Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the Prime Minister’s statement on Australia and India.

I want to respond briefly to the Prime Minister’s statement, which was tabled in the Senate a short while ago, deploring the violence against Indian students in Melbourne. I visited India as a child, I have visited India several times since then and I am travelling there again in a fortnight or so. I want to put a couple of comments on the record. India is an extraordinary country. It is, in fact, the world’s largest democracy. It has a unique and important contribution to make to the world community of peoples. Of course all efforts, including the Prime Minister’s statement, which seek to stigmatise racial violence are urgently needed and very welcome. We need to send a strong and clear message from the top that racist attacks, racial vilification and racial discrimination are not acceptable in Australian society. I note also that the Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, joined in support of the Prime Minister’s statement—although he somehow could not resist working into his speech a reference to uranium exports, which is a truly random bit of speech writing. Nonetheless, the comments on racism from the country’s leadership are extremely welcome.

The Prime Minister characterised Australia as a country of harmony and tolerance. While that is certainly a very relevant and appropriate goal, I think it is more of a welcome aspiration than an accurate description of Australia as we find it today. We have a very long way to go in this country. Racist attitudes and beliefs are visible and present in our culture, which systematically values and devalues certain groups and certain contributions. The apology last February from the current government addressed a shockingly racist chapter in our history which is obviously still not closed. Quite apart from the racist laws of the past and the behaviour of the present, we also have a form of structural racism that is revealed when you look at the photographs of everyone who sits in this chamber. Our parliament does not represent the diversity of Australian society—that is quite simple—it does not represent the gender make-up of our society and it certainly does not accurately represent the cultural background of Australian society. Australia needs to work to address racism, which is why it would have been a good idea to participate in the review conference of the UN’s World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. Australia is a member of the United Nations. That means we should participate and be involved and engaged—or else you cannot decide whether we are part of the international community. A smorgasbord approach to these sorts of conferences is simply not appropriate.

In the global efforts to identify, analyse, understand and eliminate racism, Australia has been missing. We have not participated in the global agreement to achieve real changes for the millions of victims of racism and racial discrimination. We should not pretend that mistreatment of overseas students is a recent phenomenon either. Overseas students, as we know, bring a lot of revenue to this country—they have been seen as something of a cash cow—but we know that insufficient services and support are provided in turn. I would like to acknowledge the work of my colleague Sarah Hanson-Young, who has taken a very strong interest in this issue since its most recent manifestation hit the front pages in Victoria.

The Australian Greens support the Prime Minister’s statement on this issue. We call on the government to address the challenges faced by overseas students. I also call on the government to rejoin the United Nations in its work to fight racism. Australia should not have absented itself from the UN conference when quite obviously we have issues of racism to deal with here at home. I thank the Senate for the opportunity to make a statement.

Question agreed to.