Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of the core guiding principles that led me into this place is a central tenet of liberalism: that all people are born with equal dignity and that the law and society must respect each person's individual worth.

That is why I was disturbed to hear of a recent report that Hurstville Boys Campus of Georges River College recently considered it acceptable to advise female visitors that some young men may not shake their hands, because of their interpretation of their Muslim faith. Worse is that spokespeople for an Islamic community organisation rationalised violence against women, though I acknowledge that, thankfully, they later retracted those comments and clarified their remarks.

Let us not beat around the bush. The vast majority of people who come from across the seas to our great country do so because they want to share in our way of life. That is why they leave their homeland and gamble their future. They know that what we offer—as imperfect as our liberal democracy may be—is to provide the best opportunity for every individual to fulfil their dreams, and what we offer is better than any of the other alternatives. It is only a select few who feel otherwise.

That is why I strongly support a non-discriminatory immigration policy. One of the great virtues of our nation's recent history is that we are not a closed society. We accept new Australians of all backgrounds so long as they want to write their own positive chapter in the continuing story of our great nation. We accept people seeking asylum based on the legitimacy of their claim and not their method of arrival.

Our ambition is that people do not identify as migrants but that they identify as new Australians. But there is an expectation that comes with identifying as a new Australian: that people will integrate into our culture and way of life and that they will continue down the generations as people come to identify not from another ethnicity or culture but to hold that important title, first, of being Australian.

Faith informs people's world view and it is important, and we should respect it. But respect goes both ways. That requires children be raised to understand that they must treat others with respect. There must be mutual respect. When one person treats another person differently for an unjust reason, we traditionally have a word for it. It is called bullying. Mutual respect requires the need to come together and recognise our common humanity, not isolate and exclude others based on irrelevant factors. At the heart of the success of modern Australia is that all people should be treated equally in the law, and we have a society and culture that prioritises that mutual respect.

I cannot understand how we can advance this important cause when we have public institutions guiding the next generation to feel otherwise. One of the great hopes I have and knowledge that I carry, in coming to this place, is that the people of Goldstein strongly agree with me. I hope that all other members share that sentiment as well.