Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Sustainable Development and Cities) Share this | Hansard source

Last evening in the legislative assembly of the Victorian parliament, the state Labor member for Frankston, Alistair Harkness, made false and profoundly offensive statements under privilege to attack me, to associate my local advocacy with racism and to accuse me of inciting a racist campaign against Africans. I completely refute and comprehensively reject the association that Mr Harkness has tried to create between me, my advocacy on behalf of the Frankston community and council, and a flyer to which he referred in parliament.

The first awareness of any kind I had about the flyer resulted from the speech, containing the disgraceful and malicious allegations and accusations, that Mr Harkness gave in the legislative assembly last night. The member for Frankston identified me as ‘a leader in a community campaign’ concerning secret plans for disadvantaged persons housing in Frankston. He went on to describe a racist flyer that had been circulated in sections of Frankston city over the weekend and claimed that I had ‘misrepresented the facts and incited the sort of response we saw last weekend’. The state Labor member for Frankston then named me and a state Liberal MP specifically, and my political party more generally, as associated with ‘this sort of racist propaganda’ and said how it was ‘imperative’ for me to take some undefined action.

My media releases of 23 and 31 July and public statements from which media reporting has been derived made no mention of any matter even remotely related to race, immigration or acts of violence, which Mr Harkness has sought to raise and politically exploit. There has been no factual error or misrepresentation in my advocacy and public statements, as I have relied upon uncontested material from the 9 July letter from the Frankston city mayor that urged me to support the council’s call for openness and consultation and upon factual information provided to council by senior state government housing officials.

Finally, the assertion by Mr Harkness that raising concerns and calls for ending the secrecy about the ham-fisted handling of this matter amounts to opposition to social housing is simply wrong and without foundation. Mr Harkness should do the right and honourable thing: unconditionally withdraw his appalling accusations and baseless allegations—

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