Canberra: Several Australian MPs have raised strong concerns in Parliament during the recently concluded 48th Parliament sitting over China’s new “Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress” and Chinese government’s interference in the reincarnation issue of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

MP Andrew Wilkie calling the new ethnic law “Orwellian” and said it aims to accelerate the assimilation of Tibetans and other ethnic groups into a single national identity and described it as cultural genocide and extraterritorial and transnational repression. He urged the Australian Government to act and ensure they do not to put the relationship with the Chinese government ahead of the fundamental human rights and cultural survival of Tibetans.

MP Andrew Wallace said, “What we’re seeing in Tibet now is a great shame. We are seeing young children being forcibly removed from their families. They are losing their cultural identity. The People’s Republic of China is basically trying to ‘re-educate’ these children. They are literally being removed from their families, and they are losing their culture and language, and are being so-called re-educated in manners that are agreeable to the People’s Republic of China.”

MP Susan Templeman, co-chair of the Australian Parliamentary Friendship Group for Tibet, said the Dalai Lama has affirmed that the institution will continue, with the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust having sole authority to recognise the future reincarnation. She reiterated the Australian Government’s position that no government should interfere in the selection of religious leaders, including the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama.

MP David Smith said, “This year marks the 91st birthday of His Holiness. It is crucial that we recognise that the sole authority over the reincarnation of the 14th Dalai Lama lies with the Dalai Lama’s Gaden Phodrang Trust, and that no government or body has authority to interfere in this matter.”

Senator Barbara Pocock, another co-chair of the group, said the UN Human Rights Chief and the European Parliament have both called for the Ethinic Unity law’s repeal, and noted that the Australian Government has also raised concerns with Beijing. She called on China to ensure its laws and policies are consistent with international human rights obligations and safeguard the rights of all ethnic communities to preserve their language, culture, religion and way of life.

– Report filed by Office of Tibet, Canberra