Mark Furner (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to take note of the answers provided by the Attorney-General today in question time. On the subject of listening, one merely needs to go out there and listen to the ethnic communities that certainly our side of politics represents and believes in. The Attorney-General claims that he is aware of a variety of views in the community about this exposure draft for the repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which currently makes it illegal publicly 'to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate another person or a group of people'. It would be advantageous for the Attorney-General and those opposite to go and listen to a variety of views in the community on this subject.

I and a number of senators on this side of the chamber have been involved in that. Senator Dastyari has been involved in protests in Sydney by people in the ethnic communities, the multicultural communities—that we represent and know quite well­—who are outraged. Just last Friday, I was extremely privileged to be with my Senate colleague and good friend Senator Peris up in Brisbane, on the north-western side, conducting a forum, as some senators on this side have done. In that forum, we replayed that part of question time that Senator Brandis is now infamous for, where he claimed that people have a right to be bigots. The people in the audience at that forum who had not seen that particular part of question time were horrified to see someone in one of the highest positions in this country claim that people have a right to be bigots in this country.

Does the government really want to bring back cases like the Cronulla riots of 2005? Do they really want to bring back a group of people like those we saw around the election and the installation of Pauline Hanson, when xenophobia was overflowing in this country and people attacked other people for being of different origin, for having different coloured skin, for having different language? Certainly we on this side do not want to see that. I am yet to hear from those in government whether that is the case with them or what the agenda is behind these changes to 18C of the RDA.

You need only listen to the people in these communities. The Chinese, Arabic, Indigenous, Greek and Jewish communities have been urging the government to abandon the proposal. In fact, the peak lobby group, the Federation of Ethnic Communities' Councils of Australia, has warned the government that these changes would leave Australia with no protection against racial vilification. Closer to home, I would suggest that I have one of the most multicultural offices in parliament. I employ a woman from a Filipino background. She is Australian-born but she goes out in public and she is vilified and harassed with comments that are absolutely disgraceful, referring to her ethnicity and her mother's origin. I employ also an African woman. I am certain that she as well has had circumstances in the past where she has been vilified in public. I also employ a Muslim Lebanese gentleman as a staffer, and I know for a fact that he has been crucified at times merely for his religion.

The ethnic communities out there are supporting our opposition to this amendment. We on this side believe that, if the repeal of 18C is successful, we will see more and more attacks in our communities by people that have no right to make those sorts of comments, who should not be in these communities and should not have a standing where they can go around making comments about people who are all Australians, people who have come to this country with a view to making it a better place. If we allow this amendment to go through, we will be in dire straits. In summing up, I repeat a reflection by William Maley:

And perhaps it is time for Prime Minister Abbott to think about whether in his own interest he might be able to find another Attorney-General, with smaller bookcases but more common sense.

That is a matter to reflect on. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.