Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to start by reiterating some of the sentiments of the previous speaker. We want this motion to be unanimous and we want people in this parliament to support the spirit and ideals of the motion. One of the best ways to get there is not to use it as an opportunity for partisan political discussions designed to divide society but to focus on how we are all coming together as a country. Hopefully, every member of the House of Representatives appeals to the idea that we are all equal before the law and everybody has a place in this country regardless of their background. This is not an opportunity for members to score cheap political points because they think it will get them some attention in a newspaper or enable them to go off and send messages to one section of the community or another, as part of their grandstanding exercise, rather than focus on things that improve the human condition. And that is where I was disappointed with the previous speaker and the way he conducted himself. In the end, he was not focusing on what we could do to bring the parliament together and support this motion unanimously. He used it as an opportunity to grandstand so that he himself could score cheap political points. And that is exactly what this motion is designed to stop.

This motion is designed to focus on how we bring the country together and move it forward together. When you look through the principles that underpin it, it is extremely straightforward. It is based on a motion that was passed 20 years ago, through the leadership of John Howard. It is a motion to reaffirm our commitment to 'the right of all Australians to enjoy equal rights and be treated with equal respect regardless of their background'. We all agree. It is a motion to reaffirm our commitment to 'maintaining an immigration policy that is wholly non-discriminatory on grounds of race, colour, creed or origin'. Let's face it, it should also include any other irrelevant attributes. It also says:

(3) reaffirms its commitment to the process of reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in the context of redressing their profound social and economic disadvantage;

(4) reaffirms its commitment to maintaining Australia as a culturally diverse, tolerant and open society, united by an overriding commitment to our nation, and its democratic institutions and values; and

(5) denounces racial intolerance in any form as incompatible with the kind of society we are and want to be.

At every point, all I have heard from people on the government side—all the ministers, all the members of parliament—has been a commitment to that process and a commitment to those ideals and values. When we use it as an opportunity to divide because we think we score cheap political points it is not just that we distract from the central thrust of it, it is that we undermine and send a message, somehow, to the rest of the community that these values are not shared and extolled. That is why this government takes values and principles so strongly—as do I. In fact, these values in many ways are some of the key reasons that I sought to enter public life in the first place. Because there is no place in society for people to face marginalisation or exclusion simply because of who they are and the basis of how they live their lives.

What we want is a society where everybody feels an equal investment and an opportunity to contribute, both economically and socially, to build this country from the bottom up, where we have individuals who come together to form families, community and ultimately country. That is the type of country we want to be. That is how we achieve a more just society. It is about how we take everybody forward together.

We know full well that we still have enormous challenges, particularly with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, in making sure that they can move forward together as part of Australian society around issues of health and economic disadvantage. That is why as Human Rights Commissioner I was very proud to work on issues directly around improving the economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and enabling them to use their land and property rights to achieve greater economic participation, not just as an end in itself but so that we could go on and build opportunities for a greater social dividend for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly those outside capital cities. I was very happy to enjoy the support of the Attorney-General, George Brandis, and the government in doing that work, because there was so much advantage to it. I might add that I had the support also of many senior Indigenous leaders.

That is how you take a country forward together. It is not done by focusing on points of negativity and division to try to achieve some political exercise. You take a country forward together by focusing on the points that unite us as a country and, as the motion says at the end, appeals to our idea of the kind of society and country that we want to be. That is why this government has had such a generous and ongoing commitment to a non-discriminatory global humanitarian program. That commitment, despite the hyperbole and the vented and confected outrage that, let's face it, has come from some of the other speakers, remains utterly resolute from the minister as well as from the government.

Last financial year the government delivered a total refugee and humanitarian program of 17,555 places, which included 15,502 offshore places. That is the largest offshore intake in Australia in 30 years, and was done under this current minister. Australia's annual refugee and humanitarian program is set to grow to 18,750 by 2018-19. That is one of the most generous permanent resettlement programs in the world. We achieve that because we have a strong border protection, we have a commitment from the government to make sure that people smugglers are not rewarded and we have now, to the government's great credit, efforts to resettle in the United States as well as potentially other countries people who were held in offshore detention.

You cannot build public confidence and public support for higher rates of migration, generally, as well as for helping people who are seeking asylum from across the world unless the public believes that the borders are secure, that there is a process by which people are treated equally and with dignity and that people's assessment of their claims is based on the legitimacy of their claims, not on their process of arrival. That is what this government has achieved and is one of its great achievements and legacies that it will continue to contribute to the development of this great country. By maintaining public confidence in this issue of border security, which is so vital, the government has continued to be able to offer 16,350 visas since July 2015 to those displaced by the conflict in Syria and Iraq—helping people based on legitimacy of their need, not on the process of their arrival. We have also had been able to offer 5,490 people who have been interviewed and assessed as meeting the threshold requirements for a visa and are awaiting the outcomes of health, character and security checks. These new Australians—new Australians—will be provided with the best opportunity to start productive lives and reach their full potential. That is what we want—that is something that is good for our country. Those are the values and the spirit the motion the Prime Minister has moved and which we are debating and discussing, and hopefully supporting, very much seeks to achieve.

The government is proudly sustaining our world-class resettlement services. Entrants are eligible for the same social service benefits as other humanitarian entrants, including Medicare, income support payments, English language tuition, torture and trauma counselling and settlement services. The objective of that is to take people and to enable them to best integrate into Australian society, and then go on and live productive lives. That again goes to the heart and the spirit of the program of the government, but equally what it seeks to achieve when we bring people here is that they can be full participants as new Australians. We are committed to enabling these new Australians to become self-reliant, to stand on their own two feet, not just so they can take care of themselves, though that is very important, but so they can assist those who come in similar waves of migration to contribute to this great country and participate equally in all of Australian society.

That is at the heart of what liberalism is—it is a political philosophy built on the idea and the capacity of the individual to make their maximum contribution, to live their lives and be able to make their commitment and contribution to our society. That is why the spirit of this motion goes to the heart of liberalism itself—not labourism, which in the past, sadly, has been at times deliberately exclusionary—which focuses on those uniting principles that bind all people, that sit in the heart of Liberal philosophy and that motivate us, including yourself, Mr Deputy Speaker, to leave our community and come onto the national stage and be able to reaffirm those basic commitments of liberty for all. That is why I support this motion. I hope other members of this House do. In fact, I agree with the aspirations of the previous speaker, the member for Watson, and my hope is that support for this motion is achieved unanimously. In the end it does send a message about the type of country we want to be—united, focused on the future and building the potential of every single Australian, new or old, to contribute to this great country. (Time expired)

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