Glen Kennedy, Metcalfe
The following are questions to our local Federal MPs in light of a planned protest at Parliament House Canberra.
1. Why is Australia continuing to fund the training of Indonesian military personnel in the face of ongoing human rights abuses in West Papua?
Destroying the environment in West Papua and wiping out one of the last Aboriginal people in our part of the world in the quest for gold is an absurdity, especially considering 50 per cent of the world’s gold is used in jewellery and ornaments.
2. How much does the training of Indonesian military personnel cost the Australian taxpayer?
3. What is Australia doing to facilitate and ensure access to foreign journalists and human rights monitors?
4. What is Australia doing to facilitate an investigation by the UN High Commissioner for Human rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein after Indonesia refused a request in August 2018? This restriction defies an announcement made in 2015 by Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo that accredited foreign media would have unimpeded access to Papua.
5. What is the total amount of aid to Indonesia in the current budget? In late 2018, Australia has given Indonesia $320 million in aid and Indonesia then contracted Boeing for the supply of helicopters to the total value of $380 million. In the face of recent allegations of phosphorous bombs being dropped from helicopters on civilians, it is time the Australian government does more than monitor the situation.
6. I ask Labour/Liberals to adopt self-determination and human security in their policies regarding West Papua.
7. I ask MP or Senator to facilitate a meeting with Labour/Liberal or party leader and West Papuan diplomats.
8. I encourage the MP or Senator to organise a diplomatic visit into West Papua.
9. What is the Australian government doing to limit the environmental destruction of rainforest for mining, palm oil, rainforest timbers and other natural resources?
10. Will the Australian government implement a ban on all goods whose extraction/production poses a threat to the continued existence of West Papua’s biodiversity – most urgently for the survival of its already threatened species?
