Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue
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Ms REBA MEAGHER (Cabramatta—Minister for Health) [4.49 p.m.]: I support the Australian Vietnamese community's call on the Australian Government to ensure that the Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue contributes toward concrete and irrevocable improvements in human rights in Vietnam. As the member for Cabramatta, I represent the single largest community of Vietnamese Australians in the country. Many within this community are victims of trauma and torture. Many have come to Australia to escape from a repressive and intolerant regime.
They have since become invaluable members of the local community through their enthusiastic participation in this country's democratic processes, through their many volunteer organisations that support the vulnerable within the community and through their contribution to the richness of Australia's cultural heritage. While they have made a new home here in Australia and while they have escaped their homeland, they have not abandoned it. Indeed, on Saturday 23 June the Vietnamese Community in Australia, lead by Dr Tien Nguyen nationally and Tri Vo in New South Wales, held a vigil night in Bankstown to pray for the freedom and democracy advocates in Vietnam. The purpose of the event was also to demonstrate to the many religious leaders, journalists, lawyers and others who have been imprisoned for their pro-democracy efforts that they are not alone.
Moreover, they were sending a very clear message to the people of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government that the great Vietnamese Diaspora are and will forever be vigilant in their demands for a free and democratic Vietnam. It is thus my duty as the State representative of Australia's largest Vietnamese community, a duty that I embrace, to give a voice to their struggle for democracy in Vietnam, and it is fitting that these concerns are given voice in the New South Wales Parliament—the oldest democratic institution in the country. In June 2001 I addressed the House on the issue of human rights in Vietnam and now, in June 2007, it is with a great sense of disappointment to relay to the House that reports of human rights abuses in Vietnam continue to emerge with alarming regularity. My call for the support of the House in this matter is no less important and no less urgent today than it was six years ago.
When I spoke in 2001 Father Nguyen Ly—a Catholic priest and prominent advocate for democracy in Vietnam—had recently been arrested for activities linked to the defence of free speech. He was subsequently released in 2004, due in part to an intense global campaign calling for his release. As I address the House today, it is with great concern that I report that Father Ly was arrested once again in March this year—again for his pro-democracy activities—for which he has been sentenced to eight years in prison. In 2001 I also spoke of the detention of the Venerable Thich Huyen Quang Do of the Unified Buddhist Movement for his struggle for religious freedom within Vietnam. Once again I regret to report that today he remains in detention, with no promise of release.
While the government of Vietnam has made great efforts to liberalise and open its economy over the past 20 years, there is a concern that enthusiasm for economic reform has not been mirrored by an equivalent effort to open Vietnamese society to the forces of democracy and free speech. I have mentioned Father Nguyen Ly and Venerable Thich Huyen Quang Do: these are but two very prominent examples of victims of Vietnam's single-party communist regime. These two men are part of a much broader movement for a free and democratic Vietnam that is being championed both within its borders and from outside Vietnam.
Since 2002, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has been engaged with the government of Vietnam in the Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue. While this engagement presents an important opportunity for effecting positive change in Vietnam, questions remain about the efficacy, transparency and degree of accountability in this dialogue. Indeed, the Australian Vietnamese community points to the lack of evidence that these dialogues are leading to concrete change within Vietnam. Given Australia's increasingly close links to Vietnam in regard to trade, it is clear that we are playing an important role in Vietnam's economic development. It is also clear that such closeness places us in a valuable position to effect social change within Vietnam.
We cannot, in good conscience, commit ourselves to the expansion of the Vietnamese economy and at the same time shirk our responsibilities toward defence of the human rights of its citizens—rights that are a sacred and fundamental entitlement to all people everywhere. I call on the Federal Government to ensure that Australia-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue is more than a hollow symbolic gesture and to demonstrate, with clear evidence, that it is leading to real change within Vietnam. I urge the Prime Minister to raise these issues with the State President of Vietnam when he visits Sydney in September for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Ms NOREEN HAY (Wollongong—Parliamentary Secretary) [4.53 p.m.]: Once again the Minister for Health and member for Cabramatta has displayed the advocacy skills she applies on behalf of her community, particularly on behalf of the Vietnamese people in her electorate. I congratulate her on her support for religious and political freedoms, which reflects her hard work and dedication to her entire community on a whole host of issues.