Ms O’CONNOR - Madam Speaker, I first commend Mr Ferguson for his previous contribution and also pay my respects to the Vietnam Veterans of Tasmania and Australia. My dad was in Vietnam as an ABC journalist so he did not carry any other weapon than a microphone, but he never recovered from his time in the tunnels. He was awarded two honorable service medals for his service to broadcasting.
I rise to correct an error I made in the adjournment on 25 June this year. On the basis of information provided to me in good faith by Sandy Bay residents concerned about a massive 20-unit stage development on Enterprise Road, I mistakenly said the owner of the subject land was Master Xin De Wang of the Red Buddhist sect, Holy Tantra. That was wrong, Madam Speaker. I discovered it the next day, which was a Friday, when I had more time, and did a deep dive of company documents. The land on Enterprise Road is owned by Xanadu Developments Pty Ltd, the director of which is Mr Hui Wang whose ASIC registered address is in Murrumbeena, Victoria, and who was born in Xi'an , China in 1982. He is a fair bit younger than Master Wang, although I do note that Master Wang has very substantial real estate assets in Tasmania, which the Australian newspaper recently put as high as $18 million in value.
I apologised to Master Wang in the Mercury newspaper, and am putting my apology on the record here now.
Madam Speaker, you told me by text recently, that Master Wang would be watching tonight, and I am sure he is. At the time, my colleague, the member for Clark, Ella Haddad, in the Mercury newspaper, accused me of xenophobia. This is a gross accusation. It is untrue. It is a slur, which I reject. I urge Ms Haddad, instead of smearing me over a genuine mistake, to expand her oft-stated concern for human rights and have a good look at what is happening in occupied Tibet.
Do some research on what is happening in Xinjiang where it is estimated around two million Uighur Muslims are in concentration camps or have been shipped off to work in factories in mainland China. Maybe Ms Haddad could do some research on the 13 tonnes of human hair that was picked up in New York and has been sourced back to Xinjiang, and the evidence of former female detainees of these concentration camps that their head is shaved.
Maybe Ms Haddad could do some research on the plight of the people of Hong Kong whose beautiful free city has now been completely taken over by the Chinese Government with the oppressive weight of the national security law, which can lead to people being imprisoned for singing a subversive song.
Maybe Ms Haddad could talk to some people from Taiwan who face daily threats from mainland China that the Chinese Government will come and forcibly take Taiwan, a free and democratic country.
Maybe Ms Haddad could do some research on the dissidence and the disappeared people in mainland China. The Human Rights lawyers, the photographers, and the feminists, who have been locked up by their government for speaking out for democracy and basic human rights. Human rights.
When I talk about the Chinese Government, I am talking about it through the lens of human rights, and I am talking about it out of concern for the activities of the Chinese Government around the world in western democracies and in places like Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
