Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier today I joined a demonstration out the front of the parliament calling for David Hicks to be returned home. The view represented there was the majority view of Australians—increasingly the view of people not just on this side of the chamber but on the other side of the chamber as well—that is, to support the rights of the Australian citizen David Hicks who has been abandoned by the Howard government that refuses to stand up to the White House.

It is fantastic to see the shift in public opinion in favour of the human rights of David Hicks over the five long years that he has been held in detention. I remember October 2003 when President Bush came to visit and I and my colleague Senator Bob Brown spoke out about the failure of this government to speak up for the two Australian citizens then held in Guantanamo Bay. For doing so, there were attempts to remove us from the parliament. I am really pleased that we are operating in a different climate now where a whole lot of other people have come on board to support the rights of that one Australian citizen who is held there.

In Australian law there still exists a recognition of the US military commissions that were recognised as illegal by the US Supreme Court. They were put into Australian law in March 2004 by the government and the opposition and are still recognised in our law. I have brought forward a private member’s bill on behalf of the Australian Greens to remove that recognition in our law of US military commissions that have been found to be illegal in the US Supreme Court. So it is pleasing that we are seeing some changes in attitudes around this particular issue. I welcome them from wherever in politics they come because these are fundamental human rights that those of us who speak out are trying to protect in the case of David Hicks and other Australian citizens as well.

The Prime Minister and others in the government are making different noises to those we have heard—not to the extent of actually doing anything about getting David Hicks brought home but because there is recognition that people in the electorate are angry about five years in detention, the mistreatment and the reports of torture of Australian citizen David Hicks. The government have been scrambling to find ways to deflect this anger, so we saw the government last week spinning the story that, now that David Hicks has been charged, it is all fine and all that concern can go away. It is not the case, the charges have not been formally laid yet and all we have been told is what the prosecutors have asked to charge him with. The government seem to think that is enough to let them off the hook but I do not think it is. I do not think the Australian people will be satisfied until David Hicks is treated fairly. What is being proposed in this new US military commission is not fair.