Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) on 6 February 2023, United Nations independent experts identified that approximately one million Tibetan children were being affected by Chinese government policies aimed at assimilating Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically through a residential school system;

(b) on 14 December 2023, the European Union Parliament adopted a resolution on the abduction of Tibetan children and forced assimilation practices through Chinese boarding schools in Tibet;

(c) on 10 June 2024, the Canadian House of Commons unanimously passed a resolution in support of Tibet and the Tibetan people; and

(d) on 12 June 2024, the United States Congress passed the 'Promoting a Resolution to Tibet-China Act';

(2) stands in solidarity with the people of Tibet;

(3) recognises Australia is deeply concerned about reports detailing China's assimilationist policies, including:

(a) forced labour transfer programs and the coerced separation of Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools;

(b) the detention of Tibetans for peaceful expression of political views;

(c) the suppression of Tibetan religious expression; and

(d) the use of excessive security measures against Tibetans;

(4) reiterates that the Tibetan people are entitled to their fundamental human rights and freedoms, including their right to self-determination;

(5) further recognises that:

(a) Tibetans should be empowered to freely choose their economic, social, cultural, and religious policies without interference; and

(b) religious and spiritual communities should be empowered to choose their own religious and spiritual leaders without government interference, and this should include the eventual successor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama;

(6) calls on:

(a) the Chinese Government to reengage with the representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama to establish genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China, and urges the Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama; and

(b) China to:

(i) repeal legislation and cease practices which discriminate against Tibetans on the basis of race or religion;

(ii) cease arbitrary detention, coercive labour transfer, and family separation programs;

(iii) end restrictions on movement and on the rights of Tibetans to enjoy their own culture and language; and

(iv) allow meaningful and unfettered access to Tibet for independent human rights observers; and

(7) further notes successive Australian Governments have and should continue to raise the issue of human rights violations in China, through political dialogues with the Chinese authorities at the highest levels.

I move this motion as it appears on the Notice Paper because I am so proud to do so as a part of a bipartisan show of support alongside the member for Lyne and alongside the member for Macquarie and the member for Fraser. I've been here for eight years, the same as the member for Macquarie, and I don't think I've ever seen before a motion that has been moved in this place with bipartisan support. Normally these motions are an opportunity for the main parties to butt heads, but that is not the occasion tonight.

You might ask why I am here talking about Tibetans when there are so many other issues affecting Australian families. I'm very lucky, as the member for Fisher, to represent some wonderful people from all corners of the world. We are home to the Chenrezig Institute, a home for Tibetan Buddhist monks, nuns, students and interested travellers alike. I rise to speak on behalf of them and their loved ones and I'm very pleased to see that there is a very strong show of the Tibetan community here in the chamber tonight. I rise to speak on behalf of Tsering, Tenzin, Samdhong and the many Tibetan representatives here today. I rise to speak because I can't stay silent.

Every single day, the number of victims of the Chinese communist regime grows. For seven decades, the people of Tibet, including Tibetan Buddhists, have borne the brunt of the most barbaric oppression. Even today we see children abducted, trafficked and forced into boarding schools which strip them of their cultural, religious and ethnic identity. They are taught that Tibet has long been part of China and a rejection of China's brutal takeover in the 1950s. This systematic cultural assimilation seeks to crush Tibetans' identity, their culture and their religion. We see people of faith, democracy activists and minority groups forced into labour camps where they are beaten, tortured and enslaved. Alongside others, the Tibetan people are forced into a state sponsored system of organ trafficking. And now, while the CCP seeks to crush Tibetan identity and aspiration, we see the most basic tenets of the Tibetan Buddhist faith under fire. That includes Tibetans' right to political and religious self determination when it comes to selecting the eventual successor of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

You see, the Chinese Communist Party are not content with simply trying to wipe out the culture of Tibet and Tibetans; they also want to remove their religious background. The CCP want to control who will become the successor to the Dalai Lama. We are a strong democracy, and I am so incredibly proud to be standing tonight and to see that there is bipartisan support on this, because, if we as democracy-loving people in Australia don't stand up for the people of Tibet, who will? If we don't stand up for them tonight, when will that happen? We cannot allow a whole group of people to lose their culture, their religion and their identity. That cannot happen on our watch.

We must not shy away from calling out the Chinese Communist Party tonight. We must speak up on behalf of the people of Tibet and the growing number of victims of the CCP. We all know that these actions are not constrained. These abuses of human and civil rights are not constrained just to the people of Tibet. This also applies to the Uighurs. It is incredibly important, and I am so pleased that the members for Macquarie, Fraser and Lyne will also speak on this issue. It's a matter of great pride that Australians can take this stance here tonight.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Susan Templeman (Macquarie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. Today is Tibet Lobby Day. It is a day when the Australian Tibetan community come to parliament to share their personal stories and the experiences of family and friends suffering oppression in Tibet by the actions of the Chinese government. Among them here today have been several Blue Mountains residents, including Kunchok and his son Tenzin. Kunchok's own story is one that speaks to the suppression of Tibetan religious expression because he was a Tibetan Buddhist monk and escaped after doing that difficult route from Lhasa through the Himalayas to Dharamshala in India before coming to Australia as a refugee. Now he and his family make an enormous contribution to the growing local Tibetan community. They practise their culture and language, and they share that with us in the Blue Mountains. Along with so many of the Tibetan political or religious exiles who have come to Australia as part of our refugee programs, we are lucky to have such resilient people. I say the same for those who remain in Dharamshala, which I led a delegation to last year to meet with the Tibetan government in exile and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

I welcome the opportunity to work with my colleague the member for Fisher to speak in support of the people of Tibet in the face of oppression and persecution, particularly on a day when they are all here and have shared their stories in this parliament. I remain gravely concerned about reports detailing China's assimilationist policies, including forced labour transfer programs and the coerced separation of Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools, the detention of Tibetans for peaceful expression of political views and the use of excessive security measures against Tibetans.

Most recently we saw a range of UN special rapporteurs write about the widespread crackdown on Tibetan individuals peacefully expressing their opposition to the construction of the Kamtok hydroelectric power plant that would result in the forced displacement and relocation of Tibetans living along the Drichu River from their ancestral villages. The rapporteurs also wrote about the irreversible destruction of important cultural and religious sites as well as irreversible or significant environmental, biodiversity and climate impact. What's worse is that there have been alleged violations and abuse of human rights of Tibetan communities, leaders and religious figures living in the surrounding areas of the Kamtok dam's project site who do not appear to have been consulted in a meaningful way and whose free, prior and informed consent has not been obtained. This project directly affects them and will have an irreversible impact on many of their human rights and in particular their cultural right to maintain their ways of life, to access and enjoy heritage and to exercise their religious and cultural practices as well as their rights to land, livelihoods, adequate housing and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This is what Tibetans face in their homeland.

I am concerned, as is the Australian government and my colleagues, about the recent reprisals, use of force, arbitrary arrests and detention of hundreds of Tibetans for what appears to be directly related to their legitimate exercise of their freedom of opinion, expression, association and peaceful assembly and to their claims for respect for their rights to information and to participate meaningfully in public affairs, including by raising concerns and criticisms about government projects. These sorts of incidents underscore the alarming reality for people living in Tibet who face similar allegations and consequences for exercising their fundamental rights.

I welcome the calls of the Australian government and other governments for China to re-engage with the representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama to establish genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China. Along with my parliamentary colleagues here, I urge the Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama. We don't want to see any country interfere in the selection of the next Dalai Lama. At the Universal Periodic Review of China, the Australian government called on China to repeal legislation and cease practices which discriminate against Tibetans. I support those calls. As you see demonstrated here, we will continue to be a loud voice for the people of Tibet and Tibetans in Australia.

David Gillespie (Lyne, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the motion raised by the member for Fisher and reinforce the words of the member for Macquarie. Since the invasion of Tibet in 1950 and 1951, things haven't changed, and time doesn't right the essential wrong. The Communist Party of China continues to suppress religion, tradition, Tibetan and Buddhist religious practice and language, and the Dalai Lama has been in exile since 1959 and remains in exile with a government in exile. The CCP continues to ban images of the Dalai Lama and suppresses religious practice. It has banned political expression and is suppressing cultural identity.

The United Nations has identified at least one million children in forced assimilation schools, separated forcibly from their parents on a regular basis of increasing duration as they go from early years, 3 and 4, up to their teenage years and are indoctrinated in Chinese culture to try to wash away their Tibetan and Buddhist heritage. Why is China so afraid of Tibet? Why are they suppressing this? Is it the water that they hope to dam and get into China? Is it the minerals? Is it the practice of forced and illegal organ harvesting and trading? Forced assimilation, summary arrest, extrajudicial killings and torture of prisoners, as well as shooting any Tibetans that try to escape across the border, have all been documented. This really does reflect badly on China.

Australia has made recommendations to have the Chinese government repeal all the restrictive legislation that suppresses the human rights and encourages more abuse. Suppressing a beautiful culture and a religion makes China look weak. If China were clever, they would remove all these prohibitions and let cultural diversity exist in their nation. There are many other cultures that they are suppressing, Australia is stronger for our heritage of many refugees and willing settlers who have come from all corners of the globe to flourish. Don't be afraid, China. You're a big nation now. You need to stop all these suppressions of Tibetan culture, their human and political rights and their freedom of expression, association and religious practice. I commend this motion to the House.

Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reiterate the member for Fisher's contribution in saying that it is unusual to have a motion that is supported by both the major parties, and I will add that this is a motion that I think is supported right across the parliament. We have former Greens senator Janet Rice here. We have a member of the Independent part of the parliament here, and I know that there are many Independent members of the parliament who support this. So this is a motion that has support right across this parliament.

It's also quite unusual to have the gallery packed in the Federation Chamber. I want to acknowledge all of the people here, including Mr Karma Singey and all of the monks and all of the people from the community who have come here. It reflects how important this issue is that we have a packed public gallery here, and it makes today's discussion on this very important issue all the more meaningful. In acknowledging the people who are here today, I also acknowledge that a number of the people in the gallery visited me in a delegation today in my office. I found the young people in particular, who are here championing these issues, so eloquent, thoughtful and powerful, and I found myself to have been educated today on so many aspects of these important issues.

Finally, my own electorate has a very significant Tibetan community. I speak to the people in Fraser and Melbourne's broader west from the Tibetan community. I want to reiterate the comments of earlier speakers in that I've read with great concern reports of assimilationist policies by the Chinese government. The term 'assimilationist' is such a euphemism. It doesn't really tell what's going on. It doesn't reflect the human rights abuses and the oppression. It doesn't reflect the fact that the lives of individuals, families and communities are being torn apart. I think we really do need to speak to the heart of this issue, as other speakers have done. We're talking about human rights abuses. We're talking about the abuses of individuals, young people, families and communities. That's why it's important that this motion brings this matter to the fore in a cross-party way and that we all stand as one.

I want to highlight the boarding schools, which were again raised with me by the delegation that visited me today. These are people who have direct experience of family members having to attend the schools. Young people, people under the age of 10, are not allowed to speak their own language and are not allowed to celebrate, understand or learn their own culture. This is an insidious thing to do to young people, quite apart from the fact that young people are being separated from their families for extended periods of time, and all the psychological trauma that involves. That is something that this motion usefully calls out.

As the member for Macquarie pointed out, on 8 July UN rapporteurs wrote that there had been a widespread crackdown on Tibetans peacefully opposing the construction of the Kamtok hydroelectric power plant. That's an important event in and of itself. That kind of crackdown is a terrible thing, and I think it's important to note that, but it's a reflection of a wider series of crackdowns that are going on. It's a reflection of a wider suppression of the expression of people's views. It's a very important example, but it's one of many that the community is experiencing.

Finally I point out, as earlier speakers have done, that there is religious suppression going on. People are not allowed to practice their religion. The carrying of the Dalai Lama's image has been banned. There have been arrests and imprisonment of people who have merely carried or celebrated that image. As earlier speakers have pointed out, it is quite remarkable that the Chinese Communist Party regime is trying to intervene in the succession of the Dalai Lama. That is quite a remarkable intervention in a process that should be all about faith, religion and culture.

In summary, I thank the mover and the seconder of this motion. I'm very pleased to be able to speak tonight in favour of this. Thank you so much to the delegation, to the leaders who are here and to the young people who are here. I very much hope that this motion raises the profile of this very important issue.

Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 19:39