Push for clear line on death penalty

PRESSURE is mounting on the Rudd Government from the Labor back bench to adopt a tougher stand against the death penalty.

With three Australians on death row in Indonesia - including the 22-year-old convicted drug mule Scott Rush - a push is on for the Government to voice more publicly throughout the region its position as an abolitionist country.

The NSW MP Chris Hayes has lodged a notice of motion in Parliament calling on the Government to take a number of steps, including passing laws making it illegal for states and territories to reintroduce the death penalty. The current legal position means states and territories could reintroduce it, should they wish.

This would incorporate Australia's obligations under the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aimed at the abolition of the death penalty, into domestic legislation.

Such a move, advocates believe, would send a clearer message internationally on Australia's position, and strengthen its arguments for Australians on death row overseas to be spared.

The notice of motion also calls on the Government to lobby the Indonesian Government "as and whenever appropriate" to grant clemency to the three Australian Bali Nine members on death row.

It also asks Indonesia to "understand Australia's principled position in relation to the imposition of the death penalty".

"Abhorrence of the death penalty is a fundamental value in Australian society and there is bipartisan opposition to the death penalty within the Australian Parliament," it says.

The notice of motion will be debated in Parliament in the next sitting period, in a fortnight.

The Victorian Labor MP Mark Dreyfus, who is a QC, will also argue in support of the motion.

Mr Dreyfus told the Herald yesterday "all my adult life I've been opposed to the death penalty. We have abolished the death penalty in Australia and we need to work for the abolition of the death penalty every where in the world."

The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, while opposition leader, dismayed civil libertarians and supporters of Australians on death row when he censured his now-Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, for arguing for a more principled approach to the death penalty, one that opposed executions for citizens regardless of nationality or crime.

It is believed by those backing a stronger approach that it would clarify the position of Australian law enforcement agencies who co-operate in transnational investigations into crimes which attract the death penalty overseas. This follows criticism of the Australian Federal Police who were involved in the arrests of the Bali Nine.

Colin McDonald, the barrister for Rush, said: "It will then become a relevant legal consideration for the AFP in the conveyance of information that might predictably lead to the imposition of the death penalty on Australian citizens."

Two other Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran of the Bali Nine, are on death row. The three men can seek a judicial review of their death sentences, and appeal to the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for clemency.

Mr McDonald says Mr Hayes's notice of motion is "historically significant". Mr Hayes is the member for Werriwa. It was under the prime ministership of another member for Werriwa - Gough Whitlam - that Australia abolished the death penalty for federal offences, in 1973.

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Three 'Bali nine' members still face the death penalty, including the group's ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, as well as Rush, the only drug mule still sentenced to death.