Australia is guilty of human rights hypocrisy

This is not to say China does not have an appalling human rights record with, for example, its treatment of its Uyghur peoples and Hong Kong's democratic rights, but the issue here is the pot (Australia) calling the kettle (China) black.

Australia has a strong record of protecting civil and political rights, but serious human rights issues remain, as Human Rights Watch reports.

So let's see how we stack up, to see if the charge of hypocrisy is justified.

With regards to asylum seekers and refugees, at the time of writing, 570 refugees and asylum seekers remained in Papua New Guinea and about 600 on Nauru. Countries of origin include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, and Sudan.

Many refugees and asylum seekers suffer from poor mental health or mental illness due to, or exacerbated by, years of detention and uncertainty about their futures. Self-harm and suicide attempts are frequent.

Indigenous rights are also a significant blight on our human rights record, for First Nations People are significantly overrepresented in the criminal justice system, often for minor offenses like unpaid fines.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise 28 per cent of Australia's adult prison population, but just 2 per cent of the national population.

We must also not forget children's rights.

Back in April, the Northern Territory government acknowledged the November 2017 royal commission's finding of "shocking and systemic failures" in the youth justice and protection systems, but claimed it lacked funding to implement all of the commission's 227 recommendations.

Australian states and territories set the age of criminal responsibility at 10-years-old. Across Australia, about 600 children under the age of 14 are imprisoned each year, mostly Indigenous. Many are now rightly calling for the age of consent to be raised from 10 to 12.

Freedom of expression is also an issue here.

In June, Australia enacted new espionage and foreign interference legislation, increasing penalties for unauthorized disclosure of information without providing a strong public-interest defence across all offenses and defining national security in overly broad terms.

Cybersecurity and surveillance are human rights issues as well. In February, the government introduced an identity-matching services bill that would create a nationwide database of people's physical characteristics and identities, linking facial images and data from states and territories and integrating them with a facial recognition system. The proposed law lacks adequate safeguards against abuse. The bill had yet to pass into law at time of writing.

In September, the government introduced legislation that would undermine strong encryption and cybersecurity, allowing law enforcement and security agencies to order technology companies and even individuals to facilitate access to encrypted data and devices. The law would give officials wide discretion to decide whether an order is "reasonable and proportionate."

Disability rights are also relevant. More than half the Australian prison population has a physical, sensory, psychosocial (mental health), or cognitive disability.

Rights of older people also come into play. In February, the attorney-general announced a national plan to address abuse of older people, a key recommendation of the 2017 Australian Law Reform Commission report that detailed cases of serious physical abuse, financial manipulation, neglect, and exploitation of older people.

Given everything that has happened over the past year we can't forget to include women's rights in this survey. In October, the Queensland government decriminalized abortion. In June, the NSW's government passed legislation to provide safe access zones around clinics that provide abortions.

Forced labour has also been in the news lately. In June, the Australian government introduced a modern slavery bill that would require companies above a certain size to submit annual statements regarding their supply chains. The bill, however, does not set out penalties for non-compliance.

And let's not forget foreign policy. In 2018, Australia started its term on the UN Human Rights Council, but beyond Geneva continued to shy away from publicly raising concerns about human rights in other countries, including neighbouring Cambodia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, where rights violations are rife but with whom Australia works closely on border security and trade. In March, Australia and Vietnam upgraded ties under a new strategic partnership.

Clearly the evidence shows we are 'guilty as charged'.