Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Since the end of World War II, approximately eight million people have migrated to Australia. They have done so for many reasons. They have done it to escape poverty. They have done it for peace and security. They have done so for the economic opportunities that Australia provides. They have done so for our beautiful weather, climate and way of life. But, most of all, those people who have migrated to Australia have done so for freedom. Freedom has been above all those other reasons for why people have migrated to Australia. They have done so to ensure that they and their children do not have to tolerate some of the totalitarian regimes where they have come from. Therefore, when freedom is threatened in Australia, it should be the multicultural groups in our country that are first to rally to freedom's defence.

What we have seen recently with the decisions of the Australian Human Rights Commission, the actions they have taken and the contact they have engaged in is a bureaucracy that is simply drunk with power—power given to them by the provisions in 18C. We should not have in this country a situation where a cartoonist can be called before a government bureaucracy to explain himself. We should not have had the 18C shakedown where young students who were denied access to a computer lab because of their race and ethnic identity raised it as an issue, accusing the university of segregation, were hauled before the courts of this country. When that happens, it should be the ethnic groups in this country that stand up and say: 'This is wrong. This is an erosion of our freedom.' That is why the government is making very modest changes to section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act.

What I find appalling—and this is something the motion calls for, to condemn those that actively seek to incite division—is the Labor Party's conduct. It is the Labor Party—we just heard it from a member of the opposition—saying that those who want to change 18C are somehow inciting racial intolerance. I say it is the other way around. It is those who are making those comments who are the ones inciting racial intolerance in this nation. We should all be able to get together as a parliament and say, 'What happened to the artist Bill Leak should never, ever happen again in this country.' Surely that is something we can all be united on. But instead the Labor Party are using that as an opportunity to play divisive ethnic politics. This is contrary to everything that our country stands for. The changes to 18C are modest and they are needed because of the examples of Bill Leak and the QUT students' case.

When it comes to multiculturalism, we have been a very successful nation over many years—probably the most successful multicultural nation anywhere in the world. But there are problems starting to occur. When we see ethnic crime gangs and the crime increase in Victoria, we need to admit that there are problems starting to occur. When we see young Australians brought up in this country going to fight for Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and taking up arms against Australian troops, we need to see that there are problems occurring. When we see issues of forced marriage, the subjugation of women and people saying it is okay to refuse to shake hands with a woman—these are cracks in the wonderful multicultural society we have.

Rather than ignore these issues or bury our head in the sand and say there are no problems, it is up to responsible members of this parliament on both sides to say that there are issues, to say that we need to concentrate on the things that unite us, rather than the things that divide us. If we do not call these things out, there will be other politicians who will come into this place who will say far more radical things, and they will be the ones attracting popular support. (Time expired)

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