Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe has called on the Australian Government to pressure Indonesia to allow the United Nations into West Papua and grant greater access to journalists.
Experts estimate more than 300,000 Papuans have been killed since Indonesia's occupation of the region began in 1963, amid credible reports of mass killings, forced displacement, and sexual violence - most of which the Indonesian military has denied.
The decades-long conflict between Indonesia and the Free Papua Movement - which includes armed separatist groups across across six Indonesian-controlled provinces. - has displaced an estimated 100,000 Papuans in recent years. During periods of unrest, Indonesian authorities have restricted access to the region, including through internet blackouts.
This week, Senator Thorpe told the Senate the situation has been described as a "slow-motion genocide".
"Reports from West Papuan advocates detail door-to-door raids, homes destroyed, civilians killed and communities terrorised," she said.
"This is a devastating continuation of settler colonial dispossession and resource extraction. West Papuans have been forcibly displaced from their ancestral lands while the military drives the destruction of two million hectares of rainforest for palm oil and the obliteration of a sacred mountain for a foreign-owned gold mine."
Earlier this year, Deputy Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly, stated: "The Indonesian military has a long history of abuses in West Papua that poses a particular risk to the Indigenous communities."
"Concerned governments need to press the Prabowo administration and Papuan separatist armed groups to abide by the laws of war."
In 2024, the UN released a report expressing concern about "the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" against Papuans.
Last month, at least 15 civilians were among 19 people killed across the Papuan Highlands. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua said Indonesian military forces surrounded a men's communal house before raiding and destroying it, shooting dead eight civilians.
They allegedly also captured, tortured, and later murdered three men during the same raid.
Speaking in the Senate on Wednesday, Senator Thorpe referred to the killings, offering her "strength and solidarity" and urging the Australian Government to increase pressure on Indonesia.
"Indonesia continues to ban journalists, UN fact-finding missions, NGOs and aid agencies in seeking to silence witnesses to its crimes," she said.
Australia has long walked a diplomatic tightrope on the issue, viewing Indonesia - the world's largest Muslim-majority nation - as a key regional ally.
Independence leader Benny Wenda has previously said the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement has been "guarding their ancestral land with bows and arrows, and a few guns taken from raids".
"The Indonesian military are using unmanned drones, missiles, helicopters, sniper rifles, even fighter jets. I've warned the world since 2018 that Indonesia has been bombarding the Papuan Highlands," he added.
Senator Thorpe argued the Labor government "remains silent and complicit, allowing these atrocities to continue with impunity and even providing military equipment to Indonesia".
"I join with West Papuan advocates in calling for this government to demand that Indonesia permits a UN human rights fact-finding mission, lifts the blackout and facilitates access to journalists," she said.
