Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I appreciate that. Thank you, colleagues, and thank you, Mr Acting Deputy President. It is extraordinary that today the Australian government has decided this is a complex foreign policy matter. It was only the last time the Senate convened that in fact we had a unanimous agreement by this chamber—including by government senators—that the Australian government would consider a United Nations commission of inquiry.

The human rights abuses that are being perpetrated in Rakhine State at the moment are utterly beyond belief. More than 1,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the recent crackdown, and nearly 100,000 people have been displaced.

If it was good enough for the Australian Senate to vote unanimously for an international UN commission of inquiry then, what has changed? Within less than a fortnight the Australian government turned tail and suddenly decided it was fine for the government of Myanmar to investigate itself. Colleagues, this should be above politics. This should have again been a unanimous resolution of the Senate. We must place human rights and the defence of the innocent people who are being subjected to this persecution higher than the partisan squabbles in this place.