Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm going to take the words of Reverend Tim Costello. I remember I was at a multicultural event with him a number of years ago, and he said that racism always starts with lack of understanding then fear, then hate. The more we work on that in Australia, the better it's going to be. I had the great privilege of looking after multicultural affairs for three years under former prime minister Scott Morrison, and then also under opposition leader Peter Dutton.

Overall, can I just say, Australia is a country which does embrace multicultural communities. I go to my local cricket teams in La Trobe, and a number of years ago you wouldn't see a Sri Lankan or Indian kid there, and now the clubs are booming with the Indian and Sri Lankan cricket players. It makes a huge difference to get involved. When it comes to sport, sport is one of the key things which bring everyone together. The AFL, I must admit, has had their issues over the years, but they've taken a very strong stance now. If anyone in the crowd racially abuses a player, they're not only kicked out of the game but normally banned for some time.

I also think it's important, when I talk to multicultural groups, to say to them how important it is to keep the mother language at home when they speak to their children. Make sure that the mother tongue is the language they speak at home. The reason is it helps the youngster keep that traditional spirit alive. In fact, in my home the No. 1 language is not English; it's actually Cantonese. My daughter is only 11, and she speaks Cantonese fluently and Mandarin. I always know when I'm in trouble; when I hear the name 'Daddy' or 'Jason' mentioned in Cantonese, I've done something wrong! But it's great to have that in the household. I must admit, when I first started going out with my wife, Judy, I tried to impress her relatives in Hong Kong by speaking a bit of Cantonese. I tried to say, 'She's a beautiful young woman', which is 'leng lui', but I said 'leng lou', 'She's a beautiful old man.' It's very important to get language correct.

When it comes to discrimination, we had that awful terrorist attack in Christchurch a number of years ago. I acknowledge the work of former prime minister Scott Morrison, who gave me the great task of looking after the community safety fund for places of worship. When it came to Jewish communities, we put funding towards the synagogues and the schools. Even back then I was shocked when I went to some of these schools. In particular, I think it was in Western Australia, I could feel the fear in those communities when I met with them. The great news was that we ended up delivering funding for those groups. It was the same with mosques. I also intervened on the Islamic Museum of Australia in Melbourne. I must admit I was a bit annoyed when the Labor Party took me to the Auditor-General because I intervened to actually assist the mosques and a number of Indian Sikh groups. A lot of these groups couldn't put in the application; they didn't have the money to pay the high-level consultants. But when you went and met them, you realised there was fear. In particular, there was fear for the Buddhist community. Their religious leaders were staying back overnight and sleeping at the places of worship. You had, I might say as a former police officer, druggies breaking in there and stealing the collection boxes and potentially putting the religious leaders in danger. That funding worked very well in ensuring those places were protected.

More always needs to be done. Again I come back to sport and my daughter. It's great when you see the kids play together. They don't know the difference between nationalities or backgrounds. Kids just want to play. I think sport and children are the way forward. I'll leave it there. Again, it's very a important day, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

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