Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As I was saying in relation to Senator Babet, the remarks are repugnant, abhorrent and have no place in the civil discourse of 2024. People are free to rail against political correctness or so-called 'wokeism', but the way to do that is not to offend your fellow Australians, demean your fellow Australians or engage in conduct that, long ago, was seen to be completely socially unacceptable and that certainly should not be tolerated in supposed leaders of our country, the elected senators of this parliament.

We don't wish to see the Senate have to become the word police or the thought police for senators. We again look forward to discussions in Procedure Committee as to how we manage these issues. But there is a point and time where conduct and language are so appalling that the Senate needs to make its opinion clear. We made it clear, in relation to conduct, just before. We make it clear now, in relation to conduct and language. When it comes to Senator Babet, I think what we saw, in the midst of my remarks, simply amplifies the point that Senator Wong made at the outset—that, of course, these instances of conduct are all too much about attention seeking and trying to gain a relevance that otherwise is not supported by the electorate or by the vast and overwhelming majority of Australians.

Although, in a country like ours, it is the job of our free press to report properly upon the proceedings of this parliament and the debates that occur, I would urge them to consider the weight they give to such minority outbursts and the elevation that they provide to minority outbursts and incendiary or inflammatory or insulting language used by individual members of parliament, when the weight they give those things only amplifies them in ways that those individuals do not deserve to have amplified and only fosters the type of division that those of us who wish to focus on the good governance of this country would wish to avoid.