Tibet Lobby Day

I second the motion. Today is Tibet Lobby Day. It is a day when the Australian Tibetan community come to parliament to share their personal stories and the experiences of family and friends suffering oppression in Tibet by the actions of the Chinese government. Among them here today have been several Blue Mountains residents, including Kunchok and his son Tenzin. Kunchok's own story is one that speaks to the suppression of Tibetan religious expression because he was a Tibetan Buddhist monk and escaped after doing that difficult route from Lhasa through the Himalayas to Dharamshala in India before coming to Australia as a refugee. Now he and his family make an enormous contribution to the growing local Tibetan community. They practise their culture and language, and they share that with us in the Blue Mountains. Along with so many of the Tibetan political or religious exiles who have come to Australia as part of our refugee programs, we are lucky to have such resilient people. I say the same for those who remain in Dharamshala, which I led a delegation to last year to meet with the Tibetan  government in exile and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

I welcome the opportunity to work with my colleague the member for Fisher to speak in support of the people of Tibet in the face of oppression and persecution, particularly on a day when they are all here and have shared their stories in this parliament. I remain gravely concerned about reports detailing China's assimilationist policies, including forced labour transfer programs and the coerced separation of Tibetan children from their families through state-run boarding schools, the detention of Tibetans for peaceful expression of political views and the use of excessive security measures against Tibetans.

Most recently we saw a range of UN special rapporteurs write about the widespread crackdown on Tibetan individuals peacefully expressing their opposition to the construction of the Kamtok hydroelectric power plant that would result in the forced displacement and relocation of Tibetans living along the Drichu River from their ancestral villages. The rapporteurs also wrote about the irreversible destruction of important cultural and religious sites as well as irreversible or significant environmental, biodiversity and climate impact. What's worse is that there have been alleged violations and abuse of human rights of Tibetan communities, leaders and religious figures living in the surrounding areas of the Kamtok dam's project site who do not appear to have been consulted in a meaningful way and whose free, prior and informed consent has not been obtained. This project directly affects them and will have an irreversible impact on many of their human rights and in particular their cultural right to maintain their ways of life, to access and enjoy heritage and to exercise their religious and cultural practices as well as their rights to land, livelihoods, adequate housing and a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. This is what Tibetans face in their homeland.

I am concerned, as is the Australian government and my colleagues, about the recent reprisals, use of force, arbitrary arrests and detention of hundreds of Tibetans for what appears to be directly related to their legitimate exercise of their freedom of opinion, expression, association and peaceful assembly and to their claims for respect for their rights to information and to participate meaningfully in public affairs, including by raising concerns and criticisms about government projects. These sorts of incidents underscore the alarming reality for people living in Tibet who face similar allegations and consequences for exercising their fundamental rights.

I welcome the calls of the Australian government and other governments for China to re-engage with the representatives of the 14th Dalai Lama to establish genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China. Along with my parliamentary colleagues here, I urge the Chinese authorities to release the Panchen Lama. We don't want to see any country interfere in the selection of the next Dalai Lama. At the Universal Periodic Review of China, the Australian government called on China to repeal legislation and cease practices which discriminate against Tibetans. I support those calls. As you see demonstrated here, we will continue to be a loud voice for the people of Tibet and Tibetans in Australia.