Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Standing Committee of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade, I present the committee's report, incorporating dissenting reports, entitled Australia's response to the coup in Myanmar: interim report for the inquiry into certain aspects of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade annual report 2019-20.

Report made a parliamentary paper in accordance with standing order 39(e).

by leave—Myanmar's military coup of 1 February 2021 has been a tragedy for that nation and its people. More than 850 people have died in the army's brutal crackdown. Many more have been injured by the army's unlawful use of violence against peaceful protesters and those engaged in civil disobedience. Over 6,000 people have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, and the economy is contracting and shortages of basic goods have begun to appear. Cash is in short supply. Confidence in the banking system is low. Myanmar's currency, the kyat, has depreciated by 17 per cent since the coup and growing international pressure has prompted major multinationals such as Japanese giant Kirin Holdings to divest from some of the main military owned enterprises, including Myanmar Economic Corporation and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited. Woodside Petroleum, an Australian company, has put its operations in Myanmar on hold, and I expect other international firms are likely to follow.

With high import dependence and demand for foreign capital, prolonged political instability and investor uncertainty is likely to cause the economy to contract and deteriorate further in coming months. This means that the significant economic and development gains that Myanmar has made in the past decade under a period of largely peaceful civilian and democratic rule are being almost entirely reversed by the developments of only the past five months.

Internal instability and the prospect of a full-blown civil war in Myanmar are on the rise. Protesters who previously engaged in passive disobedience and peaceful protest are increasingly taking up arms. In cities, underground operatives are targeting and killing officials in the military government. In the countryside, newly formed militias are attacking army units and army outposts. According to Radio Free Asia, more than 300 bombs have exploded in police stations, state owned banks and government offices since February, and there are signs now of growing coordination between these newly formed rebel groups and the longstanding ethnic armed groups, which have long been a presence on Myanmar's border and in Myanmar's border regions.

Myanmar's rapid downward spiral should be of alarm not only to those of us here in Australia but also to the region. The prospect of a failed state gripped by civil war in the heart of the Indo-Pacific is an alarming one indeed. We do not want another Syria at the heart of Asia. The Foreign Affairs and Aid Sub-Committee heard from a number of experts, groups, organisations and representatives of the Myanmar diaspora community, who brought valuable expertise and advice to bear on what is a complicated and challenging issue. We are very appreciative, as a committee, for the perspectives and expertise they offered, and I wish to place on record here our appreciation for the many submissions and the correspondence we received and our gratitude to those who appeared before the committee in person.

The report I table here today makes a number of recommendations to the government about our response to the Myanmar crisis and how we can positively influence developments there. It remains mindful, however, that the influence of outside actors within Myanmar is limited, especially with respect to the Tatmadaw, the military rulers within Myanmar, and that neighbouring countries and regional bodies, most particularly ASEAN, offer the best prospects for success. For this reason, the report recommends that Australia continue to liaise closely with ASEAN and find ways to support and encourage ASEAN efforts to restore civilian rule in Myanmar, including through the implementation of ASEAN's five-point consensus on Myanmar.

The committee support the suspension of Australia's defence cooperation program with Myanmar and its imposition of an arms embargo. It also urges Australia to contribute actively to growing international support for a global arms embargo on Myanmar, as reflected in the passage of the resolution through the UN General Assembly last Friday. The committee also recommends that Australia reconsider the issue of the imposition of targeted autonomous sanctions against a number of senior figures within the Tatmadaw, that we continue our development assistance program, but that we make sure that it's channelled through nongovernment partners and reaches civil society and supports basic humanitarian needs, and, furthermore, that the prospects of a pathway to permanent residency for the large number of Myanmar nationals who are now here in Australia and rightfully fearful of returning be explored.

I want to thank other members of the committee, including my deputy chair, for the constructive attitude they took. I also want to thank and place on the record here my thanks and appreciation to the secretariat for pulling together witnesses' expert testimony and the report at short notice. I commend this report to the House.

Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I might just build on the comments made by the member for Wentworth. I couldn't disagree with anything he said. I also extend my thanks to the submitters, to the chair and government members but also to the secretariat. This was a bit of an innovation in how we go about these kinds of inquiries. Instead of calling for submissions and cogitating on them for about a year, we used the annual report power to have a look at something that was fast moving. I think it was a good exercise to give voice to people in the community, as well as experts, former ambassadors and so on who had a lot of valuable contributions, under the cover of parliamentary privilege. I think that was a good use of the committee's time and powers.

It's pleasing that the report has been adopted, I think by all members, with strong support, and it clearly condemns the unconstitutional coup. Society in Myanmar has all but stopped functioning in any normal way, and there are, as the previous speaker outlined, great fears for the country. Some said that the country is at risk of civil war. As others pointed out, there has been a civil war in Myanmar for decades. But what they really mean by that is the risk of this breaking out into full-scale urban conflict causing a destabilised region and, indeed, a failed state scenario is the worst possible outcome.

This is not remote or academic to Australia, not just because of our regional interests but because we have, of course, in every state and territory in the country Burmese/Myanmarese diaspora communities who have family and friends in and direct connections back to that country and, of course, we've invested a lot in recent years in trying to help the country as it moves on to what we saw as a more positive trajectory. The recommendations have been outlined. We do support them.

I do want to turn my remarks, though, to the additional comments in the report, building on what the chair has said. These were comments signed by all Labor members of the committee, and I do commend the chair on the honesty of the report, in that the report reflected the evidence we heard—brutal as it was at times. The overarching message that was heard by the committee, as you can see in the report, was enormous community frustration regarding the government's slow, reactive and inadequate response to the coup and resulting crisis in Myanmar. There's been no sense of urgency at any time from Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs or the Prime Minister, despite the seriousness of the situation, and the evidence was consistent and strong that the government has at every step been far too slow to act—just reactive.

In March, Minister Payne told the Senate that sanctions were being considered. In April, at the first public hearing, DFAT told us that sanctions were being considered. Then, at the May public hearing, DFAT advised that after three months of inaction the minister finally decided not to implement sanctions. I commend the committee and the government members for the recommendation that said this needs to be reconsidered. We need to look at this further. The government needs to reconsider the imposition of appropriately targeted sanctions, not just, as Labor has already called for, against key figures behind the coup and the Tatmadaw but, as the report said, against significant Tatmadaw-linked commercial entities. It's really important that other countries look at the multibillion-dollar conglomerates that funnel cash to the regime.

In the first public hearing in April, more than two months after the coup, it was astounding to hear that the government had had no contact at all with the diaspora communities or the democratically elected representatives of the legislature, the CRPH—or, indeed, the National Unity Government by that point—and that there was no advice for Myanmarese citizens resident in Australia. It was only after public pressure—public shaming, in effect, through the committee's public hearings—that DFAT then turned up at the second public hearing months later and claimed they'd made contact with diaspora communities and the CRPH. Now, diaspora groups have told Labor MPs that they know of no-one that's been spoken to by DFAT—no group, no individual—which does raise questions of how genuine and widespread the government's stakeholder engagement effort actually is. It did feel like they'd panicked a bit; they'd been sprung bad and they were having a crack to cover themselves.

It also took months for the home affairs department to provide any advice to Myanmarese citizens regarding visa extensions, yet still there's no firm, reliable commitment that no-one will be forced to return to Myanmar and that the people who can't safely return will be able to stay and build a life in Australia if they wish. I welcome the recommendation that we need to look at pathways to permanency, not just temporary protection.

My final comments would be that the government's slowness to act sends precisely the wrong message to the brave people of Myanmar, the region and democracies around the world. This slowness to act is just like the government's ongoing failure to introduce legislation to enable Magnitsky-style sanctions, dropped into the black hole that is the foreign minister's office. The government has to be proactive, not reactive, in delivering for Australia's interests in the region, and that includes substantive support for democratic values, freedoms and human rights. We can't just say these things; we actually have to be on the front foot and do stuff. The government must do more than just react to committee hearings or public pressure.

In closing, I'll say Australia needs to stand up for our values, human rights and democracy by supporting ASEAN and international efforts as well as taking our own independent actions where they're warranted. It's important that we stand up for our values, we support multilateralism and we work with the region, but we can also act independently in accordance with our values. These two things are not mutually exclusive, as the minister seems to think. I also commend the report to the House and hope that the minister pays some regard to it.

Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House take note of the report.

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

In accordance with standing order 39(d), the debate is adjourned. The resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next day of sitting.