Page 576 - Week 02 - Thursday, 14 February 2013
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different to the urging of the Speaker every morning for us to pray and reflect on our duties. That is what those religious leaders did. This Assembly, this Speaker, did not run a church service. The Chief Minister seemed to say that we should not be running church services, and she is right. And the Assembly did not.
I think that is the sad thing. When you over-egg these things you start to look foolish. Many years ago Mr Pratt and I started an acknowledgement of our Muslim community members by having a function here in the Assembly to honour the end of Ramadan. Various people have attended over time and various people commended Mr Pratt for doing that, because it helped build up an understanding and awareness and it led to religious tolerance. We should all be working to do that as religious leaders.
Indeed, I have got a piece of paper here from Katy Gallagher MLA, Chief Minister of the ACT, cordially inviting people to the Ramadan dinner. The meal in Ramadan is a very important part of the ceremony. It has religious connotations. In fact, you could say that it is a religious thing. Now—
Ms Gallagher: The Assembly did not host it. I hosted it.
MR SMYTH: That is right. The Chief Minister interjects that the Assembly did not run it. The Speaker did not run the ceremony on Monday. It was run by a bishop of a faith. It is interesting. This is just another example of this government being driven by ideology. It is already their stated aim to be the most progressive government in the country. What we have here is this government’s brace of new rights, like the right not to be offended. I think what is insidious with Mr Corbell’s motion is that he has couched it under the cloak of this separation of church and state.
The church has not been invited into the Assembly. No church leader now runs the Assembly. What we actually have is people of goodwill offering their time and their best wishes to say that we hope that you, as an Assembly, do good for us as the community, and it happened to be, in this case, people who adhere to a variety of faiths.
There was everything from Baha’is to the Jewish faith, to Buddhists, to the Orthodox, to Protestant and to Catholic. So it was a pretty wide selection of the community saying, “We wish you well.” I do not understand why the Assembly would not be welcoming the good wishes of the community to endorse what we do every year on their behalf.
I think it was an inclusive event. I think it was a positive event. I do not think anybody felt vilified, left out or confused by what happened. It was simply a blessing from our community, a message of goodwill if you wish. What we should not have is the church being invited into the Assembly. I see no thuribles; I see no menorahs; I do not see symbols of any faith in this place, and that is entirely right. This place is not diminished by what happened on Monday. In fact, this place is built up and honoured by what happened on Monday.
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