Tuesday, 15 October 2019

 Mr O’DONOHUE (Eastern Victoria) (13:44): I want to highlight the Andrews Labor government’s failure to provide any public support for those in Hong Kong who are advocating for freedom and democracy against the Chinese Communist Party. At the same time, I would like to highlight and condemn the Andrews government for allowing the Chinese flag to be flown in front of the Box Hill police station in celebration of the 70th anniversary of Communist rule in China. To allow the overt celebration of China’s Communist dictatorship in such a divisive manner flies in the face of concerned Victorians, particularly many with Chinese heritage, and not least those students who the Hawke government so correctly allowed to stay in Australia following the Tiananmen massacre. Many Australians of Chinese background have come to this country fleeing the Chinese Communist dictatorship, whose flag the Andrews government flew outside the Box Hill police station.

The Chinese government should honour its commitment to the one-country, two-systems agreement, the basic law, as agreed between Hong Kong and Great Britain, which envisaged a pathway to full democracy. Victorians should remain deeply concerned by reports of the continuing heavy-handed tactics of Hong Kong police, of their using live ammunition on democracy protesters and of serious injuries being inflicted, including on an Indonesian journalist who was shot in the eye by a rubber bullet. Hong Kong is a bastion of freedom under attack by its Communist rulers and needs the support of all like-minded democratic peoples across the world. (Time expired)