2018-07-25
Ms TRUONG (Western Metropolitan) (18:48) — My adjournment matter is for the Premier, Daniel Andrews. The current environmental threats facing Tibet are a powerful reminder of our interconnectedness as a species and a biosphere. The Tibetan Plateau is known as the Earth’s third pole because of its strategic importance as the largest repository of fresh water outside the North and South poles. It is the source of the Earth’s eight largest river systems, and it sustains more than 1.4 billion people.
Tibet is also a climate change epicentre. It is warming at nearly three times the rate as the rest of the Earth, with the glaciers in the Himalayas disappearing at a rate of 7 per cent a year. These events are made worse by rapid urbanisation, deforestation, desertification, natural resource extraction and the introduction of mass hydroelectric projects. This has occurred as China has become increasingly hostile to the Dalai Lama’s widely supported calls, since 2008, for Tibetan autonomy, not separation.
I was fortunate to attend a Refugee Week panel in Footscray in late June, where I learned that 153 Tibetans, mainly Buddhist priests, have self-immolated since February 2009. The local Victorian Tibetan community held strong and talked about the 153 activists literally destroyed over the plight of the Tibetan people and the destruction of their country. Such direct action lends consideration to the degree to which their human freedoms are under threat.
In representing a multicultural community that holds human rights as both fundamental and pre-eminent, it is important for the Victorian Parliament to support our communities and advocate for human rights around the world.
Today I call on the Premier to publicly support the human rights of the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama’s position on Tibetan autonomy; to endorse independent media, non-government organisations and the United Nations having unfettered access to all Tibetan areas; and to publicly support the Victorian Tibetan community’s advocacy for a meaningful dialogue between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese leadership towards a peaceful resolution.