Senator BOURNE (4:17 PM) —The Australian Democrats are and always have been concerned about West Papua along with East Timor and, particularly, Aceh in Indonesia. This is probably an important topic to discuss with some reasonable urgency. I do not think it would take the Senate very long—we have heard quite a bit already about the substantial topic—to vote on the motion if we believed it to be urgent. I am not averse to voting for this urgency motion, because I think it would be dealt with very quickly.

The self-determination of any peoples anywhere is dear to the Democrats' hearts. As we all remember, West Papua had a vote. It was one of the very first that was ever carried out by the UN. Even the UN will now tell you that it was not the West Papuans' finest hour. Obviously, if we want a true vote for self-determination in West Papua we have to do it properly and we have to do it again. The Australian Electoral Commission is an expert at doing these things. It is invited all around the world to carry out votes in countries which are not used to having democratic votes. We could certainly request the Australian Electoral Commission to assist in such a vote. I am sure that it would do it and do it very expertly.

We believe that we should be looking at the current situation in West Papua. It is still a situation which needs review. There are still observations of torture and problems with disappearances. There are still problems not only around the mining areas but in several other areas. Aceh is another area that needs looking at. I am pleased to say that the Senate remains focused on East Timor. We support the urgency motion because I do not think it would take very long, if we did agree that it was urgent, to get a vote on the substantive motion.