Mr Liu Xiaobo

Mr HAWKE (Mitchell) (8:41 PM) —It is a great privilege to speak to the motion on Liu Xiaobo moved by the member for Melbourne Ports. I congratulate the government and the member for Melbourne Ports on putting forward such an important motion.

With all our political traditions, we can all take something from Liu. For me, I take out of the life of Liu and his Nobel Peace Prize the triumph of the individual against the state—that ongoing force in human history of the individual challenging the unquestioned power of the state. Charter 08 calls for 19 changes to improve human rights in China, including an independent legal system, freedom of association and the elimination of one-party rule. That is the same challenge that has faced many people throughout our own history, and it is of course something this place should be a beacon for upholding and supporting. It is good to see a man of Liu’s character receive this award. We must speak up and stand up for those people who are oppressed, who are unable to speak, who are imprisoned, in their quest for freedom and human rights. The Australian parliament of course does serve as a source of hope and inspiration to so many around the world.

Being jailed for 11 years for producing such a charter, which calls for 19 changes to improve human rights in China, is a hideous thing—being jailed for peaceful protest seeking progress for the human race. That is why it is so important for us here today to support such a man. Often in this House I question the role of individuals and the role they play, but intellectuals do have an important role to play in our world. When you look at Liu’s life and examine his intellectual traditions, he even studies the same intellectual traditions that underpin many of the things that I believe in—and I refer to Nietzsche. Liu was an advocate of the individual in Chinese universities in his earlier year, standing up in a society dominated by the collectivist tradition for the role of the individual in his society. The member for Fraser quite beautifully spoke about the ‘lost souls’ that Liu represents in the Chinese state.

Australia has played a role in Liu Xiaobo’s life over many years; indeed, in the Tiananmen Square massacre Liu sought refuge in an Australian embassy but had the courage and the bravery to leave that safe haven that Australia provided and go back to his people to continue his ongoing quest to gain, in a constitutional way, better conditions and liberty for the Chinese people.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Liu for his long and non-violent struggle—that is very important—for fundamental human rights in China. The committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. It is important to note that Liu has been a peaceful protester; that he has sought to improve his society only through that which can be obtained through proper mechanisms and through the rule of law. At his recent trial he gave a great quote, which I would like to read here today:

It is beautiful language even when translated into English—one can only wonder how it sounds in Chinese. However, it is the same hope that is expressed by so many people in human history: to seek a better life for themselves and their fellow man and to seek limitations on state power, which has been such a great tradition in the West.

I know that there are plans to publish selections of his writings in the future and I will be one of those seeking out those writings to add to my collection of documents of liberty from our world. Those writings will stand alongside Czechoslovakia’s Charter 77, the Declaration of Independence, Milton’s works and all of those key documents from human history that have formed the ongoing tradition of seeking to limit the power of the state over the individual. In Liu we see that same quest and that same peaceful protest for the betterment of humankind. It is our role, as a parliament that is dominated by freedom of expression, human rights and the betterment of the human race, to support all of those who seek liberty in such a noble and powerful way as Liu has done in China.