Victorian MP Hong Lim urges Australia to push Cambodia over garment worker crackdown

February 10, 2014,

ABC News

A Victorian MP born in Cambodia says Australia should put pressure on the country of his birth over a crackdown on protesting garment workers which left five people dead.

Hong Lim, the Member for Clayton, says he was in Cambodia earlier this month, when five protesting garment workers were shot dead in Phnom Penh.

Striking workers, armed with sticks, rocks and petrol bombs, clashed with police in the Veng Sreng factory district in Phnom Penh over wages and conditions.

Mr Lim has told Asia Pacific opening fire on the workers was intolerable.

"They did not need to kill those people, but they choose deliberately to use live bullets to kill people," he said.

"It's just intolerable...and if we allow these people to get away with this thuggery and the owners of the conscience of the whole world should now say look, it is unacceptable, it is uncivilised.

"You can't go on like that - the whole Australian community need to take note and need to be conscious of that that they have a role to play, that they need to be helping them out.:

In the wake of the clashes, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the Cambodian government needed to rein in its security forces, joining international condemnation.

Mr Lim says Australia has a long history of involvement in Cambodia, and as a major aid donor, it should make sure its voice heard in Phnom Penh.

"This should be very much apart of our Asian Century," he said.

"We are right in the middle of Asia and this is our northern neighbour and as I said, we have a long tradition of taking a very active, very leading role in Cambodia.

"Australia has an unfinished business in Cambodia and we should step back to take the lead."

Mr Lim says the protests in Cambodia show the emergence of a new political landscape that needs global support.

"This is much bigger than in Bangkok, much bigger than Ukraine, much bigger than many other countries that are protesting or demonstrating," he said.

"The world should acknowledge...the world should recognise...the world should say, at least say they came out...and the whole world have responsibility to respond accordingly."