Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Immigration and Border Protection confirmed yesterday that he believed that tens of thousands of Lebanese who migrated to Australia were a mistake, because 22 of their grandchildren had been charged with terrorist offences. By this twisted logic, all migration from the UK would be a mistake, because David Hicks was charged with terror offences.

The Minister has displayed a breathtaking ignorance of the success of generations of Lebanese Australians, the success of people like former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, Australia Post CEO Ahmed Fahour Richmond footballer Bachar Houliorr and my mate David Basheer at SBS.

It was during the early 1970s that my parents also were able to escape a war-torn Middle East for a life of peace and security in Australia. Like millions of migrants, including the Lebanese, they worked hard and made a contribution to their adopted country, instilling in us, the next generation of Australians, the importance of giving something back to the country that gave us such an opportunity.

The minister refused to apologise for his offensive comments; he doubled down. It was a pathetic, sad attempt at divisive politics. He may seek to distract from the myriad failings occurring under this government, but, in doing so, he causes enormous damage to our social cohesion. Worse, he has abrogated his responsibility as Minister for Immigration to bring Australians together. Rather, he has chosen to divide us through fearmongering.

And I ask the Minister for Immigration: does he believe, as he does for the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Australians, that letting my family migrate from Egypt to this country was a mistake?

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On that same topic, the ministerial statement this week—the truthful statement—that 22 of 33, or two-thirds of all terror-related offences, are directly related to one ethno-religious group is just that—truth. We are in a nation that, no matter uncomfortable, has to be able to express the truth. It is prima facie correct, and we, as a nation, need the public interest to decide how important that information is. The minister does not deserve to be criticised by those who do not agree with him.

Ms Ryan interjecting—

I listened politely to you and I ask Labor to listen politely to me, instead of shutting me down with a gobful.

In this dialectic, our failure to engage this reality makes our nation weaker—

Ms Ryan interjecting—

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Lalor.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, I ask Labor to listen as I did to them. If any religious and ethnic group that represents less than half a per cent of our population gets twice the number of carer payments, three times the number of disability payments, twice the amount of Newstart payments, are 94 per cent unemployed when they arrive and remain at 80 per cent two to nine years later, we need to talk about that. It is a failure as much by our system as it is of that group. This is a major PR disaster for this ethnic group. We need to work towards giving their children the education they need, the youth the training they need and the young adults the jobs they need so that can share in the Australian dream. Until we do that, we continue to reap the seeds of terrorism related offences. We can do better. (Time expired)