Fiona Martin (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion put forward by the member for Scullin. Australia's record of successful migration and multiculturalism is something to be celebrated. It has underwritten our economic success and our cultural achievements. At a time when we need to come together to face the challenges the coronavirus pandemic poses, we have instead seen some people use this crisis to incite vile acts of racism against Chinese Australians. Racism occurs on a spectrum. Its earliest symptoms are ignorance or avoidance. It can quickly escalate into verbal abuse or physical violence. Sadly, the coronavirus pandemic has seen the full spectrum of racism rear its ugly head here in Australia. From as early as January, fake reports targeted Sydney suburbs such as Burwood, Rhodes and Eastwood because of their large Chinese-Australian communities, discouraging people to visit these suburbs or Chinese-Australian owned businesses. Since then, many Australians have seen images and footage of Chinese Australians or international students being verbally or physically assaulted. I will put it as bluntly as I can: racism has no place in our society—not now, not ever. There is never an excuse for racism. Thankfully, these acts have been isolated incidents which have been widely condemned by the Australian people and also by our Prime Minister.

Most Australians are horrified by such appalling displays. We are a nation with a proud migrant history. We hold the reputation of being the most successful multicultural country in the world. In my electorate of Reid, over 18 per cent of my constituents have Chinese ancestry. They form a community that demonstrates strong family values, a high work ethic and a desire to contribute to society more broadly. Many others are international students who have chosen to better their lives by seeking a world-class education. The majority of Australians, over 85 per cent, believe multiculturalism has been good for Australia. In the last budget, we committed $71 million to a social cohesion package aimed at bringing Australians together. This package invests in programs that embrace Australia's multicultural diversity and is aimed at enhancing the everyday experiences of Australians: how we communicate, how we live and how we engage with each other. The most recent department of education survey of 80,000 international students found that 95 per cent of students listed personal safety and security as one of the top reasons they chose to study in Australia. The satisfaction levels of living in Australia were above that of other similar countries, at 90.4 per cent. As the Prime Minister has said, it was our Chinese-Australian community that acted as our first line of defence against the spread of the coronavirus.

The coronavirus outbreak coincided with Chinese New Year celebrations at the start of the year, when many Chinese-Australians were returning from holidays in China. Our returning citizens and permanent residents voluntarily took up self-isolation. As a result of their actions, our whole community was sheltered from the earliest wave of the pandemic. It brought us valuable time to prepare our health system, close our borders and implement plans to mitigate the spread of the virus. People are entitled to have their grievances with the World Health Organization or to express their frustrations towards the Chinese government's response. One of the strengths of our democracy is that we can have such debates in a respectful and productive way. What is never acceptable is when members of our community take out their grievances on their fellow Australian citizens of Asian descent.

I would certainly be remiss if I did not also acknowledge the recent refocus on the rights of our First Nations people, who continue to face disadvantage and discrimination as a result of Australia's colonial history. As I said earlier this year in response to our Closing the Gap statement, we need to have an honest reflection on the significant work yet to be done. We will only be able to close the gap if we draw on the insights, knowledge and lived experiences of our Indigenous Australians. I know that we need to do better by our First Nations people in a goal shared by those on the other side. Australians overwhelmingly recognise that our multicultural communities have added to our nation, and our government is committed to supporting all communities to ensure that they succeed both economically and socially.

See this speech in context