Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is interesting to speak after such an outlandish outburst from the member for Gellibrand. This is a difficult and sensitive debate, but it is a debate that we must have without the type of rabblerousing, accusations of racism and Islamophobic statements we just heard from the member for Gellibrand. As the member for Dawson's motion notes, we have had serious terrorist incidents in this country over recent years. One of those occurred in my electorate, in Holsworthy. In 2009, there was a plan to attack the Holsworthy Barracks with automatic weapons. The perpetrators' plan was to murder as many people as they possibly could until they themselves were shot and killed by security forces. When Justice Betty King sentenced three individuals to 18 years imprisonment, she added that they were all unrepentant radical Muslims who would remain a threat as long as they held those extremist views.

These terror plots that have recently occurred in our country have all had one thread in common: they have been undertaken in the name of a radical interpretation of Islam. If we are going to have this debate—and it is a debate that we must have—we must do it without being bogged down and censored by the tyranny of political correctness. I believe we are slowly turning the corner and overcoming that tyranny of political correctness.

I will give you one example. Earlier this year, there was a T-shirt being sold in Woolworths that had the words, 'If you don't love it, leave.' Somehow, the politically correct found this offensive and carried on a massive song and dance until Woolworths removed those shirts, called them 'the offending T-shirts' and apologised. Several months forward, we can see how things have moved on. Our Prime Minister said only recently:

It is not compulsory to live in Australia, if you find Australian values are … unpalatable, then there's a big … world out there and people have got freedom of movement.

That may be a little bit more verbose, but it is exactly the same as saying, 'If you don't love it, leave.' I wonder if, next Australia Day, Woolworths will be selling T-shirts quoting the words of our Prime Minister.

The other reason that we need to have this debate is that, if we continue on our current path, we know what the future will be. The future will be what we see in the town of Molenbeek in Brussels. I think Mark Steyn summed it up correctly. He said, 'The barbarians are inside, and there are no gates.'

This generation of politicians cannot allow this happen to our country. What do we need to do? We need to tighten our migration policies. We need to admit that we have made mistakes in the past by allowing people who hold values completely contrary to everything that most Australians hold dear to migrate to this country. We need to say that if you want to migrate to this country and if you oppose democracy, if you have some sympathy for Islamic State, if you seek to advance sharia law, if you are against equal rights for women and if you do not share the Western freedoms and values that we enjoy, then Australia is not the country for you to migrate to. As our Prime Minister says, there is a big wide world out there, and people have freedom of movement.

Secondly, we need to tackle this anti-Western ideology that permeates many sections of our society. It is too easy to malign our Australian Defence Force and many people do so. We, every member of parliament, need to be crystal clear: when our Australian Defence Force personnel fight overseas, they are only there to protect innocent civilians from murder and rape. We need to talk up the principles and the liberal values that have created the wonderful society that we enjoy and that people from all around the world try to migrate to. (Time expired)

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