Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is Tibet Lobby Day, an annual occasion when the Australian Tibet Council invites Tibetan Australians to meet with their parliamentary representatives and discuss the issues important to them. What makes this unique is that it's an annual opportunity for our parliament to act as a voice for a people who are otherwise voiceless. Since the annexation of Tibet and the exodus of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetans around the world have fought with bravery and determination for a return to a free and independent Tibet.

That effort has largely only been able to gain momentum in democratic nations such as ours. Here in Australia, Tibetans in exile can speak freely, without fear or retribution. Australia has long supported the aspiration of a free Tibet. In our most recent Universal Periodic Review of China submitted to the United Nations, Australia reiterated its calls for the Chinese government to cease discrimination and persecution of Tibetans and other minorities in Tibet based on their religious or political views. We also called for an end to restrictions on their expression of their cultural and linguistic identity.

I heard harrowing firsthand accounts of these human rights abuses when I visited Dharamshala in northern India and met with His Holiness the Dalai Lama earlier this year. We are also aware of the specific Chinese Communist Party officials in Tibet that are perpetuating these restrictions on Tibetan people's freedoms. If we fail to hold these officials accountable for their human rights abuses, who will hold them accountable? That's why this morning I joined Susan Templeman MP, Senator Barbara Pocock and other members of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet to welcome a visiting delegation of Australian Tibetans. Australia has a central role to play in the journey towards a free Tibet, and Tibetan Australians are counting on those of us in this parliament to be their voice.