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Missed opportunity to be on the right side of history
14 December 2016
Missed opportunity for New Zealand Parliament to be on the right side of history
Today New Zealand Parliamentarians from the cross-party Human Rights Parliamentary Network introduced a motion during Question Time calling on the Australian Government to support refugees seeking protection. Unfortunately, members of the National Party and New Zealand First objected to the motion being introduced to the House.
The motion moved that the House express its support for refugees seeking protection by calling on the Government of Australia to ensure that all refugees currently on Nauru and Manus Island are given a genuine chance at restarting their lives in safety, and to withdraw proposed legislation seeking to ban refugees who arrive by sea from ever entering Australia.
“New Zealand Parliamentarians today had an opportunity to be on the right side of history. They didn’t rise to the occasion,” said Grant Bayldon, Executive Director of Amnesty International New Zealand. “The proposed lifetime ban on refugees who arrive by boat from ever being allowed to travel to Australia is not only in breach of international conventions, but it’s cruel in the extreme.”
In October of this year, Amnesty International released new research conducted by UMR on the attitudes of New Zealanders towards the human rights abuses happening to people held by the Australian Government in offshore detention centres. The results show that Kiwis are concerned about what's happening in detention centres on Manus, Nauru and Christmas Island and 79% of all respondents said they wanted the New Zealand Prime Minister and Government to take a stronger stance in speaking out against the evidence of abuses in Australian offshore detention.
“The poll numbers speak for themselves. New Zealanders clearly want their leaders to condemn the human rights abuses being carried out by Australia. Silence is being seen as endorsement.
“Amnesty International has found that what the Australian Government is doing to refugees in offshore detention amounts to torture,” said Bayldon.
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