Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, 21 March was the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It marks the day in 1960 when police in apartheid South Africa opened fire on thousands of protesters who were peacefully protesting apartheid policies. That day, police murdered 69 people and injured more than 180 others. Many were shot in the back as they tried to flee.

In 1999, Howard changed the name of the day in this country to Harmony Day. Do you know why he changed it? He didn't want to talk about racism. He didn't want to acknowledge that this country is a very racist country if you're not white. He didn't want to acknowledge the racism that non-white people—black and brown people—experience every single day, at school, at the hospital, trying to get a job or trying to get a rental. Every day, this is what it's like for black and brown people in this country. So Howard says, 'Oh, let's just call it Harmony Day, because we can't talk about racism; that's too much.'

So where is the harmony? Where is the harmony in this country when we have the stolen generations continuing today, with five per cent—one in 20—of all First Nations children being removed from their families? So far, during every week in 2026, two Aboriginal people on average have died in custody. We're three per cent, and jailing of our people has just hit the highest rates ever on record, because of Labor. More than one in 50 adult First Peoples are jailed. Where is the harmony?