Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the following remarks made by Paul Howes, the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union and a member of the government’s Future Manufacturing Industry Innovation Council. He is reported as saying:

We’re talking about (78) people on a boat. When you compare that to 50,000 visa overstayers, I reckon a lot of those visa overstayers are white …

And I reckon there’s not much concern about those visa overstayers because they are white.

Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the implication that Australians are racist is offensive? Will he disassociate himself from those remarks?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First of all, I have had a few things on today and I have not seen his remarks, but he is—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, I am just saying that I have not. But, secondly, if they are correctly paraphrased—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am just saying I have not seen his remarks. I am being completely straight with you. I have not seen what he said. It does not surprise me what the given individual might be saying in any public policy debate on any given day. He has a habit of expressing his views in his own way.

My own view is that in Australia there is a strong, fundamental tradition of racial tolerance and inclusion, of which all Australians are proud. It is not my view that there is a racist sentiment in the Australian society. It is my view that this country is built on a culture of tolerance—one which embraces our neighbours; one which seeks to include people from different ethnic origins; one which seeks to embrace properly, through our orderly refugee program. It is a culture in which we can say to those who come here from offshore: your future in this country can be part of the nation-building program of Australia’s 21st century. Ours is a nation which brings all peoples from the world together in one and forges our one Australia. That is the one that I believe in.