Vanstone blames Australians for West Papuan women's persecution
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle responded to Senator Vanstone's comments today on West Papua and imprisoning women and
children.
"Senator Vanstone seeks to distract from her government's intention to lock up asylum seekers including women and
children on remote islands because she can not defend her position," Senator Nettle said.
"Senator Vanstone also conveniently ignores the persecution that some women and children face in West Papua at the hands
of the Indonesian military. In fact she is seeking to shift the responsibility for hardship West Papuans face from the
Indonesian military to Australians - 77% of whom support self-determination for West Papua.
"The government's new immigration legislation reneges on a promise the Prime Minister gave to Liberal Party backbenchers
last year that the Australian government would not lock up women and children. The Greens hope that Coalition MPs will
hold the Prime Minister to his commitment by opposing the new legislation when it is presented to them next week.
"Ferra Kambu, a mother amongst the 42 West Papuans, has spoken about witnessing the rape, mutilation and murder of women
by Indonesian soldiers in West Papua. Is Senator Vanstone seriously proposing that women such as Ferra must choose
between such a life in West Papua or imprisonment by Australia on a remote island in the Pacific?
"One imagines that the mother of lone West Papuan asylum seeker left on Christmas Island wants more for her son that
continued detention on a remote island off the coast of Australia or the imprisonment she and his father faced at the
hands of the Indonesian military. But Senator Vanstone is proposing to imprison more families, women and children in
remote island detention centres in the Pacific."
The Greens welcome the Get Up TV commercial to be screened today that focuses on the government's back flip regarding
locking up families and children in detention.