Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an address I wish I did not have to give. When I was elected first to this parliament, I was elected as the member for Parramatta, and I was the member for four years. I latterly represented the electorate of Dundas. Much of the community of the city of Parramatta was in the seat that I represented. My children went to school in Parramatta. The church which we went to was the cathedral church of St John's. So I do have many friends and many linkages with this great city, and I lament very much the events that have recently and so tragically impacted upon this great centre.

First, I would like to offer my personal condolences to Curtis Cheng's family and to the New South Wales Police Force, who lost one of their own. Just that week I had attended a National Police Remembrance Day service, at which both the Commissioner of Police and the Premier stated that they hoped no more names would need to be added to the wall commemorating lost police. Regrettably, this was not to be so. Curtis Cheng was killed in an act of terrorism by a radicalised youth.

This is a concern that many of us have had over a long period of time, but it is a concern I want to express in the context of the nature of our society—the very special society it is. We are a country that is unique in the world. We have settled people who have come from almost every nation of the world, every culture and every faith, and, while we are not perfect, I think we have done it better than they have done it anywhere else in the world. There are some reasons for that. They involve the commitment of members in this place and elsewhere. It is part of the National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia, which I believe was written by Sir James Gobbo, that we see sets the framework for a society that is able to work as ours does.

I note from time to time that that agenda specifies first and foremost a commitment to Australia, this nation and its future; our system of government, parliamentary democracy; the rule of law; gender equality; and English as the national language. But it also specifies that we have to respect people from wherever they have come, whatever their differences. We only ask of them that they also offer respect to all others, and this makes us the very unique nation that we are, a very special place. We welcome people of every faith, and that is fundamental. But not every individual is committed to this nation and those principles that I have articulated. They may not be many, but it is an issue that we need to deal with.

Tonight I want to congratulate a young Muslim man—not so young these days—who I think has been extraordinarily courageous, and that is Neil El-Kadomi, the chair of the Parramatta prayer hall—the Parramatta Mosque, as it is called. The young man who committed this act was said to have changed there and worshipped there—he was not necessarily radicalised there. But Neil El-Kadomi has been one who has been forthright in defending the values of this society, what we stand for. That task for him has not been an easy task. I have known Neil El-Kadomi and his family over a long period of time, as have others that I know, and I commend him for what he is doing. I am pleased that the Premier and others have commended him, and I hope other members who want to be associated with supporting our society at a difficult time.