Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak in support of this motion. I also welcome the Sikyong and the Tibetan delegation here today. Human freedoms are universal and must always be fought for both here and overseas. Today these freedoms are under threat globally and nowhere more so than in Tibet. The coalition remains deeply concerned about the detention of Tibetans for the peaceful expression of political views, for restrictions on travel and China's sinicizing of policies on Tibetan cultural rights, religion and heritage.

Today I address increasing global concerns about severe violations of religious freedom in Tibet and the deliberate sinicizing of Tibetan culture and religion—in other words, cultural genocide. Australians will be shocked the hear that the Chinese government is forcing Tibetan children into boarding schools. In fact, it is now believed that up to 80 per cent—80 per cent!—of Tibetan children between the ages of six and 18 have been systematically separated from their families and sent to what the UN called 'colonial style' boarding schools with little or no access to their parents.

Earlier this year, UN experts expressed alarm at this practice, which they referred to as:

… what appears to be a policy of forced assimilation of the Tibetan identity into the dominant Han-Chinese majority through a series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational religious, and linguistic institutions …

The UN experts' report describes these schools as:

… "colonial" in design and practice, serving the Chinese Communist Party's goals of "Sinicizing" Tibetans through immersion in Mandarin Chinese instruction and a "highly politicised curriculum."

The UN experts have also highlighted the coercive nature of these schools. And, shockingly, Tibetan parents are often faced with no choice but to send their children to these residential schools because of school closures and consolidation, and in some cases, accompanied by fines or threats of non-compliance. This is clearly a fundamental violation of the rights of Tibetan parents and children by interfering with their right to preserve the integrity of their own family units and stripping them of their right to choose the education, the language and the cultural features of their children.

The Chinese authorities appear to be pursuing a large-scale action to literally assimilate Tibetan culture and language—as I said, cultural genocide—assimilation by the state education system that forces children to be enrolled in Putonghua language in government schools that do not provide for a substantive study or if any at all of Tibetan history and culture. Enrolment in these residential schools is often made under pressure, and, in some cases, Tibetan parents and children are left without a choice. Many parents, it is reported, now barely see their children if at all.

As a result, Tibetan children are, increasingly, losing their native language and the ability to communicate easily and readily with their grandparents and now, in many cases, with their own parents. They have become extremely vulnerable, living in these very large residential homes, and they are losing their connectivity with their history, their culture and their very Tibetan identity. This residential schooling is forcing the separation from their families. It is producing deep and serious negative psychological and social impacts on these children—of any age—who, literally, have been ripped away from their families.

Reports are coming out that it's now about 80 per cent. That's eight in 10 Tibetan children who have been removed from their families, permanently. You can imagine that loss of family connection resulting in apathy, anxiety, interaction disorders, feelings of loneliness, isolation, alienation, terrible homesickness and pretty much any other form of physical or emotional distress that you could imagine. All of that has been done deliberately—to make sure these children grow up not as Tibetans but as Han Chinese.

The UN and the USA have both acted on this issue of cultural genocide in Tibet. I now call on the Australian government to do the same and—like the United States has done—to consider Magnitsky sanctions against the Chinese officials responsible for heinous and gross abuse of Tibetans.

Colleagues, the time for us to act is now. The fight for individual liberties and freedoms is enduring, wherever it occurs, here or anywhere else in the world. I support this motion. (Time expired)