Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Everything that we say in this Senate chamber and everything that is said in the House of Representatives actually does matter. We might stand up here for minutes or for hours discussing all sorts of things, but the Australian people actually listen to what we say. There have been numerous comments on social media pages; there have been phone calls about the absolute hurt, disgust and distress at why this was something that the Senate would even consider.

The Senate has so many important issues to debate and to put forward in motion to improve the lives of disadvantaged people in this country and to improve the lives of all people of all colours, creeds and races.

When Senator Hanson moved the motion in here that it's okay to be white, I was looking for a champion on that side—a bit like Ron Boswell, a former Nationals leader who stood up, fought very strongly and knew, when it came down to it, that it really mattered that our country respected the differences and did so in a way that didn't denigrate and put down the lives of others. It is not okay to pinpoint, to humiliate or to make people feel that their achievements are less important than the next person's. When I sat in here and watched senators on the other side support the motion, I was looking for that Ron Boswell. I was wondering who was going to stand up and say, 'Hey, we're on the wrong side.'

We all know that Senator Hanson has form. We know in this Senate, in the parliament and right across Australia that Senator Hanson has form. The last champion who stood up against her sat in that seat: the former Attorney-General, George Brandis. Not only did we have a champion in him but all of this side stood up and applauded. What did we applaud? We applauded the real values of this country and that we will not tolerate racism; that we here in the parliament of Australia that represents all Australians will not tolerate racism. We will not accept it in any form, least of all a senator parading about in a very important guise that matters to so many Australians and not because there was any sincere intent—the intent was not sincere—to portray the different multicultural aspects of our country. That was not sincere intent, and George Brandis picked it for what it was. You failed to do that, Senator Cormann, and every senator on that side failed to do that.

There are moments when our country needs its leaders to see things for what they are. You were wilfully blind and wilfully deaf, and you come in here now and do not even have the graciousness to say, 'I'm really sorry.' Senator Dodson and myself, and Linda Burney in the House, as First Nations people, and other members of multicultural backgrounds, sit in here hoping that the parliament will always rise above those worst kinds of our human nature, which is what we must always unite in doing in this country. We must unite against those things that divide us based on our race and against those things that divide us on our disadvantage and differences in this country.

I am totally disappointed in the indigenous affairs minister. That is someone who should have been the champion on that side. That is someone who knows what it's like for First Nations people in this country to fight to have equal rights and to be unemployed to such an extent where they're being breached at extraordinary levels in this country, entrenching them in poverty to such a degree that it's a treadmill they cannot escape from. That is the champion we needed to see on that side of the Senate. The injustices that face First Nations people are injustices that continue. Just ask the families of Bowraville, who, decade after decade after decade, still do not have the answers to the murders and disappearances of their children.

Senators, there are 76 of us. We debate so many issues in this house, but there really does come a time when we have to call things for what they are. Motion No. 1092 was the most disgraceful day for our Senate.