Page 5258 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
But I do ask members to support the motion. It relates partly to the inherent right, supported by the UN declaration on human rights, of all peoples of identifiable and competent management to self-determination.
I would like to make one final comment, and that is that the Prime Minister, frankly, needs to become far more active, in respect of these various war zones or occupied zones, in calling for full UN observer teams to be dispatched and for full UN peace intervention. Australia needs to take an interest in those concerns equal to that taken in other areas, particularly Namibia in the past and now Cambodia. In a country which says that it treats all people equally and supports multiculturalism, it is inappropriate for the Australian Government not to put equal efforts into resolving the distress of our constituent communities - the families, relatives and friends of those in trouble abroad.
I was pleased to hear Mr Connolly's response to a question in question time concerning the many thousands of people who have come from the Balkans and the hundreds of Timorese in our region. Those people need our support now more than ever. I must say to members that it is time that we, as the local Assembly representing those constituents of ours, accepted that it is relevant for us - as indeed it was relevant in South Australia last night - to urge the Prime Minister to take these steps. I thank members.
MR STEFANIAK (3.31): Certainly, I do not have any real problems with Mr Collaery's motion. Mr Collaery's matter of public importance actually referred to, "The need for this Assembly to reject isolationism, appeasement and to offer support to the Canberra community", and I will talk about that in a couple of contexts, one of which will please him and one which probably will not.
As Mr Collaery said, he and I stood a couple of days ago on a number of platforms where the topic of human rights around the world was discussed. This matter has a lot of relevance for communities in Canberra. At present that is especially true of our substantial Croatian and Slovenian communities. As I said when I was at Commonwealth Park about a month ago with my colleagues Mr Collaery, Mr Jensen and Senator Margaret Reid, there is one thing that the Australian Government can do, and that is recognise the reality of the situation in the Balkans; that there has always been conflict there and that there are distinct national groups and national areas. I said that one of the best ways of ensuring that peace can be achieved there is by recognising the independence of the republics of Croatia and Slovenia - and that is something that the Federal Government still has not done.
What is happening over there, especially in relation to the fighting between the largely Serbian Yugoslavian army and the Croatian forces, is quite tragic. Mr Collaery has spoken graphically of that dreadful footage of rockets
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .