Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The point I am of course making here is that you shouldn't tarnish a large group of people because of the sins of a few members of that group. You shouldn't do it. And that's what this motion seeks to do to Muslim people. That's what it seeks to do. We are saying very clearly that of course there are Muslim people who do bad things. Of course there are Christian people who do bad things. Of course there are atheists who do bad things. There are people in most groups in our community who do bad things. You shouldn't tarnish the reputations of an entire group of people because some members of that group do bad things.

We're going to stand up for reason in this debate. We are going to stand up for facts to be placed on the record. And we are going to stand up against the ongoing demonisation of Australia's entire Muslim community by people like Senator Bernardi who believe it is in their political interests to do that. That's what we are standing up for here today: for fairness, for an acknowledgement that every group of people that has a reasonable number of people in it is going to contain people who do bad things. But we shouldn't be tarnishing those entire groups of people because of the actions of a few. That applies to the Christian churches that ran protection rackets for paedophiles as much as it applies to any other group. So I urge members to let motions be debated, to put facts on the record rather than making stuff up—like Senator Macdonald has and like Senator Bernardi has—and not tarnish large groups of people because of the actions of a few.