Tibet

I’m passionately in favour of a free trade agreement with China.  But I’m even more passionately in favour of free speech and the right to protest.  Now let us look at the different responses from Australia and NZ:

“We urge the Chinese Government to allow peaceful expression of dissent. We call on Chinese authorities to act with restraint and to deal with protesters peacefully.”
– Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith

“The Government is concerned at the reports of violence and is trying to obtain more accurate information. It calls on all sides to exercise restraint.”
– Prime Minister Helen Clark

Yeah those damn protesters need to be more restrained as they get shot.

Photo from Al Jazeera.

It would be good to have the NZ Government also stress the right to peaceful protest.