Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the day that the Attorney-General defended bigots in the Senate, a woman came into my electorate office visibly shaken. She had been racially abused in Clayton Road and she had confronted her abusers. The person who had abused her said, 'We're allowed to do this now because of George Brandis.'

Communities like the one I represent in Hotham are the chief beneficiaries of the success of Australian multiculturalism. But they are also the communities with the most to lose if we allow protections against racism in Australia to be destroyed.

When people in my community of Hotham heard about the changes that were taking place I was contacted by scores of them to ask that I stand up for them in this chamber and fight for the protection of that community. I ran a community forum, which the shadow Attorney-General attended. There were more than 100 people there, who came together to talk about what we can do—not to destroy protections against racism in this country but to strengthen them. Many of those people have made their own intelligent and passionate submissions to the Attorney-General's process. I also made a submission on behalf of the people of Hotham. But, as with so many of the radical ideological changes that this government is attempting to undertake—whether it be destroying Medicare, making cuts to the age pension or taking away protections for young people—Australians are just not with the government. People across the country are contacting me to say that this is not a country that they recognise and 18C is a part of those changes.