, their history and their memory. The Armenian Genocide Museum of America reports that, in 1915 across the Ottoman empire, the Armenian community maintained some 2,500 churches, 400 monasteries and 2,000 schools. As of 2015, only 34 churches and 18 schools remained in Turkey, nearly all of them in Istanbul. This effectively indicates the total eradication of the Armenian civilisation in its historic homelands. But it doesn't end there. Turkey's sister state, Azerbaijan, has taken up this very grim task of removing the last traces of the Armenian people from the region. From 1989 to 1994, the Armenian population of Azerbaijan's capital fell from 180,000 to under 100 people—from 10 per cent to about 0.1 per cent. In the early 2000s, the Azerbaijan government destroyed several thousand Armenian cross stones considered by UNESCO to be intangible pieces of cultural heritage. So let's not kid ourselves. This is continuing and it is still being perpetrated on the Armenian people.

Our failure to recognise and appropriately condemn these acts of genocide in a sense creates issues for us today. Many speakers have noted the genocide that occurred against Christian and Yazidi minorities in the Middle East. How on earth are we to have credibility in standing up and fighting against an evil ideology, as described by Daesh, if we're unable to recognise the most horrific genocide that occurred against the Armenian people?

I've long thought that, as there are in many countries laws that don't allow the denial of the Holocaust, similar laws should apply in those jurisdictions with respect to the Armenian genocide. It's no different. Denying that genocide—which some speakers have described as the 'grim' genocide—should be a breach of law, because any decent person and any decent society should not allow it. The member for Melbourne Ports remarked—and he stole my thunder to some extent here—that the denial of the Armenian genocide was remarked upon by one of the most evil people in living history, Adolf Hitler, who asked, when trying to justify and argue for the Holocaust: 'Who, after all, remembers the Armenians?' when he was trying to convince people of his genocidal policies. That should be enough for every civilised society. That should be enough for us as a parliament. That should be enough for us as a country. No amount of economic consequences and no amount of diplomacy should ever stop us from doing the decent thing as Australians and calling out the genocide for what it is. If the consequences with governments and countries like Turkey or Azerbaijan mean that economic consequences flow, I say so be it—and I know the Australian people will back this parliament all the way when taking that approach.

Debate adjourned.