STATEMENTS BY SENATORS - West Papua Speaker : Thorpe, Sen Lidia

 

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Chamber

 5/11/2025

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STATEMENTS BY SENATORS - West Papua

Speaker : 

Thorpe, Sen Lidia

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Senator THORPE  (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (13:54): I send my strength and solidarity to my brothers and sisters in West Papua, where 15 civilians were recently massacred by the Indonesian military. Reports from West Papuan advocates detail door-to-door raids, homes destroyed, civilians killed and communities terrorised. Since Indonesia's occupation began in 1962, more than 500,000 West Papuans have been killed in what has been described as a slow motion genocide. This is a devastating continuation of settler colonial dispossession and resource extraction.

West Papuans have been forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands while the military drives the destruction of two million hectares of rainforest for palm oil and the obliteration of a sacred mountain for a foreign-owned gold mine. Indonesia continues to ban journalists, UN fact-finding missions, NGOs and aid agencies in seeking to silence witnesses to its crimes. In the words of West Papuan independence leader Benny Wenda, this is a David versus Goliath battle. West Papuans are defending their ancestral lands with bows and arrows and a few guns taken from raids, while the Indonesian military uses drones, missiles, helicopters, sniper rifles and fighter jets.

The Albanese government again remains silent and complicit, allowing these atrocities to continue with impunity and even providing military equipment to Indonesia. I join with West Papuan advocates in calling for this government to demand that Indonesia permits a UN human rights fact-finding mission, lifts the blackout and facilitates access to journalists.

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