ADJOURNMENT

Senator SCARR (Queensland) (20:24): Before I commence my remarks, can I just congratulate Senator Lambie with respect to her courageous candour. The fact that she's heard from so many women around Australia—her act of solidarity has resonated across Australia. So congratulations, Senator Lambie, you really are an ornament to this place, and it's a privilege to follow you in this adjournment debate.

I would like to talk about a wonderful Queensland woman. I'm delighted to advise the Senate that Nasrin Vaziri won the Creative and Artistic Excellence Award at the Multicultural Awards hosted by Bhartiya Samaj. Nasrin is a very worthy recipient of this award.

She deserves this award. Firstly, in her capacity as executive director of the Gold Coast Multicultural Group in Collaboration Association, known as GCMAGIC, Nasrin brings people together from all sorts of culturally and linguistically diverse communities. She assists them to express themselves creatively and artistically.

Second, Nasrin has played a key role in terms of celebrations for the Persian New Year, the Nowruz ceremonies in my home state of Queensland. These occasions have been of key importance, especially given what has been occurring in Iran, in terms of bringing our Persian community together in my home state of Queensland. Lastly, Nasrin is always there bringing people from different communities together and this represents the very best of multicultural Australia.

So I say to you, Nasrin: you're a great blessing for our Australian community and thank you for everything that you do. I believe that young people must be given a voice in this country. It is incredibly important that we in this place and in the other chamber listen to what young people have to say, and no-one does this better in this Australian parliament than my very good friend the member for Moncrieff, Angie Bell, the shadow minister for arts, sport and youth.

I really want to congratulate Angie on her IMPACT Gold Coast Youth Summit. She's the patron of this summit, which started in 2023. Over the four years it's been operating, 1,000 Gold Coast young people have participated in the summit.

It provides an opportunity for young people to come together, build connections and be heard. This opportunity then leads to aspiration. At this year's summit, an 18-year-old, Mr Levi Knight, spoke powerfully about the financial pressures facing young people, including the cost of university unpaid internships, transport and everyday expenses.

And this really does symbolise the opportunity given by this summit to young people. Thank you, my dear friend Angie Bell, for being such a positive voice for young people in this place and in my home state of Queensland. I was honoured to be invited to attend the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day in my home state of Queensland.

It is held each year on 25 August. This occasion was convened by the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day organising committee, and I thank everyone involved in bringing this event together. There were terrible, terrible events which occurred in Arakan, Myanmar on 25 August 2017 and continued for a number of months.

Many members of the Rohingya community who attended that commemoration are survivors of those genocidal acts. They lost parents, spouses, children and other loved ones, and they are now part of the one million people who found their way to Australia as refugees and found safety in our community, so they are part of the Australian story. There have been acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya people, crimes against humanity and war crimes.

I want to quote to you, Acting Deputy President Grogan, from two important documents. The first is produced by the US Department of State. It's entitled Documentation of Atrocities in Northern Rakhine State.

This is very difficult reading, but it must be done; this must be put on the public record. I refer to page 12 of the report: Multiple witnesses report soldiers throwing infants and small children into open fires or burning huts. Witnesses also report seeing soldiers throw children into rivers and seeing children's bodies that had been thrown into a village well.

One refugee reported seeing a police officer throw an infant in a river, then shooting the mother when she ran into the water to save her child. I also refer to the report Detailed findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar. This report was presented to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations in September 2018, just over a year after the horrific events which commenced on 25 August 2017.

This report is 435 pages long, and it documents the atrocities that were committed against the Rohingya people. I want to quote to you from paragraph 1439: The attack on the Rohingya population of Myanmar was horrendous in scope. The images of an entire community fleeing from their homes across rivers and muddy banks, carrying their babies and infants and elderly, their injured and dying, will and must remain burned in the minds the international community.

So will the "before and after" satellite imagery, revealing whole villages literally wiped off the map. Then it goes on: 1441. The Mission therefore concludes, on reasonable grounds, that the factors allowing the inference of genocidal intent are present.

It is now for a competent prosecutorial body and court of law to investigate and adjudicate … That adjudication is now occurring in the International Court of Justice. Public hearings were held in January of this year in a case that has been brought by Gambia. And I say: let justice be done, and let those responsible for these horrific crimes against humanity be held to account.

The final contribution made at the Rohingya commemoration day was by a wonderful young man called Abdur Rahman Eman. He performed a nasheed, and I want to read from that nasheed: What harm had the innocent little children done? What did they receive from child protection and human rights?

They cleared everything away; they emptied Arakan. Whenever we remember our homeland, tears fill our eyes. That's from Abdur Rahman Eman, who has now found refuge in Australia and is studying and hopes to become a social worker.

Thank you very much, Abdur. In 1860, the first Afghan cameleers arrived in Australia, and they were absolutely instrumental in opening up central Australia. Fast forward 166 years and, on 31 August, last month, I was delighted to participate in a citizenship ceremony in Brisbane City Hall.

One of the recipients, or conferees, of Australian citizenship was a new Australian citizen who had been a senior legal official in Afghanistan. Following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on 15 August 2021, my office and I did everything we could to assist him and his family to come to Australia. It was terribly moving to see him be conferred with Australian citizenship.

I can't say his name because he is still subject to persecution, given his role as a senior legal officer in Afghanistan. But I just say to him what a joy it was to see him conferred with Australian citizenship in that wonderful Brisbane City Hall and join our Australian family.