House debates

Monday, 21 October 2019

Motions

Discrimination

11:24 am

Photo of Bert Van ManenBert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank my good friend, the member for Moreton, for bringing this motion to the House because both of us represent communities that have a large multicultural component to them. In Logan there are some 217 different cultures represented, and I suspect the member for Moreton's electorate wouldn't be too many fewer than that. It would be pretty close.

It tells a story, as the previous speakers have on this motion, of the wonderful success story that is Australia. It's the wonderful success story of a multicultural society that is the envy of the world. I reflect on that as somebody whose parents came out from Europe in the mid-sixties. But I also reflect on that in the context of the electorate that I represent. At first, it was largely settled by German immigrants back in the 1860s. So it's not just that large flow of migrants to Australia after World War II and in the subsequent years but it's also a story that goes back well over 100 years, with migrants coming to this country—whether they were the Chinese for the gold rush or the Germans, particularly, escaping persecution in Germany at that time for religious beliefs—to seek a new and better life.

We should be very proud as a nation of our success in this area, because it's through the shared experiences that our migrants have brought to this country that we have built the country we have today. It is their ingenuity, their hard work and their willingness to get involved in our community which have created the communities that we live in today. Whether they are from European backgrounds, or have an Asian cultural heritage or a Middle Eastern cultural heritage, all those people bring something to the fabric of our society.

This is where I think it's incredibly disappointing that we see people in our communities who are prepared to vilify and denigrate those with a different cultural background. It brings nothing to our society or to strengthening our communities to denigrate somebody else because of their cultural beliefs or views. It fails to recognise the facts of what these people bring to our society. I'm pleased to say that in my electorate, unlike some of the stories we've heard from others, that has been a rare occurrence.

I look at some of the contributions by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in the floods we had several years ago, and the work that they did to get out into the community and support flood victims by cleaning up their houses, making sure that they were fed and helping to restore their property and their lives, and what was really satisfying to see was that they worked hand in hand with the Christian community groups to do those things. It was not, 'Oh, the Christians are over here and we're Muslim, so we're over here.' All of those community groups came together to support people in our community who were going through a very difficult time.

My local Islamic community group, particularly the mosque at Eagleby, was traumatised by what happened in Christchurch. In speaking to them, I made it very clear that they had my support, that I did not for one minute support what happened over there and that it was not my view of how our community worked and operated. Those at the mosque at Eagleby—quietly, I might add—do lots of little things in our community that helps to strengthen it. It's interesting: the design of the mosque there is not a traditional mosque design. When driving past, most people wouldn't know that we had a mosque in Eagleby. But they get out and are involved quietly in the community, just making it a stronger and better place.

It's people from all walks and all cultures who have built this country, and we should be extraordinarily proud of them. We should continue to call out, as this motion has done, those who seek to vilify and denigrate the people who have made this country what it is today.

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