Falun Gong practitioners took off from Parliament House on November 7 to begin their car tour across Australia in a move to raise awareness of organ pillaging in China.
Since August two vehicles with eight people trekked from New South Wales across to Perth and will now finish the tour in Albany.
Member for Southern River Peter Abetz farewelled the Falun Gong drivers as they left the driveway of Parliament and said organ harvesting was an issue many of Chinese people in the local area would be interested in.
“While many people have read about organ harvesting most people don’t give it much thought because it seems far removed from their own lives,” he said.
“However if people in the rural areas of WA get to meet Chinese people face to face who have actually been imprisoned in China and who say they were tissue tested for a match then that makes it real life.”
Mr Abetz said it was easy to ignore the issue as China was so far away but urged the need to be aware of the facts.
“The more we know the better,” he said.
“It will increase pressure on our Federal Government to take legislative action as Israel and Spain and some other nations have done, making it a criminal offence to travel to China to have an organ transplant.”
Southern River resident Lily Li emigrated from China to Australia.
She explained that the Chinese government condemned Falun Gong, a practise that combines meditation and exercises with teachings based on principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.
The condemnation resulted in widespread torture, incarceration and organ harvesting.
Ms Li said it had been more than 10 years since the prosecutions but it was still not safe for Falun Gong practitioners in China.
“I know what the government is like over there,” she said.
“Sometimes people you know just disappeared and it was years later you found out they had died and their organs had been harvested.
“I’m glad about the car tour, everyone should know about it and we should all work together to come up with a solution to stop organ harvesting.”
Falun Gong Association president Dr Lucy Zhao said she hoped the car tour would help Australians know more about the organ-harvesting situation in China.
The WA leg of the tour will include stops to Northam, Kalgoorlie, Boulder, Esperance and finish in Albany.
