October 26, 2015
Davis calls out Australia for human rights hypocrisy
Labour MP Kelvin Davis wants New Zealand to oppose Australia getting a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council because of its treatment of New Zealanders in detention centres.
The Taitokerau MP has just returned from Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, where he waited for almost a week before being allowed to meet with a several of the detainees awaiting deportation under Australia’s tough new visa rules.
They shared their sense of hopelessness, despair and uncertainty.
He says news of Australia’s UN bid came while he was on the island.
"I was watching it on tv and my jaw hit the ground. I couldn’t believe they are sitting there pretending their human rights record is fine when we know these things are going on in these detention centres," Mr Davis says.
He says Prime Minister John Key and Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully are abandoning the detainees to their fate, and they should be sending in foreign affairs officials to help them and to ensure their human rights are respected.
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