John Alexander (Bennelong, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Gellibrand for raising this important motion that acknowledges the 40th anniversary of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. I would also like to acknowledge my coalition colleagues the members for Hughes, Reid and Hasluck, who will also be speaking on this motion, together with the members for Greenway, Melbourne Ports and Fowler. All of them are regular contributors to any conversation or debate in this place that deals with the elimination of discrimination, the promotion of multiculturalism and the protection of human rights.

The Racial Discrimination Act was enacted in response to the Liberal-Nationals government's signing of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in1966. The convention formalised our nation's position to promote and encourage universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion. This legislation was followed by laws to protect against sexual discrimination, age discrimination and disability discrimination with the Human Rights Commission, formed as a statutory authority to oversee and investigate complaints made under these laws. Last year the Abbott government commenced a community consultation process to look at clause 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act to ensure that it was fulfilling its core objectives while also achieving a fine balance with protection for an individual's freedom of speech.

As a result of this process I reached out to the many groups that make up my multicultural electorate and facilitated dozens of conversations on this issue. From community leaders to independent media to school groups, we debated and discussed the importance of protecting both these areas: the grey area that sometimes occupied the space and the challenge to lawmakers to fulfil our democratic responsibility to represent the views of the majority whilst protecting the needs of the minority.

Bennelong is truly a microcosm of multicultural Australia. Our region is blessed with vibrant Chinese and Korean communities occupying each side of the railway tracks in Eastwood. To walk down Rowe Street is akin to being transported to Shanghai or Seoul—without the high rises! As a result of these discussions, I formed the strong view that, when this grey area is encountered, it is our responsibility as lawmakers to stand firmly side by side with our minority groups to ensure that their rights—that everyone's rights—are protected and that no-one should be subject to any form of discrimination because of their race, gender, age, religion or sexual orientation.

Our nation, like so many, does not have a proud colonial history when it comes to the treatment of minority groups, whether it be embracing our Indigenous heritage or working together with Chinese migrants in the goldfields. My first motion in this place celebrated the impact of Chinese migration on Australian society over the past 200 years. Whilst we should never forget tragic incidents like the Lambing Flat riots just over 150 years ago, it is just as important that we celebrate the society we have formed today and the great levels of cross-cultural respect that are on display every day in my Bennelong electorate.

The legislation that we celebrate today has helped to create the modern day dynamic where we celebrate and extoll the virtues of cultural diversity. But these laws have also happened as a result of cultural change. In my previous career I witnessed this change and evolution firsthand. Althea Gibson was the first Black American to win Wimbledon. She was able to have success in Australia and Britain long before she could in the US. She said of playing in Sydney that it was the first time she was able to have a milkshake and a hamburger and know what it was like to feel white. Years later Arthur Ashe, who also won Wimbledon and was a great black American player, was the first allowed to play in South Africa. He did so on the agreement that the crowds had to be integrated. This was one of the first proactive steps of using sport to force this integration. Not long after, when we were playing in Richmond, he was allowed to practise at the Richmond Country Club, where his father had once been a janitor and where black people were not allowed to be members.

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