Michael Forshaw (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs Report for 2004-05, and in doing so I want to particularly refer to a recent debate in the media regarding immigration issues. I particularly want to refer to the comments that were made on 13 February this year by the member for Hughes, the Hon. Danna Vale. Those comments were made in relation to the debate that was then ensuing on RU486. I think everybody in the chamber—and just about everybody in the country—saw those comments that were made at a news conference by Mrs Vale and shown on TV footage later in the day and subsequently. I remind senators of the comments that were made by Mrs Vale:

I’ve actually read ... comments where a certain imam from the Lakemba mosque actually said that Australia’s going to be a Muslim nation in 50 years’ time. I didn’t believe him at the time, but you know when you actually look at the birth rates and when you look at the fact that we are aborting ourselves almost out of existence by 100,000 abortions every year ... You multiply that by 50 years, that’s five million potential Australians we won’t have here.

I found those remarks totally outrageous and offensive. Also, factually they were just completely wrong. I put out a media release and was also interviewed by the local newspaper that circulates in the electorate of Hughes and in the surrounding areas. I happen to live in that area. The newspaper is the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader. In my comments I described those claims as factually wrong, as offensive and disgraceful, and I stand by those comments.

In my media release, I said:

The claims are factually wrong. According to the most recent census only 1.5 % of the Australian population are Muslim. Further, the overwhelming majority (85%) of new settler arrivals continue to come from non-Muslim countries with the United Kingdom and New Zealand providing the largest intake each year.

What is particularly disturbing about the comments that were made by Mrs Vale at the time is that they introduced the issue of race and religion into a debate which was a conscience vote in this chamber about the availability of RU486. That in itself was totally inappropriate. Frankly, we are all amazed as to why that happened. Indeed, the member for Lindsay, Miss Jackie Kelly, was totally amazed and commented, ‘Danna’s on her own on this one.’ I want to deal with the facts of the issue. I was very pleased when a day or two after those comments were made I received correspondence from the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon. Amanda Vanstone—