Bangladesh need legitimate and democratic elections

Today Abigail spoke in Parliament about the harrowing situation in Bangladesh - where there hasn't been a democratic election in over 15 years. Australia must stand with Bangladesh in their plight for justice.

Abigail gave notice of the following motion:

(1) That this House notes that:

(a) it has been over 15 years since Bangladesh has had an election that was legitimate, according to the United States Institute of Peace,

(b) Sheikh Hasina presided over two rigged and controversial elections in Bangladesh in 2014 and 2018 and failed to ‘advocate’ for free and fair elections,

(d) Capital Punishment Justice Project, R. Kennedy Human Rights and other human rights groups are gravely concerned over the number of enforced disappearances in Bangladesh and the denial of access to justice for the victims,

(e) Human Rights Watch has found that the Bangladeshi government continues to be linked to enforced disappearances,

(f) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has noted that the United States is adopting a policy to restrict visas for Bangladeshis who undermine the democratic election process in their home country,

(g) in 2021 the Biden administration levied sanctions against the Bangladeshi Rapid Action Battalion, and

(h) the British Parliament has discussed the politically biased imprisonment of Bangladeshi leader Khaleda Zia and expressed its concern about how the 2018 general election was conducted.

(2) That this House calls on the Australian Government to:

(a) appeal to the Bangladeshi Government to accept independent oversight of the coming national election in order to ensure that the election is fair and free of unlawful practices and interference,

(b) advocate for all political prisoners, including the opposition leader Khaleda Zia, to be immediately released,

(d) impose Magnitsky style sanctions against Sheikh Hasina, members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Detective Branch (DB) of police for their ongoing failure to uphold human and democratic rights in Bangladesh.

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NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

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Bangladesh need legitimate and democratic elections

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