Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Words spoken in this chamber ricochet around this country, and they tear at our social fabric. A few moments ago, I saw the shadow minister for immigration stand up and discuss a detainee who had been released on an order by the High Court of Australia and how he had breached his monitoring conditions. But that's not exactly what he said. What he chose to do—and it was a choice—was to add the prefix of this man's ethnicity. This man was a Sudanese man. There was no need to introduce this man's ethnicity into the mix, and let me tell you why.

I know what racism looks like. From the moment my skin started to darken, which was when I was a baby—I was born white—racism has stalked me my whole life. But it is much worse for people who do not have the privilege of being in the House of Representatives. It is much worse for marginalised groups in this country, like the Sudanese community, a group of proud Australians who have come to this country to rebuild their lives, fleeing a war which has gone on for decades, which is now classified as a genocide. These people have made significant contributions to our country—people like Nyadol. These people have given back to this country and raised it up.

I want to read something out to you:

THIS week, another Sudanese youth was bashed in a racially motivated attack. Kevin Andrews could have been a force for good by appealing to the generosity of spirit within Australians towards the underdog. Instead he has stirred xenophobia and racism. As the Minister for Immigration, he should be building bridges between people, not further marginalising them. A politician in a moment can irreparably damage the reputation of a people and sour any goodwill between them and the broader community, but what recourse do they have against the crushing might of the Federal Government?

Many African refugees have survived unspeakable suffering that most of us can never really understand only to come to a country and have a federal minister inflict another hell upon them for political gain. Mr Andrews you caused this mess, now fix it.

Who wrote that? I wrote that. I wrote that in 2007. It was published in a newspaper, the Age. I've seen this movie before.

This debate demeans this House, and it demeans this nation, which was built off the back of migrants—waves and waves of migrants who have come to this country fleeing wars and conflicts and unspeakable horror, like the Holocaust and genocides in Sudan. These people live and work and walk among us. In fact, one in two Australians were born overseas or have a parent who was born overseas. In Higgins, that number is 32 per cent.

You are weaponising this issue, which you know full well was a decision made by the High Court. This parliament scrambled to try and put guardrails around the discharge of these people into the community. We did our level best, and we thank the opposition for working with us. But now you choose—and it is a choice—to weaponise this by demonising and dehumanising asylum seekers. They are people fleeing conflicts. People in my electorate care about that stuff, and so do most Australians. Why? Because we all know immigrants. We all know refugees. We all know people who have rebuilt their lives after fleeing elsewhere and coming here. The tone of who we are as a country is very much laid out in this building and in this chamber. You can choose what complexion that should be. Is it going to be the face of racism and xenophobia? Or is it going to be one of inclusion, warmth and care? That is what I experienced as a child migrant coming to this country. It is what enabled me to thrive, and it is what I see us Australians as.

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