Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday the Australian public saw, in full flight, the ugly face of the Howard government on issues of racism. The Minister for Health and Ageing stood at the dispatch box and exposed himself for what he is—a narrow-minded man with no real sense of what it means to be an Australian. He is not fit to serve in cabinet and the Prime Minister should repudiate him for his disgusting slur on millions of Australians. Not only should the Prime Minister call him into line but also he should be counselled by many of his coalition colleagues. Will the member for Petrie, Ms Gambaro, stand up and be counted? What about the member for Kooyong, Mr Petro Georgiou? Will he speak out? Will the member for Ryan, Mr Michael Johnson, have anything to say? What about the member for Indi, Ms Sophie Panopoulos? Will she chime in and set the minister straight? I know she is not backward in coming forward. Tonight, I urge them to stand up and be counted. I urge them to show some leadership and reject what Mr Abbott had to say on race. If they do not, they are guilty of perpetuating the narrow-minded sentiment which has no place in Australian society and certainly no place in our national parliament.

Where are the true Liberals who are prepared to stand up for the true Australian ideals of equity and egalitarianism? I find offensive the notion that if you are not of Anglo-Celtic origin you are not Australian. It is absurd to suggest, as Mr Abbott did, that anyone from a migrant background is not a real Australian. It is reprehensible for Mr Abbott to claim that Australians of Greek, Spanish, Cambodian and Vietnamese background are not real Australians.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member will refer to the minister by his title.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Industry, Infrastructure and Industrial Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are not two classes of citizens in Australia and, by the way, every voter in the ALP is an Australian citizen. The minister always goes one step too far. And now he has revealed the ugly racist core at the heart of the Howard government. And the Prime Minister sat by and did nothing. We all know why he did—the Prime Minister has form—but tonight I call on other true Liberals to stand up and be counted. This has only one effect. It divides Australia. Australians want and expect true leadership—the sort of leadership that will unite us, not turn us on ourselves. If the minister is not prepared to provide that, or if he is simply incapable of doing so, then he should go. There are not two classes of people in this country. The Labor Party knows and understands that. The denigration and use of people’s ethnicity, whether they are in the Labor Party, the Liberal Party or any other party, is a low act. By saying that Greek Australians, Vietnamese Australians, Cambodian Australians and Spanish Australians, because of their membership of the Labor Party, are not real Australians, the minister has insulted all Australians—he has insulted me.

I can imagine no greater fear for those such as my family or I who were born overseas than to be taunted by a minister as not being a real Australian. For me this is reminiscent of some days at school where the only power left for a bully was to poke fun at a person’s ethnicity, to taunt at difference, to diminish and to ridicule not for anything that was done but just for being born in another country or for looking different. I am sure that Australians from other countries that the minister referred to know exactly what I am referring to because they have to live with this every day of their lives—and, while it is not acceptable, it is endured by many and often silently. These Australians from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, some who were born in Australia and others who were born overseas, are as Australian as the members of parliament who were born overseas or who are second, third or fourth generation Australians. But for this behaviour and these comments to be promoted in the people’s house by a minister is the real offence.

Minister Abbott’s comments fuel and excuse the few in the community that believe its okay to speak like this or to act like this and to denigrate people like this. Let us not, whether here in our national parliament or in streets around the country, lose sight of who we are. Let us not forget whom we represent and to whom we in this parliament are accountable. The Australian people deserve and expect better.

In closing, I want to remind those present, and in particular the Minister for Health and Ageing, of just a few things which the Labor Party holds dear and which you can find in our national platform. The Australian Labor Party refuses to manipulate fear or racism for political gain—the complete opposite in fact of what was done by the minister. Labor seeks to encourage greater dialogue and cooperation between different religious faiths and national ethnic organisations. Labor believes that citizenship is the common bond that unites us all in a mutual commitment to Australia. The minister for health, Mr Abbott, would be well advised to subscribe to these values and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, at the table, would be well advised to listen very carefully to the words I have said and not think that they are some outrageous comment on what took place. There are many people who did take offence because we know exactly what the minister for health was actually doing. It is a careful political strategy, one that he may cleverly think gains him a few votes in an isolated area in isolated communities, but it was an act perpetrated in the people’s house which was uncalled for, unwarranted and very ugly.