Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and Other Measures) Bill 2023, which has been prepared and brought to this place by my colleague Senator Dean Smith. At the outset, I would like to say that Senator Smith has put an incredible amount of hard work into the preparation of this bill which we're debating here this morning. It's a bill which addresses the pressing and concerning issue of organ harvesting. There is evidence that occurrences of organ harvesting have been increasing throughout the world. I know we are living in the 21st century, but it is somewhat staggering that this heinous crime is only becoming more prevalent. This is a deeply, deeply disturbing fact, and Australia should be doing all that we can to combat this incredibly dark criminal activity. I think that Senator Smith's bill, in the very good Liberal tradition, is a very practical and simple change to law and to policy that can enable just a small but important amount of improvement in how we deal with this issue here in Australia.

Before addressing the content of the bill, I do want to go to the issue of organ harvesting and explain to the chamber what this is. Like I say, it is incredible that this is still occurring in the 21st century, and I think it is pertinent to remind colleagues of just how horrible this practice is. The practices of organ harvesting and trafficking are some of the most appalling and disturbing human rights violations that exist. It involves the unethical removal, transfer or commercialisation of human organs for transplant, all done in the shadows and well outside of legal frameworks. Frankly, the thought of it is enough to send shivers down anybody's spine. Organs are collected through intimidation and through coercive methods, with unwilling donors pressured into giving up organs or, in other cases, having those organs forcibly removed. Quite frankly, it's like something out of a dystopian novel, but, sadly, this is real life. This is happening around the world.

It is frankly inconceivable that one human being is capable of committing such a disturbing act against another person, let alone that a group of people would be involved in undertaking this sort of heinous behaviour. It boils down to a tragic case where, effectively, one human life is prized more than another, and I think that that is something that all of us in this chamber, regardless of our political persuasion or our political colours, can agree is absolutely horrible and that we should be endeavouring to stamp out at all costs.

Reliable figures are hard to track down on the illegal practice of organ harvesting. I think Senator Smith's bill goes some of the way to uncovering exactly what those numbers could potentially be, and I will get to the content of the bill in a moment. But, in 2008, the World Health Organization estimated that five per cent of worldwide organ transplants are undertaken illegally. That's pretty significant. I think we've probably all known someone who has willingly undertaken or benefited from an organ transplant, but to think that five per cent of those are done so under coercion or without the consent of the parties involved is absolutely horrible. The act of organ harvesting is an egregious attack on the foundations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the commitment contained within saying:

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Again, we would hope that this is not something that we would have to talk about in the 21st century, but, as I said, in this century, in 2008, the World Health Organization specified that illegal organ harvesting is an issue.

To the contents of Senator Smith's Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and Other Measures) Bill 2023, this bill, as I said at the outset, puts in place just a small change, but it's a very important and meaningful change that can help us in Australia understand just how widespread the incidence of organ transplant overseas is and then potentially ascertain from those numbers, depending on where transplants have taken place, the potential that organs have been harvested illegally. The bill aims to increase Australia's ability to identify and combat illegal organ harvesting and to uphold and enhance fundamental human rights both here and around the world.

Currently, there are no reporting requirements for persons arriving in Australia relating to organ transplants that they might've undertaken overseas. I'm sure any Australian that has travelled overseas knows that, on the way back into Australia by plane or by boat, you are provided with an arrivals card on which you have to declare certain things about what you've done while you've been overseas—whether that's going on a farm or going to certain countries with certain diseases that need to be declared—or, indeed, what you are bringing back into the country in terms of significant amounts of cash, tobacco and these sorts of things. This bill will add a requirement to Australia's migration framework whereby a person coming back into Australia must disclose on that arrivals card, which you fill in on the plane or on the boat, if that individual has received an organ transplant outside of Australia within the last five years. As I said, this information will be disclosed by individuals entering Australia, via the incoming passenger card, which is the system the Australian government already uses to record an individual's entry into Australia, and those other criteria—the boxes that you have to tick or cross on a card.

If a person has received an organ transplant outside Australia within the last five years, that person will be required to disclose information to verify the legality of that procedure, including the name of the medical facility where that transplant occurred and the town or city and the country of the medical facility. Under this bill, the data collected through the incoming passenger card, relevant to organ transplants, will then be made available to the responsible minister, who will be required to table an annual report to the parliament detailing the instances where an individual entering Australia answered that they have received an organ transplant outside of Australia within the last five years, as well as the location of where that procedure took place.

Importantly, the bill will amend the Migration Act 1958 to provide that a person does not pass the character test if the responsible minister reasonably suspects that an individual has been or is involved in an offence involving trafficking human organs, so that's in addition to the change to the arrivals card system. The bill will put a specific requirement into the character test, which we've all talked about here in this place many times, to ensure that somebody fails that character test if the minister reasonably suspects that that person has been involved in the trafficking of human organs.

Senator Smith's bill was referred to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee at the end of last year. I'm the deputy chair of that committee, and my colleague Senator Ciccone, on the other side of the chamber, is the chair of that committee. The bill was referred to the committee on 9 November and we undertook a public hearing on 22 March this year. There were a number of submissions to this inquiry that were overwhelmingly in support of the bill's passage, and I think that is a testament to the hard work of Senator Smith in drafting this bill. We heard from witnesses including Be Slavery Free; the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China, where we know there are significant concerns about organ harvesting in relation to the Uighur population and the Falun Gong; Anti-Slavery Australia; as well as the Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force. The committee delivered its report on this bill on 14 May this year, and coalition senators provided a dissenting report to that committee report, which, perhaps not surprisingly, recommended that this bill pass the Senate.

It's important to note that the bill that we're debating here this morning builds upon frameworks to combat organ trafficking that have been established by previous governments of both political persuasions. In 2005 the Australian government criminalised organ trafficking under the Criminal Code Act 1995—that was under the Howard coalition government—and in 2013 the Commonwealth Criminal Code was strengthened by the introduction of four standalone organ-trafficking offences. Under Australia's organ-trafficking offences, the movement of people to, from or within Australia for the unlawful removal of their organs is criminalised. It is important to note that an organ does not have to be removed for an organ-trafficking offence to have been committed. The Commonwealth Criminal Code also stipulates that organ-transplant tourism constitutes an organ-trafficking offence if a person organised or facilitated the transport, or the proposed transport, of a potential donor to, from or within Australia. This bill adds to that framework that is already in place, and amendments within the bill complement the efforts that have been taken at the international level to combat the increasing prevalence of organ trafficking.

We know that vulnerable people in developing nations are most at risk of the practice of illegal organ harvesting. Although we recognise that there are limitations surrounding the extent to which we here in Australia can prevent human rights violations abroad, we have a responsibility to do everything that we can with the powers that are available to us to uphold and protect universal human rights. It is incumbent on Australia to take practical action and implement sensible initiatives which support global efforts to combat organ trafficking, and I think this bill that Senator Smith has brought before the Senate includes a very easy, practical action that we here in Australia can take. It is not a huge, costly, significant change. It is merely asking Australians, when they return to this country, and incoming passengers, when they come into Australia, to declare on their arrivals card whether they have had an organ transplant overseas. This is so we can start to shine a light on just how prevalent the practice of receiving an overseas organ transplant is and start digging into that data to ascertain whether or not those practices are being undertaken without the consent of individuals involved.

In conclusion, I want to acknowledge and thank my colleague Senator Smith for everything that he has done to prepare the Migration Amendment (Overseas Organ Transplant Disclosure and other Measures) Bill 2023 and bring it before the Senate, because it does important work to address the disturbing practice of organ harvesting. These are some of the most disturbing human rights violations that exist, and evidence suggests that occurrences of this have been increasing around the world, which is a terrifying thought. This bill makes a very small, practical change that I think can make a really big difference to help Australia understand just how widespread this horrible practice is. I commend this bill to the Senate.