Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Cambodia's human rights situation is getting worse, which bodes ill for next year's national elections. The latest terrible incident is the arrest and jailing of Chhim Sithar, the leader of the union at NagaWorld casino. I'm personally shocked by this. Sithar is a terrific young woman, who I had a coffee with only eight days ago in Melbourne. When she got off the plane in Cambodia She was arrested on the pretext that she was not supposed to travel overseas, as it was a breach of her bail conditions. Of course, no-one had ever told her of this condition. It's nonsense.

Like other union leaders, Sithar has been subject to years of harassment. She was jailed for standing up for the rights of 1,300 workers illegally stood down from the NagaWorld casino, which is owned by a Malaysian billionaire with rumoured but unproven links to Blackstone, which own Crown casino. She was just asking for proper severance pay or reinstatement in vacant jobs for the few who still want to work there.

Sithar was in Australia as a delegate of APHEDA to attend the International Trade Union Confederation World Congress in Melbourne. When we had a chat she wasn't plotting the overthrow of Hun Sen's gangster regime and she wasn't trying to bring down capitalism or end corruption in Cambodia; she was simply chatting about being in Melbourne and the challenges that she shares with other trade union organisers worldwide.

I call on Cambodia's government to release her immediately and on the owners of NagaWorld casino to behave decently and end this ridiculous dispute. I'll be talking with Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs to see what our embassy can do to speak up in Cambodia. (Time expired)