Andrew Giles (Scullin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Cities and Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) 15 to 21 March 2021 marks Harmony Week, a time to recognise and celebrate diversity and inclusion in Australia; and

(b) 21 March 2021 is International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a call for the international community to increase its efforts to eliminate all forms of racial discrimination; and

(2) recognises that:

(a) Australia’s diversity is our greatest strength, we should celebrate this, defend this, and strive to strengthen it; and

(b) at a time of rising racism around the globe and in Australia, we must commit to a zero-tolerance approach to racism, and to working to end all forms of racial discrimination.

Last week, people right across Australia celebrated Harmony Week, sharing and celebrating culture. Yesterday, the week's culmination was the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It marks the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, when 69 peaceful protesters against apartheid were killed by police in South Africa. As we recognise and celebrate the diversity that is modern Australia, we can't forget this, nor can we pretend that it is a relic of history, because racism persists and, indeed, is on the rise, as is right-wing extremism. So this year we do have to unite to fight racism.

Our diversity truly is our greatest strength, but it can never be taken for granted. No matter who you are, where you were born, the language you first spoke or your religious beliefs, in Australia, everyone belongs. We must state this and restate it, and we must state that we are proud of our immigrant history and that we can build on this, including through a fair and just community sponsorship program, as an important report from Amnesty International released yesterday proposes. We're also proud to be home to the world's oldest continuous civilisation. It's these things that make us who we are and enable us to imagine who we might be.

The COVID pandemic makes these questions more pressing because it has unleashed a new strain of ugly racism across our communities. International students called 'Coronavirus'; graffiti scrawled on a suburban garage door, saying, 'Go home, yellow dogs'—shameful, disgraceful, disgusting acts. A national survey conducted last year by the community group the Asian Australian Alliance received 400 reports of racism directed towards people from Asian backgrounds. In May of last year, the ABC reported on the results of a survey conducted on people's experiences of racism. It heard from people who'd been abused on the street and yelled at whilst shopping. The Christchurch terrorist responsible for the horrific murder of 51 worshippers in two mosques in New Zealand two years ago was an Australian man, radicalised on our shores. We can't ignore that, but we still haven't truly come to terms with that fact. Just last Friday, we saw a man wearing a cap with a Nazi swastika at a major train station in Melbourne. That was after shocking images from the Australia Day weekend of a Neo-Nazi gathering near the Grampians in western Victoria.

This threat is real. We cannot afford to be complacent. Rising racism, rising xenophobia, rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, the rising incidence of hate crimes—these terrible threats are growing at home and around the world. We saw the terrible murder in Atlanta, Georgia, of eight people, most of them Asian American women.

Racism ruins lives and it divides entire communities. It corrodes the foundations of what makes societies and communities successful. And racism is against the law. It is against the law to vilify a person or a group of people because of their race or their religion. We can't assume that the scourge of racism will go away by itself. This is a problem that requires action. It requires leadership from political and community leaders. It requires a strategy to defeat it. So I welcome the proposal by the Race Discrimination Commissioner, Chin Tan, of an antiracism framework.

Labor has being calling for a comprehensive national antiracism strategy for over a year, because it is not enough for this government or any government to simply condemn racism. We need a comprehensive strategy to tackle racism through leadership and with appropriate support. Words must be matched by actions. That's why federal Labor has commenced important policy work on a national antiracism strategy, focusing on empowering culturally and linguistically diverse communities and changing attitudes through a national antiracism campaign.

As we renew our commitment to multiculturalism we must also commit to ending racism and promoting respect for all, building a society that is truly equal. We can and we must, each of us, demonstrate this through our actions each and every day. As Tim Soutphommasane says, we must name and confront racism, however uncomfortable this may be. We, those of us who have the responsibility and the opportunity to speak on behalf of others and to make decisions that shape this nation and its laws, must put in place a national strategy committing to a zero-tolerance approach to racism and to ending the stain on all of us that is the persistence of racial discrimination.

Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Bridget Archer (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I commend the member for Scullin for bringing forward this motion today. On Friday, a year after the last Harmony Day celebrations were cancelled as the realities of the pandemic set in, my local community, including hundreds of migrants from all corners of the globe, came together to celebrate the end of Harmony Week. With the theme of 'everyone belongs', I was thrilled to learn that more than 1,600 Harmony Week events were planned across the nation as a celebration of the success of Australia's multicultural society.

In attendance at my local event in northern Tasmania were some of the more than 5,000 Nepali and Bhutan-born refugees who call our region home. These wonderful migrants, many of whom are now proud Australian citizens, make up some of the more than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese who wound up in refugee camps in eastern Nepal between 1990 and 1993 after being expelled or fleeing the small Himalayan kingdom, leading to a refugee crisis.

I recently spoke of some of the many members of this amazing community who I have had the honour of getting to know over the past few months, including members of the Nepali Cricket Club, who have now secured a spot in the A-grade cricket league. Today I want to use the opportunity of standing here to give a voice to a fantastic young man who I met through his work with our local migrant resource centre. Obeth Rai is part of the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese community in Launceston. This is his story in his own words as he sent them to me:

I arrived in Launceston with my family back in 2013 after living more than 20 years in a refugee camp in Nepal. Living in refugee camp was not easy as there were no any electricity, fridges to restore foods and all the stuffs. However, it was okay enough to make a living.

When talking about Nepal's life, I always had a passion about arts and culture so I established a theatre called Suruwath (which means beginning) and led around 50 young people there.

Fortunately, an opportunity came around to my family where we got chance to come to Australia as a humanitarian entrant. Since then the life has been slowly changing, trying to adjust completely in a new environment. There were lot of struggles that I had to overcome once I arrived in Tasmania ranging from language issues, employment and cultural understanding.

Since I was very passionate about arts, I wanted to learn more about it here but it was not easy because of language. However, after learning English by going to English classes, seeking advices from teachers, I managed to get into bachelors of contemporary arts course in university of Tasmania.

After three years of study, I graduated from that course in 2018. I can't thank enough my teachers, friends, and family for always supporting and guiding me throughout my studies. After that I started involving actively in various social program including arts projects in different cities of Australia including:

•   MONA FOMA arts festival

•   Junction arts festival

•   Film screening - Bhutanese refugee feature movie in Adelaide.

•   Multicultural event in Melbourne with book launch.

•   10th anniversary settlement in Australia in Sydney.

•   Bhutanese faces of Launceston - documentary project Cultural Dance workshops in Brooks High School

Now, I am currently working as a project assistant in Thrive project run by migrant resource centre north and also as a support worker in NDIS program. I am privileged to be part of these wonderful organisations and very lucky to be here in Australia. I am also so grateful that I got to call Australia my home.

Obeth, I am so grateful that you now call Australia home.

It would be remiss of me not to point out that yesterday, the last day of Harmony Week, coincided with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, calling for increased efforts across the international community to tackle racial discrimination. I was pleased to learn that the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon. Alex Hawke MP, met just last week with the Australian Race Discrimination Commissioner, Chin Tan, to discuss his proposals for a national antiracism framework. Our government recognises that there is critical work ahead to foster a more inclusive society and stamp out racism and has asked the Department of Home Affairs and the agencies, including the A-G's Department, to work further with Commissioner Tan on the proposals he has presented. This is a positive step in the right direction to create a nation that is truly welcoming and safe for new migrants like Obeth.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in recognition of Harmony Week and, in celebrating our diversity and inclusion here in Australia, I also want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the Ngunawal people and pay my respects to elders past and present and also to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people, the custodians of the land on which my federal seat of Calwell is placed, as is yours, Deputy Speaker Mitchell, and yours too, the member for Scullin.

I want to thank the member for Scullin for bringing this very important motion to the House for debate. I also want to pay tribute to the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which was actually marked yesterday, and to reaffirm our commitment to the principles of equality and our fight against racial inequality in all its forms and wherever and whenever it occurs.

I want to reflect on why it's particularly important that we recognise and mark these two very important occasions. We've celebrated Harmony Week across Australia over 20 years now, and it has played a very important role in helping drive social cohesion and creating a sense of belonging for everyone in this country. But our country has been on a journey of inclusion and rejection of discrimination for decades. Back in the 1970s, when multiculturalism first became a defined policy framework, we set about building our legal and social frameworks. We—Labor—introduced the Racial Discrimination Act and we stressed that having a strong and vibrant communal fabric of many different cultures was about much more than just tolerance, or 'assimilation', as it was referred to. It was about celebrating and embracing all those different threads and recognising that, if they retained their colour and stayed distinctive, they could be woven together to make our society so much stronger and more vibrant.

My community is testament to this. We don't just do Harmony Day or Harmony Week; we actually live and breathe it on a daily basis. For us, 'everyone belongs' is more than a beautiful-sounding theme; it is an important daily truth and a plan for future action in the way in which we relate to each other. I'm particularly proud of the diversity of my electorate, with nearly half of my residents born overseas and over half who speak a language other than English at home. Hume City Council opened its doors on Friday to Harmony Week celebrations, and it's always an opportunity for our local communities to share their rich cultural inheritances and to bring it all together with a sense of belonging and sharing for all of us.

In an Australian context, citizenship lies at the heart of the idea that everyone belongs. It's through citizenship that we ensure that everyone who lives in this country lives equally as Australians and is recognised as belonging to the Australian family. Australia is a migrant country, and it has become successful because it has given people access to its citizenship and also to permanent residency as clear pathways to permanent settlement, which is why Harmony Week is a very important opportunity to reaffirm our national commitment to the principles of multiculturalism, to Australian citizenship and the Australian identity. These principles must include a fair and non-discriminatory immigration policy, proper settlement services and properly funded community services in a range of fundamental areas such as education and training, health, housing and recreation that are inclusive of and available to everyone who needs them.

I must also include a recognition of the incredible contribution that migrants of various waves and different backgrounds have made and continue to make towards this nation's future. We must never take for granted the hard-earned fight for inclusion, fairness and social cohesion that Harmony Week stands for, because there have always been those amongst us who cannot accept the principles espoused by Harmony Week. It seems a simple and obvious enough message, but, sadly, it is not something that everyone in this country accepts. We know this and we learn of this, and the member for Scullin gave an example of this. So we must always be vigilant. We must continue to move forward and work towards even greater access to services and equality of opportunity for all Australians. As we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Harmony Week is a very important reminder to us all that racism is on the rise again.

So we have to continue to fight long and hard to protect our community against racism, and we've got to remain vigilant against its creeping effects, in all its forms and expressions. Belonging is not just a warm and fuzzy feeling. It means very deliberate and very concrete actions to ensure that everyone—regardless of their culture, their birthplace, their language or their religion—has access to safety; to shelter; to education; to work; to health care; to respect, more importantly; and to the freedom to live in peace in our communities right across Australia.

Gladys Liu (Chisholm, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, we celebrated Harmony Week, which was a celebration of the success of Australia as the most multicultural and multifaith country while encouraging us to celebrate our unique identity. This year's theme, Everyone Belongs, conveys the sense of inclusiveness, respect, belonging and that 'fair go' attitude Australia strives to achieve for all, regardless of their background. And, on 21 March, we celebrated the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination—something I believe is of precious importance, regardless of where you are in the world.

As a migrant myself, coming from Hong Kong a few decades back, I came to this country without friends or family. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at all nervous. In fact, I was terrified—terrified at the prospect of coming to this country, with no idea what to expect. Thankfully though, Australia treated me kindly. The people in this country are good people. It's why I fell in love with this country and it's why I'm so honoured to represent the people of Chisholm in Canberra. I won't stand here to say that it has always been easy. With my cultural background, I have encountered adversity throughout the years, but there are always bad eggs in any place you go. The difference in Australia is that most Australians always do the right thing.

It's our current government that has done the right thing and made public statements openly condemning all forms of racism and committing to ensuring Australia remains a safe country to live in and belong to—something I'm extraordinarily proud of. The Morrison government has always recognised diversity as a significant component to Australia's economic success which allows businesses to be more prosperous and increases opportunities to build international relationships. In fact, the Morrison government celebrates the diversity of this nation and the shared Australian values that unite us all together.

It's through this recognition and celebration that the Morrison government committed to continuing development of the social cohesion program. Our government has allocated $63 million in the 2020-21 federal budget. This includes $37.3 million to promote understanding of our Australian values, identity and social cohesion and to counter misinformation online, $17.3 million to enhance engagement with multicultural communities and leaders, and $7.9 million to establish a research program dedicated to informing initiatives that strengthen social cohesion.

Australia is well renowned for our success in bridging the distance between our citizens who may have been here for generations and those who have just arrived. We are a nation that has always understood the importance of developing and strengthening the diversity of our culture and people while ensuring that our Australian values are instilled in all those who share Australian citizenship. The government recognises that there is critical work ahead to foster a more inclusive society and to stamp out racism, but, as someone with a multicultural background who is sensitive to and aware of these issues, I can wholeheartedly lend my support to the good work our government has done and continues to do. In fact, I can say that I'm proud of the work that the Morrison government is doing to eliminate racism here in Australia, and I will definitely do my very best to work with organisations and everyone in Chisholm to achieve this goal.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to rise in support of the motion moved by the member for Scullin. Today is the final day of Harmony Week and yesterday was International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The day was first proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1966, commemorating, in part, the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. 1966 was 55 years ago, and in many ways the progress we've made over these decades is remarkable, but, in a larger sense, it is also true to say that it seems that very little has changed. Many of the same acts and structures which underpinned racial discrimination in 1966 remain unchanged. You just have to look at what is happening around the world at the moment: the ongoing struggle against police brutality and for full civil rights in the United States, acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing in many corners of the globe and the rise of racial supremacist movements and their infiltration of the political mainstream. While the world may no longer look and feel the same as it did in the 1960s, we are still fighting the same battles for equality and justice.

We are lucky to live in one of the most diverse and multicultural nations in the world. I represent a particularly diverse corner of Australia. Darwin and Palmerston, the capital of northern Australia, are microcosms of Australia, and this diversity is our strength. It's the experience of millions of Australians to live in a diverse and multicultural community. Diversity and multiculturalism are ingrained and in the woven parts our national fabric. This reality is an everyday part of Australian life and it's this fact that makes the ongoing racially based attacks on our communities particularly heinous. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we know that attacks against many of our ethnic communities have seen an increase. We are already dealing with economic dislocation and a global pandemic and some of our multicultural communities increasingly feel under siege and as though they have to justify what none of us should have to defend: our rightful place in our own country.

It is an iron rule of politics that words matter. Political discourse and the rhetoric of our leaders have a real effect on shaping attitudes and driving behaviour. We have seen this with the former President of the United States, Donald Trump, whose dangerous and divisive rhetoric will be his longest lasting legacy. Even in this parliament, we have seen similarly divisive rhetoric. The government, those opposite, for their part have abandoned their responsibilities to protect our multicultural communities. Not only have they failed to hold to account those within their ranks who sow division; they have made things worse with their own behaviour. This is the same government which keep people and families in detention indefinitely.

In my electorate of Solomon, nine people are still being held in inhumane conditions. One couple from Iran, Afsaneh Ghodsi and Mojtaba Hagthighat, have been in detention for eight years. One year of that was spent in Darwin, in my electorate, in a cramped small cabin. They are genuine refugees. The toll this has taken on their mental health has been significant. They have family here in Australia, including Afsaneh's elderly parents. Those family members have been trapped in an unbearable limbo, waiting in the hope that government may show some humanity and compassion. This situation is completely unacceptable and it is untenable. We have seen people held in similar circumstances in other parts of Australia being released, including in Brisbane and Melbourne, so why not Darwin? The government should take its Harmony Week commitments seriously and immediately free these people to community detention.

I would like to thank the member for Scullin for his excellent motion and for joining the people of Darwin and Palmerston in protesting these inhumane policies and calling for the release of the nine people still in detention. I remind those opposite and I remind the minister, who I've written to several times, that these people are genuine refugees and are not a security threat to our nation. In the spirit of Harmony Week, they should be released to community detention so that the ongoing effects on their mental and physical health stop.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The successful multicultural society that we have around us is one of the hallmarks of Australia, and it is one of the hallmarks of my community in Berowra. I'm pleased to have the opportunity today to speak about some of the organisations and people in my community who are engaged in bolstering and celebrating and providing services to that successful multicultural Australia that we have.

The Australian Community Inspired Association Inc. was started in 2016 by a group of local people from both the Indian and Chinese communities, led by the irrepressible Bob Waller, who wanted to bring people together to work on community projects that would raise funds for important initiatives within our community and beyond— whether that's the Red Shield Appeal or the Whitelion youth support program or the local Men's Sheds. That organisation continues today and is now led by Barbara Ward, a leader in the Indian community, Bob Waller remains involved, and Wayne Lever, Gary Ward, Indu Harikrishna, Marla Mehta and Sreeni Pillamarri make up the team. They do a great job not only in providing services to communities but bringing communities together to work on projects.

One of the older community organisations in my electorate is the Cherrybrook Chinese Community Association. It's an association that goes back 32 years, and it provides a world renowned—in my view—Chinese language school and a range of Chinese cultural activities in order to provide and pass on some of the important Chinese culture, not just to the next generation of Chinese Australians but also to Australians who are interested in learning more about China. I want to congratulate the newly elected president, Kwok Ling Chau, and Jenny Lau, who has been president, on and off, for many years, Dennis Loh, James Fong, Polly Chan, Stephen Lang, Ken Ng and Peter Tong, who make up their executive.

I'm proud to be a former student of the IABBV Hindi School in my electorate, led by Marla Mehta, who is a wonderful leader in the Indian community. She had the idea back in 1987 of forming a community language school so that young Indian Australians who are growing up in an English-speaking environment wouldn't seem alien to their grandparents, because they'd have some knowledge of the language and culture of their school. The IABBV Hindi School meets on a Sunday morning at the Thornleigh West Public School. There are children and adults of all ages. I want to say to Marla: 'dhanyavaad' for all you do for the community.

One of most important and interesting events of my year usually happens on the Anzac Day weekend, but, sadly, it's not happening this year due to COVID. That is the annual festival run to commemorate Saint George by the Associazione San Giorgio Martire di Sydney—please excuse my murdering of the Italian language—by a community that has effectively transplanted itself from the town Martone region in Calabria in Italy to Australia. Why is this such a beautiful event? It's beautiful because they have a wonderful mass, they have Italian bands and they have the best food in Sydney. It is wonderful to see, across the generations, the culture being transmitted and shared. I want to acknowledge the executive of the association: George Dolores, George Maiolo, Tony and Mary Macri, Vince Murdocca and Andrew Papallo.

Perhaps the oldest ethnic community in my electorate is the Lebanese community, who have been here since the early 1900s. They congregate particularly around the St George Maronite Catholic Church in Thornleigh. It's a beautiful community that this April celebrate 20 years of the new church. Their original church, St Joachim's, goes back to the 1900s. The Lebanese Maronite community have been worshipping at that church since that time. It is not the only interesting Christian community in my electorate. I'm proud to have a Coptic Orthodox community at Galston, led by Father Barsoum and Father Abdelmalik; a Greek Orthodox church in Thornleigh, led by the Reverend Andrew Ioannou; as well as Sri Lankan, Korean, Baha'i, Polish, Russian and, increasingly, Persian communities. So I'm very lucky to represent a diverse electorate.

In my remaining time to speak, I wanted to mention a related day to Harmony Week, and that is Harmony Day, which is marked by Moving Forward Together, a project that came out of the B'nai B'rith in Sydney, led by Ernie Friedlander. For several years, they've run a poster competition, an annual walk and now a songwriting competition to encourage people towards the idea that it is important for us as a community to celebrate diversity—that part of being a decent society is to be a society that caters to all, regardless of their colour, cultural origin or religion. That is a beautiful sentiment that I know Ernie and his committee pursue in their various activities very strongly, as they have done for many years. Let me commend this motion and commend all the multicultural communities in my electorate.

Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this very important motion and I congratulate the member for Scullin for moving it and others who have spoken in this place this morning about Harmony Day and Harmony Week. Harmony Week is an event which is designed to celebrate Australia's diversity, an important event. When we look at Australia, we see people from every corner of the world that have made this beautiful country home. But, very importantly, our First Nations people have been here for up to 60,000 years, and we should never lose sight of that.

I represent an electorate that has over 180 different nationalities and ethnicities. To give you an example, this weekend alone, I attended the Croatian Club for a very big event that they had yesterday; and Nowruz, the Persian new year, on Saturday, which was celebrated this year in conjunction with Harmony Day. It was a great event, with people from the Middle East—Iran, Iraq and all over. It is a big, big event that is celebrated in their homelands. That gives you some idea. I think we are extremely lucky as members of parliament that we actually get to see in our communities the different mix of people who have made their homes here in Australia.

One of the things that underpin our harmony is our multicultural policy that we have had since the late seventies and early eighties. Australia was a very different place, when you look at the 1700s. The majority of people were of British or Irish stock, and that all changed. It changed because people fought hard for those changes, because they understood that the only way for us to have a society that held together and where we respected one another was by giving every person that came to this nation to become an Australian equal opportunities, without discrimination, without bias, without any of those things that we see in many other countries. For example, in some countries around the world, if you are of a particular ethnicity, you cannot work in the public service or you cannot attend university. You cannot do things that we take for granted here. Imagine what Australia could have been like if our laws weren't managed the way they are today. Our society is one of the greatest successes of the world—our multicultural society, where everyone is respected and treated equally by the law, and it is so important to keep that going because it is what underpins our harmony.

Sure, Harmony Day is great. It's fantastic; it's about celebrating our communities. But the reality is that multiculturalism is about walking in someone else's shoes and understanding that they may be a bit different from me, or you, Madam Deputy Speaker Owens, but we are all Australians working together for a common goal—to better this country and to ensure that we live happily, in harmony, without discrimination, regardless of race, religion, colour of skin et cetera. To give you an example, as I said, on the weekend I attended the Croatian Club. I went to the Nowruz new year. Yesterday we had wreath laying ceremonies in my electorate. I have one of the largest Greek communities in Australia in my electorate, and it's a Greek Independence Day this week, but the ceremonies were all held yesterday and we laid wreaths. Every week, I attend everything from a Coptic church to ceremonies in Hindu temples to festivals; you would think that you were in another place in another corner of the world. That is one of the greatest assets that this country has, and we should always protect it and ensure that we build on it to give us this beautiful thing that we have that we call multiculturalism.

Australia is like looking at a tapestry, all different colours of threads. Individually, you can't see the beauty, but, when you put it all together and you see that great big tapestry, that is our multicultural Australia. We are so lucky, and we all benefit from it. We must ensure that we continue to celebrate days like Harmony Day but also, at the same time, walk in the others' shoes and understand what they've gone through, their trials and tribulations, and to live peacefully in this wonderful of country of ours.

Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time allotted for this debate has expired. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate be made on order of the day for the next sitting.