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

When we think or talk about foreign interference, most people's minds would turn to countries like China or Russia. But it's not just larger and powerful countries trying to interfere in Australian politics in our community. Smaller, medium-sized powers are doing the same. The Minister for Home Affairs called out Iran for this kind of behaviour. One of the unacceptable things these countries are doing is interfering with the rights of Australian citizens in diaspora communities, including threats to their families in their home countries as a way of silencing Australians in their criticism or those who speak up for democracy and human rights.

These subversive activities are often carried out in the shadows yet at other times the activities are far more blatant and public. I want to highlight Cambodia as a case study. In February 2018, the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, prior to an ASEAN Australian summit meeting held here in Sydney, threatened protesters planning to burn effigies of him that he would 'pursue them to their houses and beat them up'. A month later, by coincidence, anonymous death threats were sent to Australians, including then state MP Hong Lim, now state MP Meng Heang Tak and then councillor Youhorn Chea, as well as the wife of a murdered Cambodian political analyst, Kem Ley, who was granted asylum in Australia after her husband's murder. These threats were from a person purporting to be a member of Hun Sen's ruling family, who threatened to shoot them dead. Hun Sen's nephew Hun To was questioned by police about these threats.

In 2003 Australian police sought to arrest Hun To on suspicions that he was trafficking heroin into our country hidden in loads of timber. Since then, Hun To and his wife, Jackie Tai, have amassed millions of dollars' worth of property in Australia with seemingly no legitimate explanation for where their wealth has come from. It's no secret that Hun To has his finger in lots of pies—drug trafficking, illegal deforestation, animal trafficking, illegal gambling. Most recently, we've heard reports he's dipping his toes into human trafficking, as well. That's diversifying, isn't it? In 2008 Hun To was accused by two opposition party candidates of ordering his bodyguards to assault them in Cambodia. I heard similar stories of him doing the same to critics living here in Australia without consequence.

One may well ask: Why have there been no consequences? Why didn't the victim file a police report? The answer is simple, because of the victim's concern for their family overseas. Most members of diaspora communities here in Australia still have family residing in their home countries, including Cambodian Australians and many others. This is a very difficult problem to tackle. Our police and intelligence agencies can protect people here in Australia but they have little ability to protect people overseas, and gangsters like Hun To and his dear uncle Hun Sen know that. So when Cambodians in Australia criticise him or his government publicly or join with opposition groups or refuse to participate in the Cambodian People's Party propaganda events organised regularly in Australia, Hun Sen doesn't necessarily go after them; he goes after their families in Cambodia. It's a worryingly effective strategy and it's not historical.

Hun Sen's Cambodian regime is still at it. In January this year, a CPP delegation led by Kim Santepheap travelled to Australia to mark Victory Over Genocide Day. Kim Santepheap is a spokesperson for Cambodia's Ministry of Justice, which is more popularly known in Cambodia as the 'ministry for injustice'. Whilst purported to be a national holiday, it's primarily a political event for Hun Sen and his gangster regime. This was clearly the case for events held here in Australia. There was party propaganda prominently displayed at events in every capital. This is an organised outfit, as I talked about to the parliament before. I know of people, both Cambodian Australians and Cambodians studying in Australia, who were forced to join these events. The implicit threat, not usually explicitly stated here, was: we know who you are, we know where you are and, most importantly, we know where your family is in Cambodia. They're also interfering in temples in Australia, in temple elections, holding fake charity events to raise funds.

Cambodian Australians and others from diaspora communities must be able to exercise their democratic rights and freedoms without being threatened or coerced. It's a difficult problem to tackle, and the government is doing what we can. I express my firm view that people like Hun To and Kim Santepheap should never again be granted visas to visit Australia. We need to do what else we can to shine a light on organised foreign influence and the network of fake community organisations run out of the Cambodian embassy.

House adjourned at 20:00