Janet Rice (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I did want to clarify—and it goes to the point, the heart, of this—that this does not take away the power of the minister to make that decision; it does not take away the power of the executive government. It lays out a transparent pathway. It sets out that the minister must prepare a statement setting out whether, in the minister's opinion, the person's responsible for serious violations or abuses of human rights; whether autonomous sanctions will be applied to the person or associated entity; and, if they'll be applied, a description of those autonomous sanctions; and, if they won't be applied, the reason why autonomous sanctions will not be applied.

It's basically making it transparent, and much more objective, than having the potential for decisions on who is sanctioned being made on a judgement from the minister on these opaque grounds of national interest or of our relationship with other countries, which means that we could have a sanctions regime where we pick and choose. We can decide, 'Yes, we're going to sanction human rights abuses occurring here,' but not sanction others elsewhere because it's not seen to be in our national interest, despite the fact that they may be just as egregious. If it's determined to be not in our national interest by the minister—and there is no process for setting out an assessment process—then nothing will occur.

My point is that this does nothing. It maintains the power of the minister and the executive government to still be the ones to decide on sanctions; it just makes the process fairer and clearer.