Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Gellibrand for bringing this motion forward. When we consider the history of Australia, particularly the white Australia policy, which Harold Holt abolished, we find that we set in place a mindset around the differences between the cultural groups that reside in this country. The Racial Discrimination Act was an endeavour to set that aside. It is a pity we do not think about people in their capacity as an individual, and the qualities and the richness they have within themselves, and the way in which their ethnicity has shaped the essence of who they are. If we set aside the fact of colour, race or whatever that creates biases then we would not need a racial discrimination act.

I went back to the Attorney-General at the time, Mr Enderby, and read extracts of his second reading. He said, 'The purpose of this bill is to make racial discrimination unlawful in Australia and to provide an effective means of combating racial prejudice in our country.' So he acknowledged it existed. He went on: 'The bill introduces into Australian law for the first time the obligations contained in the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. It is asserted in this convention that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and the rights that any doctrine of superiority based on racial differentiation is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust and dangerous. Without any justification, I hardly need to say that I am sure that all members would agree with this.'

He then went on to say: 'These will make people more aware of the evils, the undesirable and unsociable consequences of discrimination, the hurtful consequences of discrimination and make them more obvious and conspicuous. In this regard, the bill will perform an important educative role. In addition, the introduction of legislation will furnish legal background on which to rest charges, reflecting basic community attitudes. The fact that racial discrimination is unlawful will make it easier for people to resist social pressures that result in discrimination.'

I now refer to the Human Rights Commission report Racist violence: report of the national inquiry into racist violence in Australia, initiated by HREOC in 1988 following representations to it about an apparent increase in the incidence of racially motivated violence in Australia. The findings of the national inquiry included:

Racist violence is an endemic problem for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in all Australian States and Territories.

Racist attitudes and practices (conscious and unconscious) pervade our institutions, both public and private.

On the whole, public authorities do not respond effectively to reports of racist violence.

If we consider those in the context of a contemporary Australian society then the impact of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 has brought us a long way forward from where we were. When we consider the impact of the white Australia policy on our northern neighbours and the removal of that by Harold Holt, it changed the make-up of the fabric of a community in which we now readily accept diversity and the qualities that each of those diverse groups bring in the way of food, culture, dance and those things that they deem important.

What is more interesting in the make-up of our society now is the way in which the inclusive nature is much more prevalent than it was when I was a child and the way in which the freedoms that we have are celebrated. The distinctiveness of groups is celebrated annually in many of the events that I attend within my electorate, as of those of many of my colleagues in this chamber. The debates around the importance of section 18C will continue for some time until we as a parliament mature in the way in which we see freedom of speech in respect to the respecting the dignity and the rights of others who are very different to each and every one of us.

In its 40 years, the Racial Discrimination Act has taken us from a point where we did not support the individualism of a particular ethnic group to where we now accept a society that is truly multicultural, that is accepting of diversity and in which we now celebrate our differences in a way that we never used to. I commend this motion to the chamber and I thank the member for Gellibrand.

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