Phillip Barresi (Deakin, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am very pleased to be able to make a contribution to this important debate. It is a debate which has at its heart a recognition of the fact that the Australia we live in today is markedly and vastly different from the Australia that introduced the Nationality and Citizenship Bill 1948. We know that we have evolved as a nation through successive waves of migrants that have come into this country and added to the richness of what we call Australia today.

These amendments and the associated legislation seek to make those citizenship laws relevant to our contemporary society. I note that in his second reading speech the parliamentary secretary made it perfectly clear that the principles underlying the existing legislation remain the same. That is to say, this legislation reflects the belief that access to citizenship of this country should and does remain inclusive and non-discriminatory and that these beliefs should form the basis of our citizenship law and policy. It means that as a society we can continue to welcome migrants and refugees who come to Australia and decide they wish to remain here and become fully participating members of the Australian community.

I am one of a handful of members in this parliament—both in the Senate and House of Representatives—who was born overseas. I have lived through some of the difficulties of adjusting to a new home, albeit as a boy. I cannot pretend to know exactly what it would be like as an adult. I know that, certainly in those early years when my father and mother came out here in 1959 and 1960, when I was only a four-year-old boy, life was tough. We lived in a different Australia then.

They had to wait five years to take out Australian citizenship. It was a two-year wait for quite a long time. It has been changed to three years and now of course there is a move to make it four years. I support the move to four. I think certainly the period of two years was well and truly too short to have a full understanding of the kind of society that one is calling home and to appreciate the expectations that are on you as a new migrant. Likewise, it is too short a time for the nation to be satisfied that that transition is truly being made with a firm belief in becoming a working member of our society.

Democracy is not easy and it is not meant to be. For all intents and purposes, it is an undertaking that requires active and full participation by those who would enjoy the benefits of it. Being a citizen cannot and must not become a spectator sport, one where the vast majority of citizens sit back and are governed.

I, like all members of this place, attend a number of citizenship ceremonies held by our councils; I have even held citizenship ceremonies in my office, private ceremonies, on occasions. And I often say at the citizenship ceremonies that I attend that people have the freedom and the ability in this country to achieve whatever they wish to achieve and that the aspirations of a migrant to this country can be fulfilled and the dreams that they have set for themselves and for their children can be realised in this country.

Certainly, whether it be participating in a school as a parent, whether it be participating as a member of a sporting club—whether that be the junior soccer club or a tennis club—or whether it be participating in the democratic process in council, state or federal government, in terms of membership or as a volunteer in that process, the opportunities are there without fear or favour. The kind of participation and freedom that is allowed in this country is one which I believe does set us apart from so many other nations. And it is an expectation we have of our citizens that they do participate in the process, rather than sitting back and simply enjoying the fruits of becoming an Australian citizen.

I have found that being able to adequately and concisely explain to someone from another country exactly what it means to be an Australian is very difficult. I think if we were to ask various members of parliament, they would probably have different interpretations of what it is that that would mean. It is something that requires active participation in democracy, as I spoke of earlier. It is, of course, perfectly acceptable to disagree with another citizen who says, ‘I think that being an Australian means—’ whatever, without explaining the reasons for disagreement or, better still, providing an alternative value which typifies this society.

It is easy to say something is un-Australian. I note that in the last week or so there has been quite a lot of commentary made about things which have been said which are un-Australian. It is easy to know that the comments by Sheikh al-Hilali that were made last week are un-Australian; that is without question. We may not know exactly what the specific values are, but we do know what is un-Australian, and those comments certainly were. They were derogatory, they were outdated, they were sexist and they certainly do not reflect the views of many in this country, no matter what background those people come from. And I am pleased to see that members of the sheikh’s own community have also denounced those statements—although I do wish that some others would denounce them even more strongly, rather than being lukewarm in their comments. They do nothing to build up a sense of oneness in the broader Australian society. What the recent media coverage of these comments has provided is a chance for the moderate sections—which I believe are the vast majority of the Australian Muslim community—to express their views, which are certainly reflected by the rest of the Australian community. They have responded almost universally in their condemnation of these comments.

The debate about what it means to be Australian, and the type of values we can enunciate to those who wish to join us as a fully engaged citizen, is one that we must have. I am pleased to see that in the last month or so the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs has put out for discussion that very topic—about what it means to be an Australian and what the values are. I will certainly be noting with great interest the submissions and the comments that are made in response to that request.

Enunciating these values is difficult and it is meant to be difficult. Other nations have resorted to revolutions or wars of independence to develop the clarity of thought to enunciate the values on which their nations would be built. We are not seeking to create a shorthand in this process, but we are certainly seeking the engagement of the Australian public with what it means to become an Australian citizen. Life in Australia today, and the life we will lead in the future, is too complex for a shorthand approach to identifying the values that we hold dear.

Prior to entering parliament, as a number of members would know, part of my training was in the area of psychology. One of the things that I know from psychology is that it is always very hard, almost impossible, to read the mind of a client and to read exactly what is going on. People would say to me, ‘You know what I am thinking about,’ which was quite flattering but also very untrue. But what you do rely on in your assessment is to look at the context in which that person is operating and the situation they are in, and to notice the behaviour that they exhibit. By examining their behaviour you can help to explore some of the deeply held values which they may have.

In the same way, while it is difficult to read the mind of the Australian society, we can look at the behaviours that we want to promote in this country and that we want to encourage in our society. We can take these manifestations and explore the sentiment that drives these behaviours. We can begin to clarify the criteria that we apply to ourselves in determining what makes a fully participating member of Australian society, and from there begin to detail the characteristics and the qualities of those people we are looking to include in society.

I began my remarks by saying that democracy is not easy and it is not designed to be. To those who wish to have an input into the way in which we clarify just what it means to be an Australian, I say: give serious consideration to the parliamentary secretary’s call on the value statement, vocalise your views and let’s see if we can make this country, which has been so enriched over 200 years of migration, an even better nation than it is today.

I make that call not only to those who have come to this nation through the usual migration process but increasingly also to those who have come across as refugees. This country has a proud record in taking refugees into its society, from right after World War II, when they came from countries such as Poland in eastern Europe. In the 1950s we saw refugees coming from Hungary and Czechoslovakia. I think in the last couple of weeks we celebrated with the refugees from that time the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian uprising, which coincided with the Melbourne Olympic Games. We have refugees from the Balkan wars of the 1990s. People came from the Indochinese community in the 1970s and from Chile and El Salvador, and, of course, in more recent times people have come from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Refugees and migrants have enriched this nation. They have made this a nation that all of us are very proud to be members of. I am proud to be a member of this parliament, having a migrant background. I look forward to the day when we will see members of this parliament from nationalities which are perhaps more recent arrivals to this country. While we have members of parliament from Holland and Fiji and from the eastern European nations, it would be great at some stage in the future if we have members of parliament who can trace either themselves directly or their families to the African region, to the Middle East and to Asia. But, in doing so, we must all have one thing in common—that is, a love for this nation and the upholding of the very things that make us great, the values which are very common to all of us as a nation.

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