House debates

Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Statements by Members

Immigration

1:54 pm

Photo of Milton DickMilton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I rise to repudiate the offensive and disgraceful remarks by Australia's immigration minister. Last week, Minister Peter Dutton stated:

The reality is Malcolm Fraser did make mistakes in bringing some people in the 1970s …

And, as if that were not bad enough, yesterday we saw the immigration debate in Australia brought to a new low.

I proudly represent one of the largest Vietnamese communities in Australia—hardworking men and women who fled a brutal Communist regime during the 1970s in the hope of a better life for their children and grandchildren. Over the past decades, like many in Australia, tens of thousands of Vietnamese Australians have greatly contributed to our society through just about every endeavour possible. In the south-west of Brisbane I am proud of my friends in the many Vietnamese senior associations who have achieved great success, particularly through business and commerce. They have worked so hard to see their children and grandchildren prosper, and I will not have their name and their contribution trashed by this minister and this government.

Today I call on the Prime Minister to show some leadership, apologise and reject his minister's comments. As the federal Leader of the Opposition remarked yesterday, enough is enough. Prime Minister, our hardworking migrant communities deserve better than a leader who wants to remove protections against hate speech and will not stand up to this sort of bigotry from a disgraceful immigration minister. I, like many members on this side of the House, will always stand up for multiculturalism in the great electorate of Oxley.