Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 35 standing in my name.

John Hogg (Queensland, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brown, I do not think some people are aware of the amendment. Is it lengthy?

Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, it is not. It is a simple amendment which at paragraph (a)(i) would omit the word ‘Partnership’ and substitute the word ‘Dialogue’. Secondly, in paragraph (c) it adds the words ‘calls on the parties to make every effort to continue the dialogue and’.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate:

(a)

having regard to:

(i)

the 11th Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue held in Beijing on 30 July 2007,

(ii)

the United Nations (UN) Olympics Truce, as passed by the UN General Assembly on 31 October 2007 (A/RES/62/4),

(iii)

the 49th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising of 10 March 1959,

(iv)

the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with particular attention to Article 9, concerning arbitrary arrest and detention, Article 13 on the right to freedom of movement and Article 18 on the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion,

(v)

the establishment of diplomatic relations between Australia and the People’s Republic of China on 21 December 1972 resulting in Australia-China relations developing strongly, politically and economically, and

(vi)

the Australia-China Strategic Dialogue, established on 7 September 2007, which is of great importance for the relationship between Australia and China;

(b)

regrets that there have been no further rounds of the Sino-Tibetan dialogue since February 2006 and that the five rounds of talks between Chinese officials and representatives of the Dalai Lama from 2002 to 2006, led by his Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, brought no substantive results;

(c)

calls on the parties to make every effort to continue the dialogue; and

(d)

reiterates its concern over the reports of continuing human rights violations in Tibet, including torture, arbitrary arrest and detention, repression of religious freedom, ‘patriotic re-education’ including forcing Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama, arbitrary restrictions on free movement, rehabilitation through labour camps and coercive resettlement.

Question agreed to.