Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—At the request of Senator Stott Despoja, I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a)

acknowledges:

(i)

the provision of Temporary Protection Visas by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs to the West Papuan asylum seekers who arrived in Australia in January 2006 claiming human rights abuses by Indonesian forces in Papua, and

(ii)

the need for an end to the ongoing human rights abuses in Papua;

(b)

recognises:

(i)

that a commitment to the formal process of special autonomy for the province of Papua, that began in 2001, is integral to the peaceful solution of the conflict in Papua and calls on the Indonesian Government to fully implement the Special Autonomy Law, and

(ii)

the partitioning of Papua into the provinces of West Irian Jaya and Papua is disputed and has been contested by Papuan political and community leaders; and

(c)

calls on the Australian Government to support and encourage President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to continue to push forward his reform agenda for Papua as he has done in Aceh, and implement special autonomy for Papua.

Question negatived.