Cassandra Fernando (Holt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Migrants have built this nation, from the Afghan cameleers who charted the overland telegraph to the Italian and Greek workers who constructed the Snowy hydro scheme. Like 47 per cent of my electorate, I am a proud migrant who now calls Australia home. My electorate is named after former prime minister Harold Holt, who, in 1966, removed discrimination against non-white citizenship applications like mine. The Whitlam government advanced this progress in the 1970s by dismantling the last remains of the White Australia policy. Since then, our government and society have worked to build a multicultural Australia where everyone is respected, regardless of where they were born.

Yet, some in this chamber seem intent on reversing this progress, seeking to drag us back to the days of the White Australia policy. To the opposition, I say this: as someone who moved from a war zone, it offends me when you argue that people fleeing conflict should not be allowed into this country. When you dog whistle and undermine our multicultural compact, it offends me. Labor will always stand with all Australians, no matter where they were born.