Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Friday I appeared on Al-Jazeera’s panel program 101 East as a one of a group of people being interviewed, with Flinders Street Station in the background, by the very competent host, Fauziah Ibrahim. The program, on the topic of violence against Indian students, will air this Thursday on that network.

Some people, including friends of mine in the Victorian government, were a bit shocked by the column written by the foreign affairs editor of the Australian, Greg Sheridan, which appeared in last Saturday’s edition of the Weekend Australian. I do not think there has been a stronger, or some might say ‘more strident’, identification of the problems in Victoria than that article by Mr Sheridan. I welcome Greg Sheridan’s column. I think it is a wake-up call to all of us that these kinds of things have to be addressed in a very serious way. Of course, these have been mostly opportunistic attacks on Indian students, who were working at late-night convenience stores or in taxis. Of course, Australia is basically a tolerant country. However, when people are simply walking through parks late at night and are stabbed to death, as poor Mr Nitin Garg was, it is simply foolish to say that there is no racial motivation in these attacks. How would any of us parliamentarians or public officials know that? We were not at the scene of the crime. It is much better to leave claims and protestations that these attacks are not racist out of one’s remarks.

I think General Cosgrove, the former Defence Force chief, set a much better tone in his Australia Day address, which was entitled ‘Sunshine and shade’. He said:

I sense in relation to the spate of attacks on … Indian people, in Melbourne and elsewhere, Australians are very concerned and disinclined to downplay, much less dismiss, the potential ‘racist’ elements of what has become a litany of criminality.

The problem for us is that the criminal incidents are cowardly and sly and it is easy to conclude that they are racially targeted.

We are all dismayed that there might be some kind of warped campaign in progress.

He said the vast majority of Australians totally rejected such despicable behaviour and would welcome the rigorous prosecution of those ‘preying on these visitors’.

I also welcome the speech of the Minister for Foreign Affairs last night which is another attempt to seriously address these issues by examining all of the nature of our relationship with India, including our strategic relationship. The member for Perth recounted very calmly the number of police prosecutions against people who have attacked Indian visitors in Australia or Indian-Australian citizens. The foreign minister showed the seriousness we need to show in confronting racism when he recounted the improvements to legislation in Victoria that will finally, after pressure that should have been accepted earlier, include racial violence as an extra crime. (Time expired)

Ms Anna Burke (Chisholm, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In respect of the member for Moncrieff’s petition, I have found it has not been to the committee. I must advise that the document will be forwarded to the Standing Committee on Petitions for its consideration and will be accepted subject to confirmation by the committee that it confirms with standing orders.