Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to the following remarks made by Paul Howes, the National Secretary of the Australian Workers Union and a member of the government’s Future Manufacturing Industry Innovation Council. He is reported as saying:

We’re talking about (78) people on a boat. When you compare that to 50,000 visa overstayers, I reckon a lot of those visa overstayers are white …

And I reckon there’s not much concern about those visa overstayers because they are white.

Does the Prime Minister agree with me that the implication that Australians are racist is offensive? Will he disassociate himself from those remarks?

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