Celebrating International Day of the Peace, see attached Video

Yesterday, Victoria Police arrested a pregnant woman, in her pyjamas, at her home in front of her children. She was handcuff and charged as part of an investigation into protest activity “in blatant breach of the Chief Health Officer’s directions”. See the footage of the arrest at https://www.facebook.com/100026703984987/posts/466893250877470/?d=n

I have found this footage extremely distressing; it looks like a scene taken from a movie about a totalitarian state. What kind of country I am living in now? I escaped communist Poland in search of liberties and democracy. I settled here because of Australia’s human rights record. And now this abuse of human rights.

The arrest and handcuffing were clearly unnecessary and cruel and represent a great miss-use of authority. It is a clear overreach of law and looking back at Victorian Government’s attitude towards earlier BLM demonstrations, the arrest demonstrates very selective enforcement of laws to suit political objectives. In particular, proportionality and even-handedness of law enforcement is lacking here. You do not usually send three police officers to arrest somebody for a minor offence; there is also the issue of freedom of expression involved.

Perhaps it is a time for the Australian Human Rights Commission to review this case and all lockdown laws across Australia from the human rights law perspective.

The Australian of today (Monday 10 August 2020) comments on submissions made to the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee Inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities in Australia, including on submission I have made as Chair of Australian Multicultural Council (AMC).

It quotes, from our submission, that it is the responsibility of the government to “protect refugee communities from attacks on them by the agents of foreign governments”. If further quotes: “The relationship between the countries of origin and refugee communities in Australia may be tense on occasions…”. “It is important to allow refugee communities to challenge, within Australian law, the human rights abuse abroad and their actions to advance democratic institutions in their country of origin.”

For more about the Inquiry, see: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/Diasporacommunities/Submissions

My best congratulations to Elaine Pearson, Director Australia of Human Rights Watch on her opinion piece titled: “Critical test of academic freedom for Australian universities” – see: https://www.smh.com.au/national/critical-test-of-academic-freedom-for-australian-universities-20200804-p55iec.html?ref=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed
Well done, Elaine.

It was a pleasure to be a part of a panel on ‘COVID-19 in Western Sydney: Priorities and Perspectives’.
The panel was hosted by Dr Andy Marks (Host), Chair of Western Sydney Community Forum and Assistant Vice Chancellor at Western Sydney University and included Mr Jihad Dib MP, Member for Lakemba, Ms Helen Loughlin, Member of Greater Sydney Commission and myself as participants.

Here is the link to the panel discussion – https://youtu.be/wV7BYwy0A3A

Welcoming Australia has just signed its 50th member for the Welcoming Cities network. See a media release in line with this achievement:
https://welcomingcities.org.au/50th-local-council-joins-welcoming-cities/

I use this achievement to ask you to support the work of the Welcoming Cities aiming at assisting migrant and refugee settlement in regional Australia.
For more see: https://welcomingcities.org.au

Recently the UK-based Henry Jackson Society think tank released a report that makes interesting reading. The report analysed the strategic dependence of the Five Eyes nations on China for critical goods.

To read a copy of the report, click: https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Breaking-the-China-Chain.pdf

Benedict Rogers published an interesting paper titled: “Ten steps towards a more humane post-pandemic China policy”.

Benedict Rogers is co-founder and Deputy Chair of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, founder and Chair of Hong Kong Watch and East Asia Team Leader at the international human rights organisation CSW. He is a former Parliamentary candidate and author of six books.
The paper could be viewed on: https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2020/05/benedict-rogers-ten-steps-towards-a-more-humane-post-pandemic-china-policy.html

See attached: 2020-05-03 Benedict Rogers paper on PRC

Recommended reading.

Attached is my interview for Capital Radio in South Africa

Interview

For your information, please find attached a statement recently released by the Hon Alan Tudge, Acting Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs.

Statement – Standing by our multicultural communities