Australia's High Commissioner to Tonga, Adrian Morrison

The Australian High Commissioner to Tonga has come under fire after calling for the death penalty to be abolished during a speech in Nuku’alofa.

No-one has been executed in the Kingdom since 1982, and a de facto moratorium has been maintained since then.

But it still remains an option for convictions of murder and treason.

Last month, Adrian Morrison, co-hosted an event to commemorate World Day Against the Death Penalty.

He identified the death penalty as “one of the few points of genuine difference between Australia and Tonga.”

Mr Morrison said Australia was not only against the death penalty, but was actively working to convince others, including Tonga, to abolish it.

There was absolutely no evidence the death penalty was any more of an effective deterrent than long-term imprisonment, Mr Morrison said.

But a former Tongan Prime Minister, Lord Sevele, has called the High Commissioner’s speech “undiplomatic and patronising.”

Sevele says it was disappointing a foreign diplomat had publicly lectured Tongans to re-examine their conscience and behaviour.

Tonga’s laws were the result of serious consideration and deliberation by the government and Parliament.