New ‘Magnitsky-style’ laws to target human rights abusers and corrupt officials

The federal government now faces calls to ban overseas human rights abusers, corrupt officials and hackers, and seize their assets.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the laws would allow the government to take timely actions in response to issues of international concern. Picture: Sean Davey

The federal government faces bipartisan calls to make swift use of new targeted sanctions laws to ban human rights abusers, corrupt officials and cyber hackers from entering the country, and seize their Australian assets.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed the new “Magnitsky-style” laws on Thursday, which had already been agreed unanimously in the Senate.

The government will come under pressure to use the laws to sanction individual Chinese officials involved in human rights abuses in Xinjiang, where a million Uighurs are detained in “re-education” camps.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the laws would allow the government to take timely actions in response to issues of international concern, wherever they occurred.

“Denying the perpetrators and beneficiaries of egregious acts from accessing our economy, is essential and ensures they cannot benefit from the freedoms our democracy and rules-based society allows,” she said.

“This reform will importantly ensure that Australia does not become an isolated, attractive safe haven for such people and entities, and their illegal gains.”

The new sanctions framework is based US laws named after Sergei Magnitsky, who was arrested, tortured and died in police custody in Russia in 2009 after uncovering a massive tax fraud.

Canada, the European Union and Britain have enacted similar Magnitsky-style laws, targeting human rights abusers and corrupt officials.

But Australia’s laws go a step further, allowing sanctions to be applied to individuals engaged in “malicious cyber activity that impacts our interests”.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching, who recently received a Magnitsky Human Rights Award in London for her campaign for Magnitsky laws in Australia said the onus was now on the government to use the new sanctions.

“We already have a good idea as to who the bad people are, so why would we wait?” she told The Australian.

“Given this bill has multi-partisan support – a rare thing in this place – Australians would expect the government of the day to use sanctions to push back against those people we do not want here, and those people who seek to use our democratic institutions to protect their ill-gotten gains.”

Liberal MP Kevin Andrews said the government should get to work identifying human rights abusers that should be sanctioned.

“What they should do is start looking at individuals who have been sanctioned by other nations, and look at whether they have interests in Australia and whether we should sanction them in concert with other nations.

“The greatest impact of Magnitsky is where nations that have similar laws work together.”