Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Bob Carr) to a question without notice asked by Senator Xenophon today relating to the recent election in Malaysia.Question put and passed.

I want to take note of the extraordinarily bizarre and baffling answers given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Bob Carr, on the Malaysian elections and what happened just 10 days ago in Malaysia. I need to say at the outset that I actually like Senator Carr. I think he is warm and engaging. He is a smart man. But his answers left me completely cold.

Let us put this in perspective. Ten days ago, the 13th Malaysian general elections were held. Those elections were a watershed in Malaysia's history. The ruling coalition received 49 per cent of the vote according to the so-called official election results. The opposition parties received 50 per cent of the vote according to the official election results, yet the opposition only got 40 per cent of the seats, due to a gross gerrymander and, in particular, massive electoral fraud, as described by Bersih, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections in Malaysia. The opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, referred to these elections as 'the worst electoral fraud' in Malaysia's history.

Yet, when I asked Senator Carr what Australia's response would be about this, his responses were glib and cynical, to say the least. Senator Carr is saying that we cannot be the court of disputed returns or the election commission for Malaysia. That is self-evident. There is no question of that, and to suggest that we would be would be ridiculous. But the fact is that Senator Carr has washed his hands clean of this result in the Malaysian elections despite the fact that, last November, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, in a personal handwritten note that he wrote in Kuala Lumpur and handed to me to give to Senator Carr, pleaded with Australia to take an interest in Malaysia's elections to make sure that the election result was not stolen from the people of Malaysia. Yet Senator Carr back then was equally dismissive. To the ABC's Sabra Lane, in an interview on 21 November last year, he retorted: 'What do you expect us to do? Do you want us to send amphibious vehicles to East Malaysia?' Or he said words to that effect. That is completely diverting us from the real issues here.

The fact is that Australia does have a proud record in the region as a beacon of democracy to speak out where there are human rights abuses, where there are abuses of democracy. We have played a key role in the Commonwealth Secretariat in respect of Fiji, about their abuses of democracy, to raise concerns there. We have raised matters in international fora in respect of Myanmar and played a constructive role there for democracy.

But, for some reason, Malaysia seems to be excised from the foreign minister's conscience and the conscience of this government when it comes to the results that occurred there. The foreign minister had a fatal flaw in his answers to those questions, and the record will show it when the Hansard of this is published. He said of those results, 'We should not interfere in the will of the Malaysian people,' or words to that effect. The fact is that the will of the Malaysian people has been completely thwarted by a corrupt government in Malaysia, by a corrupt election commission, where the results were not free and fair. Up to 10 per cent of Malaysian voters could be so-called phantom voters, not Malaysian citizens—either those who come in from another country who do not have the right to vote but have been given the right to vote or, alternatively, dead voters, people who have died but are still on the electoral rolls. The system in Malaysia is so corrupt that under their constitution, due to changes moved by Barisan Nasional, the ruling coalition that has been in power for some 57 years, they do not have the right to challenge dodgy electoral rolls. That is one of the changes that has occurred there in the constitution since 1999. With this massive fraud and electoral irregularities, the Australian government sits idly by.

Last night, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim spoke to me. He asked me a question. He asked—and I want to get the exact words so there is no misunderstanding about this:

How can Australia be blind to and condone such blatant fraud and massive rigging of the elections?

How can we? Australia has a role to speak out about this at the Commonwealth Secretariat and at international forums, including the Bali Democracy Forum. If we do not, we will be complicit in what is happening in a country which is one of our closest friends. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.