Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says he feels “real anger” over Anthony Albanese’s failure to discuss human rights in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but says he must be willing to accept criticism of Australia’s own failures.
Mr Modi has just wrapped up a three-day visit to Australia for bilateral talks on trade, business, investment and migration.
Mr Albanese introduced his Indian counterpart at an event attended by 20,000 people in Sydney on Tuesday before the pair posed for pictures in front of the Sydney Opera House which was lit up in the colours of the Indian flag on Wednesday.
At the same time, around 50 people attended Parliament House for the screening of a documentary banned by Mr Modi’s government. The documentary explored his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots, which killed more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. The Indian government banned the BBC program over what they claimed was a lack of objectivity.
The gathering, partly organised by Amnesty International, heard demands for Mr Albanese to raise allegations of alleged human rights abuses and crackdowns on the free press with Mr Modi directly during his two-day tour of Australia.
Senator Steele-John, born in England, accepted there was “often a double standard” from Western countries when it came to discussing human rights, citing suffering inflicted on Indigenous Australians and the “systematic extraction of wealth” perpetrated by his country of birth in India.
But he told the gathering of around 50 people that his “disappointment” with Mr Albanese had hardened into “real anger” after learning the prime minister had not raised the situation in India with his counterpart.
