Page 523 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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As it turns out, our diverse ethnic groupings have mixed broadly across the ACT. People have not hovered in enclaves. They bring a richness that we all enjoy. We all enjoy this rich background. Many towns and cities in Australia can be jealous of that; they do not have this richness that we have—be it the richness demonstrated through cultural activities, dancing, the foods that we eat and the stories that are told of old societies in other lands or, sometimes more importantly, the richness demonstrated by the values of these different groupings in our society.
As an Anglo-Saxon father, I look at other families and see that other families with other cultural backgrounds have stronger family values than even my own cultural grouping has. I put it to you that, in the headlong rush to modernise, my own traditional culture in this country has lost many of its values—hopefully, we have not lost them; perhaps we have just put them on the backburner while we race through society at a hell-bent pace.
The Chinese, Arabic, Persian, Greek, Italian, Afghan and African family groupings that we see here in Canberra have wonderful family structures from which we want to learn lessons. We should take lessons from them and try and re-learn and reincorporate some of the values that we have lost. Of course, there are good and bad values in every society—nobody is perfect—and those are issues which societies have to address.
One of the best examples I can give of integration in a slightly controversial area—one which is working and one which the ACT can be proud of—is the Islamic community. I want to talk about the Islamic community. Why? Because the Islamic community is so often the subject of controversial discussion in Australia. Why not call on our Islamic brothers here today and address a couple of issues?
The Islamic community is well integrated in Canberra—very well integrated. The Islamic community is a broad diaspora of Lebanese who came out to Australia in the 1940s and 1950s right through to African Muslims who have come out in recent times. There is a broad spectrum, but they are well integrated. Even new Islamic communities are trying their best, within their economic means. Within that sometimes terrible constraint of their economic means, they are trying their best to integrate—to get out there, live in the broader community and exploit the opportunities which are available in Australia because Australia is such a free society.
The Islamic community have rejected the politicisation that has affected other communities in other parts of Australia. If I can be just slightly political for a moment, let me say that the Islamic community have rejected Mr Stanhope’s attempts to politicise a number of issues. For example, they have rejected Mr Stanhope’s attempts to politicise the Islamic community around the Iraq war and around the war on terror. They have rejected those opportunities to try and polarise elements within their own community around those debates. They have rejected them, and that is a matter to be applauded.
They have also rejected other issues around counterterrorism. They have rejected some of the moves—some of the political calls—by Mr Stanhope around the debate on counterterrorism. The great majority of Canberran Muslims are Australians first,
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