Ted O'Brien (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We Australians aren't a sentimental lot. We don't sit around all day talking about our identity, our culture or our way of life, but we do need to start talking about these things because they are put at risk by political correctness and an overreach of political correctness. If you look at how last year finished, we had the Queensland bureaucracy suggesting children should not send Christmas cards to each other because it might offend. We had major retail outlets changing the branding of the Christmas tree to the 'big white forest tree'. And then of course this year begins and what do we see? We see gender now causing offence. At the Commonwealth Games you're not allowed to use the words 'ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls'; it might cause offence. The Queensland licences need to be stripped from saying whether one is a male or female; it might cause offence. And then of course there is Australia Day. We see left-wing councils instructing staff not to use those two seemingly offensive words, 'Australia Day'. Are you serious? What is next? Is it trying to take the cross off the hot cross bun at Easter? At the end of the day, we need to ensure that we protect our culture, we protect our way of life and we call it out when people try to challenge it.