Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek has drawn on her family’s personal history in an impassioned speech in support of Bali Nine pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.
Ms Plibersek gave a speech in Parliament today after an emotional address from Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.
Both called for a stay of execution from the Indonesian government, which has so far shown no sign of calling off the executions.
“We need to have a principled and methodical approach to punishments of serious crime,” Ms Plibersek said. “I perhaps have a particular view on remorse and redemption because of experiences in my own life.”
“In 1988, my husband left prison after being charged and convicted of a similar crime to these young men.
"I imagine what would have happened if he had been caught in Thailand instead of in Australia where that crime was committed. I think about – I didn’t know him at the time, this is 30 years ago – what would the world have missed out on?
"They would have missed out on the three beautiful children we have had together. They would have missed out on a man who spent the rest of his life making amends for the crime that he committed.”
"I imagine what would have happened if he had been caught in Thailand instead of in Australia where that crime was committed."
Ms Plibersek then went on to speak about her brother's violent death in Port Moresby in 1997.
“I know that if I had been the one making the decision about the punishment of the person who did that crime, I couldn’t have thought of a punishment bad enough,” she said.
“That’s why we don’t make decisions about punishment on the basis of how we feel but on the basis of universal, consistently-applied rules.
"I think it is important to say that when it comes to the death penalty, there has been for many years in Australia a bipartisan rejection of the death penalty."
Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran have been on death row since 2006 after a failed attempt to import heroin into Australia, and are expected to be executed by firing squad before the end of the month.
Ms Plibersek's husband, Michael Coutts-Trotter, today said the Bali Nine pair should be given a second chance like he was.
“I was afforded a second chance by our Australian justice system. I remain grateful for that every day,” he told News Limited.
“Like a great many Australians I oppose the death penalty. These two young men have done serious wrong and should be punished with substantial jail terms. But they should be granted mercy and not death.”
