Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has now been over three years since the member for Warringah, then Prime Minister Abbott, and the coalition formed government. Every sitting week, 226 elected representatives and hundreds more staff members turn up to parliament to deal with the coalition's agenda. For more than 50 sitting weeks since this government was first elected, we have rocked up in this place to represent our communities, charged with the responsibility to use this place and its power and our parliament to do what we can to help make people's lives easier and better, to help improve our community and our world.

But the government do not do that. They do not seem to take this responsibility seriously. Having formed government and been given the power and opportunity to change our politics and society for the better, the government squander it away. I would say it is a waste of resources, but it is much worse. It is their conscious decision to use their position to divide, to rule for the select few, that makes me angry.

Under their watch, the gap between the rich and everybody else is growing. The steps we have taken to grow a clean economy have been reversed. Opportunities to extend equality to everyone have been turned into hurtful reminders that the members of the government actually do not believe that everyone is equal. Week after week, the government bring us here to dish up welfare cut after welfare cut, trying to slash support for people in the community who need it most while they hand out billions in tax cuts to the wealthiest few and the big banks and attempt to spend $50 billion in tax cuts to big business. Instead of using the power of parliament to crack down on large or multinational tax avoiders or those parliamentarians who are doing the wrong thing, they call special sittings of parliament and a double-dissolution election in an attack on unions, the very organisations that are fighting to protect and support working Australians.

They have turned Australia from being a world leader on strong climate action to an embarrassing laggard. Instead of making big polluters pay the public for the dirty pollution they pump out, they have now started making the public pay the big polluters. And, when the government are asked about the climate damage that the science says our homes, businesses and infrastructure will all suffer, they laugh—they literally laugh.

When they have the opportunity to legislate for meaningful marriage equality, they kick change down the road by coming up with a plan for a wasteful, hateful, non-binding opinion poll. They try to cut paid parental leave for new mums and dads and fall over themselves to suck up to the misogynist race-baiter Donald Trump. Instead of leading every Australian, regardless of their race or faith, they deliberately seek to exclude and divide. They lock up indefinitely in island prisons the people who have come to this country seeking our help.

Under this government, you get your universal and inalienable human rights only if you are a straight white man. Never was this clearer than in this place yesterday, when, during question time, the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection, the member for Dickson, singled out a section of our community, saying it was a mistake to allow their grandparents and their parents to become part of our community over the last 50 years. When we thought he could not go any lower, the member for Dickson said in parliament:

The reality is Malcolm Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in the 1970s and we're seeing that today …

He then went on to single out people with a Lebanese Muslim background and said:

Where I see extremism, I will call it out.

Well, Minister, where I see racism, I will call it out, and this is pure, blatant, disgusting racism. You talk about extremism, Minister, but what you are talking about smacks of white extremism. Here we have a minister being deliberately divisive and inflammatory for purely political purposes. Here we have an elected representative using his platform to stoke hatred and fear in our community.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I caution the member for Melbourne. He needs to be well aware that he cannot reflect on members of parliament.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am referring to what the minister has said in this parliament and how he has used this parliament.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have cautioned the member for Melbourne on his language.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In their attempt to chase the One Nation vote, this government is becoming One Nation. And when it comes to multiculturalism it is worth remembering that we are where we are today in part because of the brave leadership of former prime minister Malcolm Fraser. When it came to multiculturalism, he was a giant. Unfortunately, in this place today, we have the likes of the member for Dickson. When you reflect on what he said, he is a very small man willing to use race to win votes. And we have a Prime Minister who refuses to call out this race-baiting. Shame on both of them! The standard that you walk past is the standard you accept, Prime Minister; and I cannot wait until the day we see the backs of all of this front bench.