Scott Buchholz (Wright, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my condemnation of a speech that was delivered in the Senate last night. I follow the words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all those who have come into this place and unanimously condemned that speech, and I watched some of the speeches in the Senate this morning. All parties have condemned the content of that speech—with the exception of one, who backs the content of that speech '1,000 per cent'. That was Bob Katter doing a live presser out of Cairns on Sky Television this morning. In this place there should be no race to the bottom to see who can hate the most or who can marginalise persecuted people who have come to this country. I had a constituent in my electorate ring me in disgust to say they had seen someone wearing a burqa in the main street of one of my communities and to ask me what I was going to do about it. Clearly I have to take more of a leadership role in ensuring that as a community we love more and hate less.

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to join with the member for Wright in condemning the comments of Senator Anning in the Senate last night. I represent a proud multicultural community of Kingsford Smith in which 50 per cent of our population were born overseas and many more are descendants of those who came to our great country as migrants. On behalf of the people of Kingsford Smith I express our community's disgust, outrage and complete opposition to, and join with MPs of all parties and backgrounds in condemning, Senator Anning's comments. The references to the White Australia policy and the 'final solution' are deeply offensive and do not represent the values of the people of Kingsford Smith or modern-day Australia. The White Australia policy was bad policy. It was racist, it was discriminatory, it was bad for our economy and it was bad for Australian society. That is exactly why the Holt government removed it with the support of the Labor Party many decades ago. On behalf of the people of Kingsford Smith I pay tribute to those with multicultural backgrounds in our community for their wonderful contributions that make Australia such a wonderful place to live—the charities and small businesses they run, their work in our workplaces and community groups. Senator Anning does not represent the people of Kingsford Smith or Australia.