Labor leader Bill Shorten praises Fremantle MP who opposed laws increasing the powers of security agencies in the name of counter-terrorism

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

One of the Australian Labor party’s most outspoken opponents of offshore detention, mass surveillance and live animal exports will not contest the next federal election.

Melissa Parke, who has represented the West Australian seat of Fremantle since 2007, said she would not seek a fourth term because it was “time for me to be closer to my family and to travel less”.

“I believe that renewal is a good tonic for our democracy,” she said on Friday.

Parke, a former UN lawyer, has been a frequent critic of the positions adopted by Australia’s main political parties on asylum seeker policy and laws increasing the powers of security agencies in the name of counter-terrorism.

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Three months ago, she renewed calls for Labor to drop its support for the processing of asylum seekers on Nauru and Manus Island. In an opinion piece for Guardian Australia, Parke argued a properly resourced regional arrangement would be better than maintaining “the convenient lie that our Pacific gulags are hard but necessary”.



In 2014, Parke was the sole voice of major party dissent during lower house debate on a bill to increase the power of security agencies. She warned that encroaching on the privacy of citizens “might in fact wear and fray the fabric of our freedom, trust and faith in government”.

In the statement on her future, Parke said the role of an informed and engaged backbencher was “undervalued in the Australian political system, which increasingly favours the executive over the parliament”.

“It has been a pleasure to work with parliamentary colleagues, academics, scientists, experts, industry, unions and community groups on issues such as abolition of the death penalty, justice for refugees, nuclear disarmament, marine sanctuaries, climate change, press freedom, fair trade, closing the gap, war powers reform, Australian aid, early childhood education, public health, rare diseases, medicinal cannabis, dying with dignity, support for veterans, whistleblower protection, an independent office of animal welfare, an end to gene patenting, and long-overdue justice for the Palestinian, Tibetan, West Papuan and Rohingya peoples,” she said.



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The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said Parke had been “an unstinting champion for human rights, international development and social justice”.

“In the caucus and the parliament alike, Melissa has always stood up and spoken out for her beliefs, with an eloquence and fearless passion drawn from a deep well of integrity,” he said.

“For every minute of her time as a federal MP, she has been true to herself.”

The former speaker Anna Burke, another outspoken critic of Labor’s refugee policies, announced last month she would not recontest her Victorian seat at the next election.

Burke and Parke said they would continue to work for the election of a Shorten-led Labor government at this year’s election.