STATEMENTS BY SENATORS
Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (13:06): Early in the new year, Bangladesh will be going to an election. It follows the mass uprising of the July revolution. For 16 years the people of Bangladesh suffered under the authoritarian rule of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, enduring severe human rights abuses and the ongoing suppression of democracy.
A transition to a democratic government that respects the rights of the people of Bangladesh is welcome and must be supported. The people of Bangladesh and the students who protested so bravely a year ago deserve a peaceful transition to democracy. However, we have also been seeing extremely concerning instances of abuse.
In late September people were killed and injured, and homes and shops were burnt following peaceful protests in indigenous communities in Guimara and Khagrachari. The Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities is calling on the Australian government to ensure that the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh are not left voiceless in the face of violence and impunity, and it's a call the Greens support.
We must do what we can to stop the violence against indigenous peoples around the world and make sure there is a just and peaceful democratic transition in Bangladesh. We call upon the Australian government to provide materials and support to support a peaceful, free and fair election in Bangladesh. We are seeing some devastating reports coming out of Sudan right now.
I met with the Sudanese-Australian Advocacy Network yesterday, who told me literally horrifying reports of what is happening on the ground with the Rapid Support Forces, or the RSF, committing widespread atrocities. I won't detail them, but they are shocking. Members of the Sudanese-Australian community have already lost loved ones and cannot contact those that are still there.
They are rightly terrified. In the city of el-Fasher in North Darfur, the RSF are reportedly committing ethnically motivated violence and deliberately targeting civilian populations. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, made it clear when he said, 'The risk of further large-scale, ethnically motivated violations and atrocities in el-Fasher is mounting by the day.' Action needs to be taken by the world, including by this government.
It starts with speaking out against what is going on in Sudan, but it also means supporting urgent humanitarian access to el-Fasher and the surrounding areas and supporting the Australian-Sudanese community right now. There must be a clear condemnation of the RSF's atrocities. Those responsible need to be held to account, and we need to make that commitment.
I know so many in the Sudanese community right now are feeling deeply anxious and fearful. Often they have totally lost contact with their families. I hope they know there are many Australians at this time who join them and will continue to speak out, will continue to call out the atrocities and will stand with them on the long pathway to justice.
Minister Wong said the quiet bit out loud earlier this week with this extraordinary quote: … one of the rules of politics is that you try not to play the US relationship into your domestic politics. She said it right there. Then she said: … the US relationship matters more than some domestic politics about environmental reform.
In that regard, the minister was talking about the generational reforms for the EPBC Act. Well, that's the modern Labor Party for you. If it's between Donald Trump and the Australian environment, they are picking Trump.
It reminds me of another quote by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, from the last parliament, where she was scolding the Liberals for not getting on with the latest anti-environment, pro-fossil fuel push by Labor, and accusing the coalition of saying no to Santos, no to Woodside and no to INPEX—as though it was a problem. We should be saying no to big corporations cooking the planet to fill their own pockets, and we should be able to say no to Donald Trump dragging us into the next US war.
We are watching in real time how Labor cannot look beyond its donors and can't stand up to Donald Trump and the United States. The Labor Party only seem to care about keeping big business and their US handlers happy. Labor actually thinks environmental laws should appease Gina Rinehart, Clive Palmer and Donald Trump—and they say it here in the chamber.
The Australian public and our natural environment can just suck it up, according to Labor. When the coral reefs turn grey, when homes in Lismore go under water again and when the sky turns red from bushfires, that's on the Albanese government's inability to stand up for fundamental rights. When farmers watch the rivers run dry, that's when we know they've chosen Anthony Albanese and Gina Rinehart over the interests of Australians.
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