Peter Dutton ridicules UN scrutiny of our human rights as ‘farce’

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has ridiculed the UN Human Rights Council’s scrutiny of Australia’s record as a ‘farce’.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has ridiculed the UN Human Rights Council’s scrutiny of Australia’s record as a “farce”, despite a government campaign to join the international panel.

More than 100 world governments seized an opportunity in Geneva on Monday to critique Australia’s human rights record, raising concerns about the treatment of asylum-seekers, indigenous people and same-sex couples.

The four-yearly review included criticism of Australia’s refugee policy from key partners, including the US, Britain and Canada, and dictatorships such as Cuba, North Korea and Laos.

Mr Dutton said yesterday: “My favourite contribution to this UN process was from North Korea — a bastion of human rights — with their representative reported to have said that his country was ­‘seriously concerned at continued maltreatment of and violence against the refugees and asylum-seekers’.

“This shows what a farce this process is. What this government is proud of is the fact that we have been able to stop people drowning at sea, we have removed children from detention and been able to close 13 of the 17 detention centres opened by Labor.”

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Attorney-General George Brandis last month launched Australia’s candidacy for a three-year membership of the council starting in 2018. “Australia’s candidacy … is the most natural thing in the world for a country which … is a nation built on a belief in, and a commitment to, the human rights of all, the human rights of all Australians and the human rights of all the peoples of the world,” Sen­ator Brandis said on October 19.

Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles linked the criticism to Tony Abbott’s urging of Europe to seal its borders against unauthorised migrants.

“We’ve got a former prime minister who doesn’t mind going over to Britain and lecturing the rest of the world about how it should be done. It shouldn’t be a surprise to the Turnbull government that they’re getting a bit of a lecture back,” he told ABC radio.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the “hostile upbraiding” demonstrated some of Australia’s closest friends were “appalled” by the country’s immigration policies.

“Malcolm Turnbull has a choice to make,” she said. “Will he listen to the UN and our allies who are urging us to treat people seeking asylum with respect or will he continue with the Coalition’s obsessive cruelty?”