Saudi Arabia and Ukraine
Senator McDowell condemned the treatment of Jamal Khashoggi and urged a debate on Saudi Arabia, while also calling for discussion of Russia's actions affecting Ukraine. The exchange was interrupted by heckling and a brief chair intervention on temperate language.
I would like to raise a number of matters that have come into the public domain internationally in the past week. In particular, the G20 summit in Buenos Aires featured Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman-----
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-----being feted by the other members of the leading economies internationally. We in this House are very much muted in expressing any views on international affairs. When we do express views, such as on the occupied territories legislation, which I hope will be debated and concluded in the House tomorrow, we come under a major push-back from the Department of Foreign Affairs for standing up for even the basic-----
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-----human rights of people. I believe we should have a debate on Saudi Arabia-----
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-----and the opportunity to express our disgust at the slaughter of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and our revulsion at the fact that the person responsible for that atrocity is still striding the world like a colossus and being greeted by international statespeople.
We should also make time to debate what is happening to the Republic of Ukraine. It is wrong that the Russian Federation should use the fact that it built a bridge from Crimea to the mainland of Russia as a pretext to cut off access to the ports of Ukraine. Somebody in this Legislature should stand up and say those actions are wrong and inform Putin that those standards of behaviour are unacceptable. Unless those comments are made repeatedly, until there are resolutions of this House condemning these actions and until the timidity of Iveagh House disappears and voices are clearly expressed on these types of issues, these thugs internationally take acquiescence as approval. I ask the Deputy Leader to make time available for us to discuss these important issues.
We are not like The Skibbereen Eagle. This is a legislative Chamber in one of the member states of the European Union. As such, we should have the bravery and self-respect to speak our mind on these issues and collectively condemn what requires to be condemned, rather than remain mute and watch these matters as consumers of news and readers of newspapers.