Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on behalf of the Labor Party on the Autonomous Sanctions Amendment (Thematic Sanctions) Bill 2021, which seeks to amend the Autonomous Sanctions Act 2011 to enable the listing of individuals and entities responsible for or complicit in egregious conduct, including the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, threats to international peace and security, malicious cyber activity, serious violations or serious abuses of human rights, activities undermining good governance or the rule of law including serious corruption. This is an important addition to Australia's existing Autonomous Sanctions Act introduced and passed by Labor in 2011. It significantly broadens the scope of activities counter to Australia's interests for which financial sanctions may be applied.

For the past 10 years, Australia's ability to implement sanctions against individuals was more limited to those responsible for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and threats to international peace and security, and to regimes that committed grave human rights abuses or acts of aggression. These sanctions enabled Australia to take seriously our international commitments to peace and security, while further augmenting pressure on foreign regimes where the UN Security Council sanctions had been adopted; for example, those which were applied in relation to Iran and North Korea as well as for Syria, Zimbabwe and Russia. But it has become increasingly apparent that an update and broadening of the scope of activities to which sanctions may be applied is necessary.

We are more than 70 years from the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As Eleanor Roosevelt described it, the 'international Magna Carta for all mankind'—or humankind. With its foundations in the four freedoms proclaimed by her husband—freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear—with its recognition that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and its implication that, to be sincere, this must encompass civil and socioeconomic rights, it remains as profound as ever and perhaps it remains as aspirational as ever. Because while we have seen so many advances in human rights, we have also seen stagnation and we have seen deterioration. While the pandemic has fostered greater awareness and debate in some societies about the devastations of poverty and inequality, in other places, political leaders have sought to manipulate the circumstances of the pandemic to further weaken human rights. Sadly, this is also not a new phenomenon.

Sergei Magnitsky was a Russian lawyer and tax auditor, who was hired in 2007 to investigate corruption by Russian interior ministry officials. After uncovering a US$230 million scam, Magnitsky was arrested, detained and tortured. Denied medical treatment and family visits, he died in prison in 2009 at the age of 37. It is in his name that advocates around the world have sought to shed light on those individuals, governments and regimes that use their power to crush dissent and resist accountability and those who commit gross human rights violations.

In the absence of sufficient accountability mechanisms that raise the cost of such behaviour, it falls to nation-states to act. Previously, through our UN commitments, Australia targeted entire regimes for nefarious behaviours, grave abuses and serious risks to international peace and security. The Autonomous Sanctions Act that a Labor government brought forward and legislated in 2011 enabled sanctions that targeted countries and individuals independent of multilateral arrangements and these have proved an important tool of Australia's foreign policy, targeting those responsible for egregious behaviours whilst limiting the negative consequence on others by depriving access to capital, goods and services. But it is clear we need to go beyond what has traditionally been the realm of sanctions, threats to international peace and security. We need to use sanctions to help support agreed international norms of human rights and to be a force for positive change. As the global Magnitsky movement has shown, depriving human rights abusers of their wealth and ability to travel can hit them where it hurts. Magnitsky sanctions will ensure that those responsible cannot seek safe haven for themselves or for their assets in Australia.

Legislation referencing Mr Magnitsky has been enacted in various jurisdictions, including in the US, the European Union, Canada and the United Kingdom, since 2012.

In Australia, Labor and others have been calling for Australia to join our friends and partners in the introduction of Magnitsky-style sanctions for some time. As shadow foreign minister, I've previously raised the need for such sanctions with the Turnbull and Morrison governments, including with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. For some time, the prevailing view in the Morrison and Turnbull governments was that such a regime was not necessary—that the Autonomous Sanctions Act, introduced by Labor, already allowed for the listing of individuals and entities complicit in human rights abuses abroad. But Labor took the view that Australia being part of the global Magnitsky movement was in our national interests because it is in our interests that we work to generate and preserve global public goods.

Shaping the world for the better, something all of us in public life should aspire to, includes promoting issues and principles which we believe are of common benefit to all nations and all peoples. This is at the heart of Labor's foreign policy tradition. Magnitsky sanctions and formalised engagements with NGOs to target those responsible for human rights abuses are contemporary expressions of that tradition. Enshrining in law those actions that are counter to our interests is an important signal to the perpetrators and beneficiaries of egregious human rights abuses, as well as threats to international peace and security. Working with our like-minded partners would enable effective and timely targeting of individuals and entities responsible for such conduct, whilst also minimising the impact on the broader population.

In December last year, the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade recommended the Australian government 'enact standalone targeted sanctions legislation to address human rights violations and corruption', or a Magnitsky act, that should be able to receive nominations from any sources. I acknowledge the committee and its chair, Senator Fawcett; and, in particular, the Human Rights Sub-Committee, chaired by Mr Andrews; and the Labor members of that committee and the subcommittee—Ms Swanson, Senators Ayres and Kitching, Mr Gorman, Mr Hayes, Mr Hill, Mr Khalil, Senators McCarthy, O'Neill and Sheldon, and Ms Vamvakinou—for their leadership and work to bring this bill into existence.

The Morrison government did not respond to the committee's recommendations until August this year, and it has taken a further three months for this bill to be introduced. Whilst it is a welcome step that the government has introduced it, the delay in introducing Magnitsky-style sanctions has sent a regrettable message—that Australia is not committed and that we do not take human rights abuses seriously. Meanwhile, we have seen increasing and disturbing reports of human rights violations around the world, and, in some places, political leaders have sought to manipulate the circumstances of the pandemic to further weaken human rights.

Mr Magnitsky is not alone among those who seek to expose abuse and wrongdoings by those in power. As we speak today, Chinese citizen journalist Zhang Zhan is on a hunger strike and at risk of dying without the urgent medical requirements she needs. Ms Zhang was sentenced to four years of prison in December 2020 for social media posts critical of the handling of the early COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan.

The 1 February military coup in Myanmar was a direct attack on the country's ongoing democratic transition—a democratic transition which Australia and Australians had been deeply supportive of. The subsequent violent crackdown against those protesting the coup saw thousands of political prisoners detained and civilians killed by security forces. Ten months have passed, and Australia stands alone amongst the UK, the United States, Canada and the European Union in refusing to apply any additional targeted sanctions against those responsible for the violence.

And now we have reports that Australia's Future Fund—that is, taxpayers' funds—has been investing in joint ventures with the Tatmadaw and Chinese weapons manufacturers dealing in Myanmar. I have written to the minister and expressed my deep concern about these reports. Our Future Fund should not be investing in Tatmadaw linked entities and should not be profiting from the Tatmadaw's attack on Myanmar's democracy.

Importantly, the regulations of this bill enable the listing of individuals or entities that engage in serious violations of a person's right not to be held in slavery or be required to perform forced labour. Modern slavery is real. Modern slavery, including forced labour and forced marriage, still affects millions of people, including in our region. In 2017, an estimated 40 million people around the world were living in conditions of modern slavery, and 24.9 million of them were in forced labour situations. Research by the Walk Free Foundation has found that one in every 130 women and girls around the world are living in modern slavery. When it comes to criticising these violations, Australia cannot bring the moral credibility we need to the table unless we strengthen our own Modern Slavery Act. So I again continue my call on the Morrison government to work with us and the crossbench to improve the Modern Slavery Act, to introduce tougher penalties for noncompliance and to strengthen mandatory reporting requirements on possible exposures to abuses. Certainly, if elected, Labor will place ending modern slavery as a central priority of our international human rights engagement. This would include sanctions against those directly profiting from forced labour and modern slavery.

It is incumbent upon the Australian government to prosecute our interests, including support for human rights and democratic freedoms. Decisions to implement sanctions against individuals and entities are and should remain executive decisions of government, which have to take account of all relevant factors, including foreign and strategic interests and implications of bilateral relations.

But it would also be appropriate to consult more widely. The process leading up to this legislation has laid bare some of the deficiencies in the Morrison government's engagement with human rights advocates and diaspora community groups. So often, their insights—not to mention their real-time reporting and on-the-ground knowledge—have been ignored. If elected, Labor would correct this.

We also believe that the themes of the bill under which sanctions can be applied are insufficiently wide. The bill does not cover the violations of the rules and norms of armed conflict. It does not cover the crime of genocide or other crimes against humanity. It does not cover instances where rape and sexual violence are used as weapons of war. It does not cover the targeting of civilians, nor the manipulation or blockage of humanitarian aid in conflict zones. This is why we will amend this legislation to enshrine violations of international humanitarian law—the law of conflict as an additional theme under which sanctions can be applied. This is a view that has been clearly communicated—certainly, to us, and I assume to the government—by human rights NGOs, including Human Rights Watch Australia and Save the Children, and I thank them publicly for their constructive engagement in providing feedback to the government's bill.

There is a further amendment I urge the government to consider. This is Australia's Magnitsky Act, which is why, today, we will move an amendment to include 'Magnitsky' in the title of the bill, as a strong signal of Australia's support for the global Magnitsky movement.