Page 827 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014
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The fact that the laws we currently have in place have been supported by Australian communities and applied in a consistent manner by the courts for almost two decades should be enough to prove that Senator Brandis’s proposed amendments do nothing to promote a more inclusive and tolerant society. All they do is impose upon the community a particular ideology that not only ignores the provisions already in place in the Racial Discrimination Act but do nothing to minimise feelings and behaviours which may lead to racism and discrimination in our community. The federal government’s aim should be to ensure that our country values the benefits of cultural diversity and of community harmony. We should be celebrating our nation’s diversity and sharing what we have in common, not making it easier for citizens to be singled out and ridiculed on the basis of the colour of their skin.
The ACT government will continue to build on our strong record of promoting and celebrating diversity and ensuring that all Canberrans are shown the dignity and respect to which they are entitled.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (12.02): I wish to speak in support of Dr Bourke’s motion today. I believe that one of the great things that this country has achieved in the past 40 years has been our transformation to a multicultural society. I think it is a wonderful thing that this country has been able to go from a place sheltered and stunted by its childlike attachment to the British Empire and its fear of its place in the world and its place in Asia to a country that is now home to one of the most diverse populations on Earth.
Australia has, if we are honest, a troubled history when it comes to issues of race. From the beginnings of white invasion and settlement in the 18th and 19th centuries to the white Australia policy that dominated Australia’s early years of federation, the mainstream view of what it meant to be an Australian was that you supported discriminatory policies. Thankfully the walls of white Australia were gradually pulled down over the period beginning in the late 1940s to the early 70s by governments across both sides of the chamber, firstly with Chifley, then Menzies and Holt, and finally through to Whitlam, who in turn laid the foundations for the policies that created the multicultural country that we celebrate today. It is important, I think, to reflect for a moment on the fact that the move to an inclusive Australia happened through the actions of both Labor and Liberal governments.
The reasons for opening up Australia changed as the times changed. In the 1940s, the reasons were to meet immediate pragmatic challenges. It was an imperative to rebuild Australia and to meet our obligations under the newly formed United Nations to take refugees from war-ravaged Europe. In the 1950s and 1960s it was to undertake great nation-building projects like the Snowy hydro scheme and creating a great food bowl in places like the Riverina. What I am trying to say is that in our current debates on immigration, refugees, human rights and race we should recognise the efforts of all sides in achieving this transformation. We should at the very minimum hold ourselves to the standard of our predecessors.
Part of the pivot from white Australia to multicultural Australia included the passing of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975, which I know has been talked about by other
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