Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are some experiences during campaigns that shake and disturb you to the core. I am referring to the disgusting and cowardly attacks on two mosques in the electorate of Burt during the recent election campaign: the leaving of insulting and disgusting objects at the Southern River mosque, and the fire-bombing of a car and graffiti at the Australian Islamic College and mosque in Thornlie. The new electorate of Burt is one of the most multicultural in Western Australia—a diversity that should be celebrated. We have moved on from the Christian sectarianism so commonplace in Australia until merely a generation ago, so must we as a nation move on from religious vilification and attacks of all forms.

Yet some members of different religious traditions face religious persecution every day in Australia. As retired Chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison AO so elegantly expressed it, the standard you walk past is the standard you accept. As a multicultural society, we must accept and protect each and every person's right to practise their faith freely and without any form of intimidation or violence, just as we ask them to do the same and as we all stand for the Australian fair go.

I would like to acknowledge    the good work of the WA Police in their investigations and support of the local community; the state member for Gosnells and Thornlie, Chris Tallentire; and City of Gosnells councillor Terry Healy, for responding so quickly to help the local community clean up before the children arrived for school the next morning, as well as Salim and Raif Youssef, the current and former presidents of the Australian Arab Association and proud Lebanese Australians in my electorate, who are in the gallery here today.