Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Having grown up, worked and lived in the area that I represent, I have always been very grateful and humble to see the great talent that exists our way, great stories, great achievements and the prospect that people can go on and build better lives for themselves. But often it is the case in the area that I represent within Western Sydney, people have a degree of difficulty attached to their ambition. That degree of difficulty comes through a postcode bias that judges that people in certain postcodes in the electorate of Chifley have to work doubly hard to prove their worth, which I do not think is right. In this country we value skill regardless of your background, regardless of your wealth, regardless of your fortune and the generations that preceded you.

If you have got a good idea, you have got skill, you have got commitment, you should be able to get ahead. But that postcode bias, when I have students in my area say that they do not put their address on their resume because they want to get a better chance to get a job, really angers me. You can then appreciate, Deputy Speaker, the degree of anger generated in me and the people that I represent—my friends, neighbours and people in the community—when they see a promotion for a show on SBS, a national broadcaster that is supposed to promote a variety of voices in the public arena, mimic and mock those people based on where they live.

I have often, in the last few weeks, had to explain to people why there has been such a ferocious reaction in our area to Struggle Street. People watch the show and say, 'Isn't it important to put a spotlight on some of the struggles people have?' Yes, it is, but we are sick to the back teeth of problem definition. What we want to see is solutions. What will happen, as this show comes and goes, is continual reinforcement of the stereotypes. It will create a greater degree of difficulty, as I mentioned a few moments ago, for people trying to get ahead, people who think: 'If I have the talent and skill, can't I just be judged on that? Can I not have people either pity me or downgrade me on the basis of where I live—just judge me the way you want to be judged, on the skills that you have.' Struggle Street reinforces those negative perceptions. It stigmatises and it stereotypes. In particular, the way the promotion of the program mocked people was disgraceful.

There are a lot of concerns about the way SBS gained, or failed to gain, genuine informed consent. The way the production house, KEO Films, preyed on people to get footage—to take the mickey out of them and to mock them—is a disgrace. I intend to follow this up in future debate, because this should not stand.