Page 2750 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
going to vote against something that I think is an insult to the Chinese people. If you had a broad-brush approach to free trade agreements, you would set up websites for all of these things and you would attack every single one and you would run the sort of campaign that has been run against this Chinese free trade agreement, but they did not.
I will quote from the ANZ Chief Executive Mike Smith, who wrote in the Financial Review:
Rather than flooding Australia with Chinese workers as Labor and the unions claim, the Chinese free-trade deal will create new Australian jobs and new markets for Australian manufacturers, miners and farmers. It is contemptible for Labor and the trade unions to seek to undermine this by reviving one of the ugliest aspects of their own distant past.
Clearly, Madam Deputy Speaker, they have not learned. Today is very important; we see history repeating itself. I hope members reflect about what they do today. The 15th anniversary of the debate that said go ahead with the agreement was on 7 September and I think it is 13 September when it was signed. I am sure the Chinese people of Australia and those overseas will question it.
I went to the dinner to celebrate the 10th anniversary and members of the Chinese community, both local and diplomatic, were asking me, “Could you please explain to us why the Labor Party abstained and the Greens voted against this agreement?” I had to say, “I have no idea,” because they never made a case. Same as today—they are not making a case, and we are seeing history repeating itself all over again. Indeed, they are running from it; I notice the benches opposite are basically empty. I go back to where I started with the words of Einstein:
What a sad era when it is easier to smash an atom than a prejudice.
The prejudices still exist. This is xenophobic. Ged Kearney in her own words said:
It’s very difficult not to sound xenophobic.
Yes, it is very difficult not to sound xenophobic when you are and when you are behaving in a xenophobic manner. Goethe said:
There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.
That is what we are seeing today—we are seeing a scare campaign because the CFMEU, for all its activity which has been exposed by the royal commission, is seeking to divert people’s attention from itself. E H Chapin said:
Bigotry dwarfs the soul by shutting out the truth.
The truth is that this is a good thing for all Australians. It might not be a good thing for the CFMEU, but it is a good thing for all Australians. I started with whether they would rise to the occasion today and the quote from Lord Byron:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video