From Hansard -Page: 128/132Tamil referendum MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (6.48): I too would like to thank Anna for the greatcontribution she has made since she has been here. As Shane said, she is a fantasticcook. She is also extremely fashionable and, as everyone has also said, has a wickedsense of humour. She loves pink. That is right. Her presence is going to be greatlymissed. I would like to briefly mention that on Sunday, 18 April, I attended, as an observer,the ACT booth for the Tamil referendum, where Tamils living in Australia were askedto vote on whether they aspire for the formation of an independent Tamil homeland inthe north and east of Sri Lanka.
At least 10,000 Tamils turned out for this vote.Dr Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress said that, whilst the result will havelittle political significance, it will serve as a tool to show the world that Tamils livingoverseas support the cause of Tamil independence. The provisional results from Australia were that 99.4 per cent voted yes to thereferendum. The referendum has been held successfully in other countries, includingNorway, France, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and the UnitedKingdom. Again, in these countries more than 99 per cent voted yes and a further fivecountries will be conducting a referendum in the next few months. The UKgovernment has formally recognised the result of the referendum for the UK; so itwould be good to see the Australian government do the same thing for the Tamilpeople living in Australia. The referendum this year is based on the Vadukkoddai resolution, which wasa landmark decision made by Tamil political parties in 1976 to reclaim theirtraditional homeland and exercise their right to sovereignty. What they hope toachieve through the referendum this year, obviously by showing that there is the vastmajority of support amongst Tamils living overseas or independents, is to reaffirm thepolitical aspirations of the Tamils in the isle of Sri Lanka, that the opinion of Tamilsliving overseas can be used to determine the political solution to ethnic conflict, thatthe results be taken to governments and international bodies and that this bring aboutnational and global solidarity amongst Tamils and bring consensus on the nationalquestion. As I noted, I do hope that the Australian government follows in the footsteps of theUK government and officially recognises and supports the results of the referendumin Australia. I wish all the Tamil community success with further referendums thatthey run across the world.
