Parliament Updates

9 September 2024

I am very pleased to speak on this very important issue and I thank the member for Macnamara for his very important contribution. This motion calls for better political debate and for making sure that race and ethnicity is not used as a political tool in this place, especially when it comes to populist positioning. It is absolutely vital that we elevate the national debate in this place and call out when race and ethnicity are being used as a political tool to polarise a debate, often relying on misinformation. As democratic representatives, we should strive to provide leadership on difficult issues and learn from history the danger of using division for political gain.

In my maiden speech to this place in 2019, I said that while this may be a place of robust debate, it is time for a more respectful approach and accountability. That remains as true today as it was five years ago and sadly the tenor of the debate has too often not improved sufficiently and certainly not met the level that our communities expect. The Set the Standard Report illustrated that we have a lot of work to do to reform the culture in this place. The Parliamentary Leadership Taskforce, on which I sit, has worked diligently to implement the recommendations of Set the Standard and another key recommendation will be actioned this week: debate on the bill to establish the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.

But ultimately, culture has a way to go and can't just be about our recommendations and reports. We have seen the implementation of the campaign ‘Stop It at the Start’ which seeks to tackle disrespect and it is asking young Australians to consider disrespect and to call it out and it is pivotal in this crisis of domestic violence that we have. As the member for Mackellar has said we also need a campaign to stop at the top. Disrespect starts from leadership. It gets given permission when leadership shows disrespect. A few weeks ago the level of noise, interjection and yelling that was experienced in this chamber by myself and others was nothing like I have experienced in any professional environment and was totally unacceptable. Many of us on the cross bench frequently experience that behaviour and it is unacceptable in any other workplace, as it should be in this place. Yelling, snide remarks, interruptions and even intimidating behaviour on the floor of the house during divisions: this is just incredibly unacceptable. Parliamentary behaviour needs to be modelled from the top, from party leaders, Deputy leaders, senior government and shadow ministers and whips. Disrespect is not robust debate.

I was seeking to bring, at the time, a human face to the refugee debate that is too often based on misinformation and fear mongering in this place. The opposition's motion sought to target vulnerable Palestinian refugees in a way that we have not targeted any other group fleeing a war zone. I was calling for a humanitarian response to a conflict for people seeking safety. An issue, as the member for Kooyong and McNamara has identified, that is tearing at the fabric of our social cohesion because it is so polarising and so raw and emotional. It is so important that race and ethnicity is not used in such a situation.

We do need to talk about racism in our society. Too often calling racism out is castigated more than racist conduct itself. For those experiencing racism it is deeply traumatising and a harmful experience. It harms social cohesion and it is a threat to national security. It's telling that those offended by racism being called out are too often not the ones who actually experience racism.

We all pride ourselves on being a multicultural society but because of this multiculturalism and celebration of it, many believe racism cannot possibly be a major issue, even if it probably exists. Yet, a major survey recently conducted by the ABC found that 76 per cent of Australians from a non-European background have experienced racial discrimination based on their ethnicity. We often rightly call out anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as many contributions on this debate have identified but too rarely do we call out racism and especially racist policy. That is why it is important. Policies that are inherently racist are designed to foster fear and hatred of a minority group and the fear of the consequences of calling out that racism means the policy itself does not get examined and sufficiently called out. I think it is important and I hope that we can move onto a more respectful debate in this place but also embrace our multiculturalism in more than just words alone.