Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This coming Sunday will see a new government begin in Argentina, with President-elect Javier Milei taking office. This will happen exactly 40 years to the day which marked the end of Argentina's most horrific military dictatorship, from 1976 to 1983. It was on 10 December 1983 that Raul Alfonsin, a human rights lawyer from the Radical Party, became president. Three years later, Alfonsin visited Australia—the first ever Latin American head of state to come to our shores.

In the two centuries of independence from Spain, Argentina has become the most modern and developed democracy of Latin America, but Argentina is also a nation that during the last century endured seven military takeovers of government. This Sunday will mark 40 years of uninterrupted democracy, during which Argentina preserved and strengthened its great democratic institutions.

The Argentine anniversary also falls on the 76th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In response to the barbarous acts which outraged the conscience of mankind during the Second World War, it was proclaimed on 10 December 1948. Sunday, therefore, in so many ways, reminds us that democracy and freedom from tyranny must never be taken for granted and must be preserved and nurtured every day.

With the swearing in of the new congress in Argentina, I hope that we may also begin a new phase of enhanced bilateral relationship and cooperation, including through our parliamentary friendship groups, including the one I lead with the member for Macquarie.