Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

This is an important debate, and I'm pleased to have the opportunity to rise to participate in it. I've been equally pleased to be present for the remarks of a number of my colleagues—the member for Canberra, the member for Perth and the member for Macnamara. I associate myself with their remarks and, of course, those of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Labor Party.

For me, this debate is an opportunity for us in this place to express two things: our solidarity and our resolve. Both matter, and in my contribution I'll try, very briefly, to touch on why I think this is the case. Unlike my friend the member for McNamara, I don't represent a particularly significant Ukrainian Australian community. But, as Labor's shadow minister for multicultural affairs, I have had the opportunity—indeed, the privilege—to spend a lot of time recently listening to the voices of Australians of Ukrainian background. I have participated in some very moving occasions in the nature of those the member for Perth spoke about, be they church services or other community gatherings. I want to share with the chamber a couple of those occasions—firstly, a beautiful service at St Patrick's in Melbourne. It was well attended by the diaspora community—

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As I was saying, I was privileged to attend a very moving service at St Patrick 's Cathedral, around the corner from the state parliament house in Melbourne. I was gratified to see so many representatives of the wider community and faith leaders and political leaders in solidarity.

I also want to mention a very significant event in the Victorian calendar, the Multicultural Gala Dinner, which took place a couple of weeks ago. The dinner was addressed by the Premier and by the Leader of the Opposition in Victoria, Matthew Guy, who is of Ukrainian heritage. They both made very significant and passionate contributions in recognition of the challenges the diaspora community are facing as they confront the rolling images of a horrific, unjustified and unjustifiable conflict that brings home so many awful feelings beyond those which horrify the rest of us who lack that personal connection. That bipartisan commitment—indeed, multipartisan commitment—is I think what this debate also demonstrates in this House: a shared solidarity to the people of Ukraine but also recognising the extraordinary challenges that are faced by Australians who have Ukrainian heritage, for whom this conflict is all too close.

I have had the opportunity to listen to many Ukrainian Australians in recent days. I want to briefly reflect on a conversation I had with a young woman who came to see me in my office in Parliament House with Amnesty. I think my friend the member for Newcastle may also share some of these reflections. I was struck first and foremost by her strength and her courage, but also by how obvious it was that she was so affected by the challenge of conveying to me—and, no doubt, to others in this place—exactly what this meant to her; how the quotidian events of life in her home country had been so brutally upended and how the days that were marked on her calendar as significant family occasions had been replaced by a creeping sense of dread, of hopelessness and of powerlessness.

I hope, in this place, we can attend to those feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness. I don't think any of us presume to have all the answers to end that horrible conflict, but we know that, by showing the resolve that we—the government and the Labor opposition—have been showing, we can go some way towards that, in our expressions of humanitarian aid and indeed our support for lethal aid in these circumstances. I think all of us believe that is warranted.

In our recognition of the fact that Europe is facing the largest forced movement of people since World War II, and we are, as responsible international citizens and signatories of the convention, required to take the steps that we can do, to assist these people who've been forced to flee their homeland and ask for help, I am pleased to see the commitments in the budget—

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