Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Today we saw the true face of Pauline Hanson's One Nation. It wasn't actually concealed behind a burqa. It was in the twisted smiles of Senator Burston and Senator Roberts sitting behind their leader, grinning and laughing as she mocked and demeaned an entire religion. This is mere days after the Charlottesville attacks in the United States, which showed how easily hateful words can become hateful deeds. And that's the warning for this country: how quickly things can change, and how quickly words that demean can become deeds that harm and kill. It showed what happens when violent extremists are encouraged or even appeased by chickenhawk politicians—and there's a few of those in this place—and their fellow travellers in the media.

Last month the Islamophobia in Australia report revealed some of the appalling attacks that Senator Hanson and her colleagues today endorsed and encouraged, and it showed that women, especially women wearing Islamic head coverings, have been the main targets of these attacks. I want to quote a couple of incidents from that report, Islamophobia in Australia, which give a picture of some of the things that are going on in this country. One woman said this: 'I'm not sure if they started to follow me on foot, but once I entered the medical centre I didn't hear or see anything else from them. I am 19 weeks pregnant and have never felt so afraid and so vulnerable in my life. I thought they were going to physically try harming my daughter and me. There were lots of passers-by who did not come to my aid.' And another woman said this: 'I was walking with my head down and a group of young males yelled out, "ISIS bitch! Go back to where you came from!" and snickered and said, "Shoosh, or she will behead you," and they followed me down the street, and none of the train staff helped me out or stopped them.'

To the vast majority of Australians, these are disgusting attacks. But to Senator Hanson and her colleagues, these are laughing matters. They claim to be representing the Australian people, but they are doing no such thing, because we are a fair country, a decent country, a welcoming country, a country that respects and celebrates diversity, and a country in fact that has been built on the rich, multicultural fabric that exists in our country to this day.

As elected MPs, we have a responsibility to confront these slurs and these attacks on freedom of religion whenever they occur, and I want to echo and commend the comments of the Leader of the Government in the Senate, Senator Brandis, and the many others from the Labor Party, from the crossbench and from the Australian Greens who have condemned these disgraceful attacks on over half a million Muslim Australians. It was a fantastic moment in this Senate this afternoon when Labor, Green and crossbench senators stood and applauded Senator Brandis's remarks. It is notable that many of his Liberal colleagues did not. Senator Brandis showed the kind of leadership that has been sorely lacking in government in Australia today.

So let us today, please, finally draw the line. Let those of us who believe in freedom of religion, who believe in multiculturalism, who believe in the right of women to choose what they want to wear, stand up today and represent the vast majority of Australians who are sick to their guts with what they saw from Pauline Hanson's One Nation today. And we'll stand with these men and these women, these Australians who believe in decency and want to see everyone in this country have a chance to live their own lives and to make their own choices, without being so disgustingly disrespected as we saw from One Nation in this place today. And let's demand that all of us in this place stop comforting and appeasing the extremists in our own ranks and particularly those in Pauline Hanson's One Nation party, because it's only through confronting hatred, naming it and calling it out, wherever we see it and wherever we hear it, that we can hope to defeat it.

Question negatived.