Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to start by commending the committee for limiting its recommendations to procedural matters and for not recommending any implicit changes to 18C and 18D. In particular, I commend the recommendation by the committee to support, strengthen and develop education programs to address racism in Australian society and to address the scope of the meaning of the Racial Discrimination Act, which was recommendation 1 of the report.

I also commend the second recommendation, that recognises the profound impacts of serious forms of racism, something which those on the other side seem to think are invisible, and calls for leaders and politicians—leaders and politicians!—to exercise their freedom of speech to identify and condemn racially hateful and discriminatory speech where it occurs in public. Again, that is something that is missed by those on the other side.

I take that responsibility very seriously, and I issue a challenge for those on the other side to also take it seriously, because apart from a very few shining examples on the backbench, the leadership of this government has remained silent, and that silence is dangerous. It is dangerous because it gives a tacit nod to racism. It gives a tacit nod to the experiences of hundreds of thousands of Australians in their electorates who every day come face to face with the scourge of racism in this country. It gives a tacit nod to people who misguidedly believe that their skin colour makes them superior. Or, in the words of the member for Moore yesterday, more 'mainstream' than somebody with my skin colour, for example.

And I must take the member for Moore to task for his assertion yesterday that mainstream Australians are affected by reverse racism on two points. First of all, that racism is racism is racism. 'Reverse' racism is often used to differentiate racism that is directed towards a dominant group in a society. But whether the offence comes from a radical Islamic preacher sprouting his hatred at people of other races or from a mediocre, has-been cartoonist who thinks it is amusing to express his agreement with ISIS—and I must note that Ms Flint did not mention him in her diatribe in defence of cartoonists—18C is there to protect everyone and 18D is there to protect free speech.

Secondly, when it comes to Australia, the 'mainstream' that the member for Moore alluded to is in fact a mainstream that is inherently multicultural and inherently multiracial, no matter what one may think. It was heartening to see the breadth of submissions to the joint committee inquiry, as much as it was saddening to see just how pervasive racism is in this country and the impact that it has had on diverse groups: the Greeks, the Italians, the Jewish community, Indigenous Australians and others. These people are not the minority to be relegated to some category of 'other', that is outside of the so-called 'mainstream'. They are the heart and the soul of this nation. And no matter how hard those on the other side like to imagine it, that dream that they have of white Australia never was and it never will be.

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