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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4283 ..

MR KAINE (10.43): Mr Speaker, it seems to me that the Government has put this Bill on the table at a significant time in Australia's history, at a time when questions of discrimination have found their way onto the national stage and into the national arena, when there has been a phoney debate about questions of racism and the right of people to make a statement on any subject they like without being vilified for it. I think the Government's action in establishing its own Discrimination Commissioner is timely. We need to make a statement, in this Territory at least, that we do not agree with the proposition put forward by some that one must never raise the question of race or immigration or any such subject lest we be accused of being a racist. It seems to me to run contrary to those things that we in Australia have established as our natural characteristics and national characteristics over decades.

I think the media has mauled the debate rather than continued it. The media has a great deal to answer for in terms of what has happened in recent months on the question of immigration and how we deal with people of non-English-speaking backgrounds. I think the way it has been handled is an absolute disgrace. There is no doubt that, because of that so-called debate, a lot of people are suffering discrimination today, in our schools and in the workplace.

Mr Berry: Tell them to ring John Howard's office.

MR KAINE: Mr Berry is only too happy to see that discrimination take place, obviously. I suppose he is going to tell me when I sit down that I am a racist because I object to the way the media has treated this so-called debate. I am not, and I put it on record here and now. If Mr Berry is - - -

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: Mr Kaine imputed that I was a supporter of the discrimination and racism that are going on in the community. If there is such an imputation, he should withdraw it.

MR SPEAKER: No, Mr Kaine did not, and there is no point of order.

MR KAINE: I said, and I repeat, that Mr Berry is going to jump to his feet and accuse me of being a racist, and I refute that from the outset. I think we have a very unhealthy situation in Australia today where people are being discriminated against. Children are being discriminated against in the schools, people are being discriminated against in the workplace; even in public places, people who do not look the way some people think they ought to look are being abused and virtually assaulted. That debate has to be stopped, if it is a debate, and I do not think it is a debate. One way of stopping it is to have a strong anti-discrimination law, as we do in the Territory - it has been in place for a long time - and to have in place a strong discrimination administration and legal process so that people who step across the bounds of what is accepted by this community as being reasonable can be appropriately dealt with.

I totally support the establishment of our own Discrimination Commissioner. Mr Moore seems to think the object of this debate ought to be to bash the Federal Parliament. I do not see why he is taking that view. We have been fighting for self-government and the right to deal with our own situations in our own way for

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