Tuesday, 18 June 2024

Human rights abuses

David LIMBRICK (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (22:08): (960) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Energy and Resources in the other place. A human rights panel of the United Nations found that the Chinese government has been responsible for several human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region. The government has imprisoned more than 1 million Uighurs since 2017 and subjected others to intense surveillance, religious restrictions, forced labour and forced sterilisations. Because of these concerns an Australian audit of Chinese companies considered at high risk of involvement in these human rights abuses was done, and as a result Australia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, has divested itself of several investments. Some of these companies deemed at high risk include Longi and Jiangsu GoodWe, two of the major suppliers of solar equipment in Australia. Victorian taxpayers have now spent hundreds of millions of dollars to subsidise solar installations. It is alarming to know that some of this money may have been underpinning slave labour. My request for action from the minister is to take whatever actions are necessary to ensure that Victorian taxpayer money is not used to subsidise slavery in China.