Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to speak on the passing of the Rt. Hon. John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, former member for Wannon and our 22nd Prime Minister. As parliamentary secretary responsible for multicultural affairs and settlement services, I would like to highlight his legacy to the multicultural society that we enjoy today.

Last Saturday we celebrated Harmony Day. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity. It is a day of respect for everyone who calls Australia home. This, of course, was the 15th anniversary of Harmony Day. Our cultural diversity remains one of our greatest strengths. It is really at the heart of who we are. Today, we identify with about 300 different ancestries; we speak about 300 languages, including Indigenous languages; and almost half of us were either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas. We are one of the most culturally diverse yet socially cohesive nations on earth. Cultural diversity has been very good for Australia. It has been good for our communities, it has been good for business, and it has been good for the economy. It has been good for Australia. Indeed, the 2014 Scanlon Foundation report, Mapping social cohesion, says that 92 per cent of Australians feel a sense of belonging, 88 per cent express pride in the Australian way of life and 85 per cent believe multiculturalism has been good for Australia.

The Australia that we know today had its genesis in the Fraser years. I have been involved in the multicultural space for 35 years. Just after the Fraser years, I started my activities in the broader community—activities which I have been very, very proud to be involved in. I have seen multicultural Australia grow. So today, in paying tribute to Mr Fraser, I want to speak about his legacy in this space. I know that a lot has been said about his life, but I want to particularly look at the multicultural Australia that we enjoy today and Mr Fraser's contribution to that. We have talked about racism. Today we have programs like Racism. It Stops With Me. It is a successful program. These are things which we started to talk about during the years of Mr Fraser's government.

I would like to highlight that in 1977 Mr Fraser established the Special Broadcasting Service to provide multilingual radio and television services, to help new migrants integrate into Australian society. Indeed, after leaving office, Mr Fraser was a staunch public defender of the multicultural broadcaster. I remember growing up with radio 2EA and listening to its programs, and I remember how they provided very important information to my parents and to our household. I grew up in Wollongong, a very multicultural city, and SBS and radio 2EA were very important in our daily lives.

In 1977, the Fraser government created the Australian Ethnic Affairs Council as a policy-advising body. The council pushed for policies that promoted social cohesion, cultural identity and equality of opportunity. Over the course of its time in office, the Fraser government expanded services for new immigrants, including English language classes, translation services and on-arrival accommodation assistance—services which are so fundamental today, not just to our multicultural society but also in our settlement services, which have become amongst the best in the world. Today, we also have the Australian Multicultural Council, which had its antecedents in the Australian Ethnic Affairs Council. He created multicultural resource centres and established the Australian Institute of Multicultural Affairs.

We have heard much about the large-scale Asian immigration to Australia where we accepted 50,000 Vietnamese refugees fleeing from communism. On a personal note, yesterday I met Dr Peter Thang Ha, President of the New South Wales chapter of the Vietnamese community. I met him at the Assyrian festival, which the Prime Minister also attended yesterday. He said to me that next Sunday they would be having a commemoration to remember Mr Fraser. Many identify him as being the person who helped them come here to Australia. There are many people, Vietnamese Australians, who have made an absolutely fantastic contribution, a major contribution, to the rich tapestry of our multicultural society. One of those refugees who benefited from the policy was the former head of SBS, my dear friend Quang Luu, who fled to Australia by boat in 1975. Mr Luu went on to become the first Vietnamese-born barrister in Australia and led SBA's radio network from 1989 to 2006. I would like to quote Mr Fraser on Asian migration when he said:

We were also working to get people to understand that the idea and the reality of a multicultural Australia could be an enormous strength to this country, not a weakness.

There is strength in this kind of diversity so long as we understand what it's about.

Today we do understand the benefits of a multicultural society. As I said, it has been good for Australia. It has been good for our communities; it has been good for business; and it has been very, very good for Australia.

For a long time after 1975, Mr Fraser was largely defined by the blocking of supply and, of course, the dismissal of the Whitlam government and the subsequent electoral vindication. My colleagues and many others in the Senate have spoken about that, but I have to say that 1975 is very important for us to remember in our history, because it really did demonstrate the power of the Senate. Today our Senate is one of the most powerful upper houses in the world. It is a powerful upper house, and the extent of that power was demonstrated in 1975.

Regrettably, Mr Fraser's falling-out with the Liberal Party was a sad time. Other colleagues have reflected on that, and, given the time, I will not continue on that. I will conclude by offering my condolences to Mrs Tamie Fraser and all her family on the passing of Mr Malcolm Fraser.