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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 3030 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

inevitably, reflect on us. Is that the message we want to send? Is that how we see ourselves?

The Chief Minister made the point in a letter to me in August that the Commonwealth government shares "the ACT government's view that isolating China will not contribute to improving the country's human rights situation and that such issues should be handled by the Commonwealth government at the appropriate Australia-China forums".

The Chief Minister has in one sentence misrepresented the position I have consistently put regarding our relations with people in China, pointed out the weakness in the Commonwealth government's arguments for influencing the human rights situation in China, and completely missed the significance of a sister city relationship.

I have never advocated the diminishment of friendly relations between communities and businesses in Canberra and China. I am a passionate believer in the power of community organisations to communicate and work together internationally. It is through such contact that we can foster cultural sensitivity, understanding and, dare I say, empowerment, and lend support to each other at many different levels.

That empowerment will be critical to reforming the absolutely unacceptable regime that is now governing China. It will have to come from the people. For that reason, I hope that we will not have to listen to Bill Stefaniak speak at length about the educational exchange. I do not dispute that it is valuable. We are talking about a sister city relationship, so it would be useful if he directed his comments to that.

On the issue of community relationship, the Greens are now an international force in politics and social change, with members in parliaments from Mongolia to Mexico. The global Greens conference next Easter will bring delegates from across the world to Canberra, where the focus will be very much on international cooperation and exchange, integrity, responsibility and human rights.

It is either misguided or deceptive to suggest that I am looking to isolate China. The issue in this instance, however, is whether we should afford Beijing, and so China, the endorsement of inviting its government into our family. The deteriorating human rights situation in China is the principal reason that I believe it would be a mistake to pursue a sister city relationship with China at this time.

It is simply wrong for the Chief Minister to assert that it is at the Commonwealth level, through the Australia-China bilateral dialogue on human rights, that the situation can be best addressed. In 1997, Australia stopped co-sponsoring resolutions before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in return for China entering a bilateral dialogue with the Commonwealth government.

This dialogue remains secret. It is closed to the public and the media. We cannot say what goes on within it. We do know, however, that over the past three years human rights in China have deteriorated significantly. Just last month, Amnesty International and the Australia Tibet Council reiterated their concern that this form of "positive engagement" was achieving nothing. They presented overwhelming evidence of the deteriorating human rights situation for the people of China and Tibet.

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