The Anti-Genocide Bill 1999

Anti-Genocide Bill 1999
Proposer's Speech

The Anti-Genocide Bill 1999

The Parliament of the

Commonwealth of Australia

THE SENATE

Presented and read a first time
 

Anti-Genocide Bill 1999

No. , 1999

(Senator Greig)
 

A Bill for an Act to give effect to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and for related purposes

Contents

1 Short title
2 Commencement
3 Schedule(s)

Schedule 1—Amendment of the Genocide Convention Act 1949

Second Reading Speech of Proposer

Senator GREIG (Western Australia) (3.45 p.m. [13 October 1999]) --I move:

   That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

   Leave granted.

   The speech read as follows--

In 1949 this Parliament commenced some business that fifty years later remains unfinished. That business was no less that the prohibition and punishment of the heinous crime of genocide.

In 1949, no doubt after some of the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust had become known, Australia ratified the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide . It was a good and necessary thing to do, however fifty years down the track--the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide remains unfinished business by the Commonwealth Parliament.

At the time of the introduction of the Bill, then member for Macquarie and Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley had the following to say:

The purpose of this Bill is to seek the approval of the Parliament for Australian ratification of the International Convention on the prevention and punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Genocide, which means the wholesale or partial destruction of religious, racial or national groups has long shocked the conscience of mankind.

During the debate on the same Bill, the Leader of the Opposition and founder of the Liberal Party of Australia--Mr Menzies had this to say:

Every member of this Parliament must view with equal horror the practice of mass killing and of persecution of people to the death, for the reasons of race or religion or for other reasons of the kind referred to in the convention. Of course the crime of genocide was not peculiar to Germany; I am not without my suspicions, nor are honourable members, that it is still going on in some parts of the civilized world, and for all I know may be going on in countries, one or more which are signatories to this convention.

Mr Menzies went on to say:

Persecution of the kind against which the convention is directed must never be tolerated . . . and I am perfectly certain that it will never be tolerated here.

However the last thing I should dream of doing would be to speak or vote in such a way as to cast any doubt on the proposition that in Australia we abominate the crime of genocide. Nobody has ever doubted it. If it needs our subscription to a convention to advertise our feelings to the world, then let us subscribe to it.

Honourable Senators, it falls upon each generation to assert the basic minimum standards of humanity and upon every politician to uphold those standards. It is therefore out of a solemn sense of duty that I, as a representative of my generation, present this Bill for consideration by the Australian Senate.

Fifty years is a long time to have unfinished business and I would be pleased to be able stand here today and echo the words of Sir Robert Menzies and say that:

Persecution of the kind against which the convention is directed must never be tolerated . . . and I am perfectly certain that it will never be tolerated here.

However as recently as September this year, the Federal Court of Australia in the case of Nulyarimma v Thompson (1/9/99 Federal Court) confirmed that there was indeed no offence of genocide known in Australian law. While the details of this case are certain to be debated for many years to come--the one resounding message is clear--at this present time, genocide is not unlawful in Australia.

As this Bill is tabled in the Senate, news is emerging from our closest neighbours in East Timor of atrocities, war crimes and evidence of genocide. Indeed, before the United Nations last month, the Foreign Minister Mr Downer said:

In the face of acts of genocide or of human rights abuses on a horrendous scale (in East Timor) the nations of the world must act.

The Australian Democrats continue to endorse this Government's peace-keeping role in East Timor. However, as a nation we must, I believe, be active as well as reactive in the face of genocide. We must lead by example. This Bill provides that example.

Some people have suggested that it is unnecessary to legislate against the crime of genocide in Australia. They argue that the existing criminal laws at State and Territory level are sufficient protection against arbitrary and systemic persecution and murder. The Australian Democrats disagree. In those terms the convention clearly distinguishes the offence of genocide as a crime that is directed at a particular group. It is the membership of a group which distinguishes this crime.

It was the fact of being targeted on the grounds of religion, ethnicity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender or disability which previously has qualified people as targets for genocide and for no other reason.

I would like to turn now to what is meant by genocide

This convention defines genocide as follows:

Article II, stipulates that any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, and includes the:

   (a) killing members of a group

   (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group

   (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about it's physical destruction in whole or in part

   (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group

   (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

Article III clarifies that not only is genocide a crime, so to is "conspiracy to commit genocide", "direct and public incitement to commit genocide", "attempt to commit genocide" and "complicity in genocide".

Honourable Senators--Genocide is as much a political crime as it is a crime against humanity. It is a crime which rests in the abuse of power by those who have power, against those who do not. As a political crime, it is as appropriate that in this Senate, in this Parliament and in this country that we as this generation of political leaders, stand side by side with the sentiments of Ben Chifley and Robert Menzies expressed fifty years ago.

The Bill to ratify Convention passed through this Parliament with multipartisan support in 1949. Indeed chief amongst its supporters was the father of the present Leader of the Opposition, Mr Beazley. At the time, Mr Kim Beazley senior said:

Every person in Australia with red blood in his veins and a spirit of humanity in his heart should applaud the Minister for External Affairs (Dr Evatt) for supporting a Bill of this kind so soon after his return to Australia and for seeking the approval of the Australian Parliament to such a magnificent statement of this country's intentions to do all in its power to prevent the commission of the acts that are referred to in this convention.

I signal here my intention to approach the Leader of the Opposition to seek his and his party's support to complete the work that his father helped start in 1949. I will also be writing to my Senate colleagues, the Prime Minister and members of the House of Representatives to seek their support. I look forward to their co-operation on this issue.

It is my intention that this Bill now be referred to the Senate's Legal and Constitutional References Committee for inquiry and report to the Senate mid next year. Accordingly, I will be giving a notice of motion today. The reference of this Bill to the Senate's Legal and Constitutional References Committee will give members of the community the opportunity to comment upon the Bill and make suggestions for its improvement. I welcome this process and input, sincerely believing that the wider input of the Australian community is necessary to raise awareness of the issues surrounding genocide and to make this Bill Australia's best statement against this crime.

Comparative jurisdictions have implemented their obligations under the convention. The UK has implemented under its Genocide Act 1969 , and section 318 of the Canadian Criminal Code has implemented the convention to a more limited extent. The United States of America implemented legislation in 1988. Since then, there have been numerous calls for Australia to follow suit, most notably in the Review of Commonwealth Criminal Law 1991, which stated:

". . . .the Australian Government decided in 1949 to limit Australian legislation to approve ratification. Whether there should be further Australian implementation or clarifying legislation was left in abeyance until the attitude of other contracting parties and action taken by other contracting parties as regards their domestic legislation was known.

The position of Australian law as regards to this convention, in the opinion of the review committee is clearly unsatisfactory."

In closing I wish to dedicate this Bill and the ensuing Senate Committee inquiry that will follow to all those who have suffered the horrors of genocide. To the Jewish community, the Armenians, the Rawandans [sic - I.S.], Tibetans, Cambodians, Kosovars, East Timorese, non-Han ethnic Chinese, peoples of the former Yugoslavia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, to people with disabilities, the gay and lesbian community and the many others who have suffered genocide, this Bill is introduced into the Senate in their memory and through the determination I have to see Australia lead by example in this regard.

Debate (on motion by Senator Calvert) adjourned.

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