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

I ask that general business motion No. 695, which welcomes the news that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will be meeting the Dalai Lama, be taken as a formal motion.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there any objection to this motion being taken as formal?

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Steve Fielding (Victoria, Family First Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This notice of motion is just typical of the Greens wasting the Senate’s time. Maybe we should be moving a motion that says the Greens will not slag a US President when he arrives in Australia and embarrass the Australian people. Maybe the motion should read that we will gag them from being absolutely idiotic and embarrassing the Australian people like they have done in the past. This motion is a waste of our time. It is a joke.

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

I move:

That the Senate welcomes the news that the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, will meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to incorporate a statement.

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

I would prefer the statement to be read out.

Leave not granted.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian government cannot support the proposed notice of motion in its current form. The Australian government again places on the record its objection to dealing with complex international matters such as the one before us by means of formal motions. As I have said before in this place, such motions are blunt instruments. They force parties into black and white choices—support or oppose. They do not lend themselves to the nuances which are so necessary in this area of policy. Furthermore, they are too easily misinterpreted by some audiences as statements of policy by the national government. We will not support notices of motion in the Senate unless we are completely satisfied with their content.

Australia’s position regarding the Dalai Lama is clear. He is a respected religious leader and has visited Australia privately on several occasions over the years, most recently in December 2009. During those visits, he has had contact with members of the government of the day. During his most recent visit, he met with Mr Garrett, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts. The decisions other countries take about the Dalai Lama’s visits are matters for them. The Australian government does not engage in a running commentary on such decisions by means of formal motions. I thank the Senate.

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

Mr President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for two minutes.

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

What a pathetic statement from the government. The minister has the arrogance to say that these are matters that should be dealt with by the government. In other words, the parliament should be disempowered from debating issues of international significance. Of course, that is a failure to understand the democratic system. Let me remind the government that it is the executive but it is not the parliament of this country, and nor does it have ownership of what should be debated or should not be debated—thank goodness—in the Australian parliament. This motion is to welcome the news that the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will be meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people in exile, in the coming weeks.

The difficulty here, to be blunt about this, is that when His Holiness was in Australia in December, while the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Abbott, met with him and I, as the Leader of the Greens met with him and introduced him to 3,000 or 4,000 people in Hobart, the Prime Minister of Australia declined to meet with the Dalai Lama. The reason for that is not that there is not respect for the Dalai Lama, as the minister says, but that there is a cowardice, a lack of courage, to simply say to the Chinese government, to the regime in Beijing, ‘We will not be coerced into having our relationships with people around the world dictated by you.’ Instead of that, the government, the Prime Minister, acquiesced and failed to meet His Holiness. Barack Obama is doing the right thing and that should be welcomed. That is what this motion is about.

Question put:

That the motion (Senator Bob Brown’s) be agreed to.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That for the moment concludes the consideration of formal business, but there is one matter that has been deferred for later consideration—that is, Senate notice of motion No. 2, standing in the name of Senator Joyce.