Page 2747 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 21 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
away. Soldiers took off their uniforms. My friends' unit took in several soldiers, took them home, gave them food and shelter. Everyone chipped in ... We are of the view that the 27th army was not really trying to move their APCs forward ... Soon there were 32 burnt APCs at the front and about 40 trucks and 5 or 6 jeeps behind. The troops left immediately. They did not fire on the crowd. Although some said that the bolts were taken out of light anti-aircraft machine guns, all of the guns ... [were] demounted by the persons in the crowd.
Members will be aware, of course, of reports of isolated shootings and other events in Beijing since the massacre. It is clear from the reactions of the 28th army, which did not join in the firing, the ordinary troops of the 27th army, who unlike their officer regiments did not join in, and the large amount of ammunition and stores procured from a full armoured brigade of the 28th army, that there is now an armed dissident movement elsewhere in Beijing. It does exist; and the Australian Government is denying that existence. There have been extensive desertions, and punishments are severe. I refer to Amnesty's 1984 report on violations of human rights in the Peoples Republic of China and to Amnesty's various other reports. Despite this, the Hawke Government has continued to give assistance to China through AIDAB schemes and other bilateral support schemes.
I see a better parallel between the Prime Minister and Joseph Lyons than between the Prime Minister and Mr Curtin. I see a parallel with statements in the Federal Parliament in 1939 when the late Sir Henry Gullett took over External Affairs from Billy Hughes and spoke of Mussolini's "genius, his patriotism and almost superhuman capacity", and Hitler's "shining record of service to his people". If you doubt that that was said in our Parliament, I invite you to look at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, volume 159, page 197. Compare those words with those of our Prime Minister in recent years. Compare them with Mr Hawke's fulsome praise for the Chinese leaders. Compare them with the actions of those leaders in recent times.
Is this a Prime Minister who should be in charge of the Government which is in charge of the future of many thousands of PRC citizens in Australia, some of whom are in this gallery? I refer to the Immigration circular which goes on to say that neither refugee applications nor applications for permanent residence will be processed for the time being because it is not - the Government circular says ominously - in the interests of PRC citizens to make an application for refugee status.
Judged against the circumstances of Australia's quite proper reception and welcome to people arriving on Vietnamese boats, would you believe that the narrator of that quite graphic story I gave, who is present in the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .