- The Guardian
- Issue #2123
PM Anthony Albanese has rejected accusations from Beijing that his country is “plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes.” Beijing spoke out after an Australian diplomat led a group of Western nations in making unsubstantiated claims about human rights violations in China.
“When it comes to China, we’ve said we’ll co-operate where we can, we’ll disagree where we must and we’ll engage in our national interest, and we’ve raised issues of human rights with China,” Albanese said as he arrived in the Pacific Island nation of Samoa for a Commonwealth leaders’ summit.
The day before, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian had denounced a statement made by 15 nations to the UN general assembly this week – presented by Australia’s ambassador to the UN – that recycled “ongoing concerns” about alleged “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang and Tibet.
The countries were all US allies, mostly European. No Muslim-majority country has accused China of repressing its Uighur Muslim minority.
The statement delivered by ambassador James Larsen amounted to “political manipulation under the pretext of human rights,” Jian said.
Singling out Australia for a rebuke, he said the country was “long plagued by systemic racism and hate crimes,” and should resolve its own problems instead of criticising China.
Jian condemned what he said was Australia’s hypocrisy, citing its treatment of refugees, immigrants, and Indigenous people.
“Australian soldiers have committed abhorrent crimes in Afghanistan and other countries during their military operations overseas,” he said, referring to findings that elite Australian troops unlawfully killed 39 Afghan prisoners, farmers, and civilians between 2005 and 2016.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: is the NT government. Territorians have condemned a CLP Finocchiaro government plan to give unprecedented sweeping powers to a new bureaucrat known as the “Territory Coordinator” that would allow the Chief Minister to override existing environmental regulations and wave through major projects like fracking in the Beetaloo Basin.
It followed accusations from Territory Labor that the CLP was attempting to keep the reforms “secret” from the wider public, after they were quietly released to select stakeholders. Under the proposed changes, the Coordinator would be given escalatory powers allowing them to override watchdog agencies and “exempt” projects from certain Acts before referring major projects like fracking to the Chief Minister for a final, subjective decision.
Frack Free NT spokesperson Pete Callender said the CLP was attempting to make it easier for fracking projects to lay waste to the Territory by overriding what little environment legislation existed.
“Fracking is really dangerous, risky business. As we’ve already witnessed in the Territory, fracking has the potential to cause serious contamination incidents. Yet this CLP proposal would totally override the Territory’s already substandard environmental protections.
“Fracking has the potential to poison the Territory’s precious water resources. Giving fracking companies the ability to bypass environmental regulations only increases this risk.
“The powers the Finocchiaro government wants to hand to this unelected bureaucrat are extremely alarming. They’re profoundly undemocratic and bordering on authoritarian.
“These new laws would provide the government of the day with unprecedented and unwarranted ability to override community and environmental concerns.
“Ordinary Territorians need to follow the rules. We can’t drive a car without a licence, or build a new home without getting the necessary approvals. However, this Finocchiaro government plan gives powers to an unelected bureaucrat to exempt some of the biggest and most polluting developments like fracking from any environmental regulatory oversight. The CLP government must not be allowed to get away with it.”
