NOTICE OF MOTION
Kim Booth MP on tomorrow to move –
That this House notes that:
(1) 1500 indigenous Penan people are currently being resettled, in many cases forcibly, for the impoundment of the Murum Dam in Sarawak;
(2) Some have resisted their forced relocation and are blocking the access road to the dam;
(3) The police has tried to isolate them, cut off food supplies and prevented human rights observers from accessing the area;
(4) Several people have been arbitrarily arrested, detained and charged including at least two minors which is in contravention of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
(5) Consent for Sarawak Energy Berhad to build the Murum Hydroelectric Project on Native Customary Lands was never granted by affected indigenous peoples’ communities;
(6) 27 Malaysian and international NGOs have written to the Malaysian Prime Minister expressing concern about the decision made by Sarawak authorities to isolate, intimidate and threaten the Penan families;
(7) France’s top paper, Le Monde features the Murum blockade in a long article about the destruction caused by these mega-dam projects in Sarawak;
(8) Norway’s weekly paper has focused on the protests against one of their own nationals who has been complicit in the corruption surrounding the impoundment of the Murum reservoir;
(9) Our own government business enterprise, Hydro Tasmania is intimately involved in this project;
(10) Hydro Tasmania has provided secondees to the Sarawak company building the Murum dam including:
a. a project director to oversee the construction of the Murum Dam; and
b. the Vice President for Sarawak Energy Berhad in charge of Corporate Social Responsibility including the re-settlement of indigenous people; and
(11) Finally, calls on the Minister for Energy to direct Hydro Tasmania to immediately intervene to ensure that the demands of those who do not want to be forcibly resettled are met by the Sarawak government.