Parliamentary Updates

15 August 2024

It's extremely concerning to see the opposition turn up today with this suspension of standing orders and the words and the rhetoric that we're hearing here. It goes directly against the advice of ASIO and the concern around the polarisation in our communities—that whipping up of a sense of fear and that inference that, for example, our services and systems are not working. What I'd like to share is the human story, the real story, about some of the people we're talking about and the lives we're talking about.

In 2020, I met a man called Mohammed at the North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club. He had come to Australia under a visa approved by the Morrison government under the same systems. He came to participate in a surf lifesaving skills program. He wanted to give the children of Gaza an opportunity to learn water safety, to not drown, to have something positive on weekends. They loved that program. They attended. Unfortunately, after the horrendous events of October, that program, of course, ended. The bombing started. Many people that participated in that program have died. Many of the children have died. These are normal families. These are families that you are seeking to paint as all being terrorists, who should all be mistrusted and who are not worthy of humanitarian aid.

This family, a beautiful family, where the father was trying to teach life-saving water safety skills to children of Gaza, came under the coalition. They were vetted by the same systems. Again, it's very easy to dehumanise people seeking safety. It's very easy to paint them with the brush that somehow they are all to be feared. But the reality is that we are talking about parents caring about their children—children who are at risk and are in a horrendous situation.

So, after the events and the horrendous situation they found themselves in, Mohammed sought to bring his family to safety, and he was able to. My community of the Northern Beaches—the community of North Steyne Surf Life Saving Club—rallied behind this family. They applied for visas, supported them and sponsored them, by hook or by crook. The details of how they were able to reach safety are quite incredible. They were able to get out, and I met with them only a few weeks ago in my office in Manly. They're beautiful children who deserve the opportunity to grow up, to go to school and to have an education.

So to suggest that families like Mohammed's family are not deserving of being able to escape a war zone and seek safety for their children is offensive, and it goes against what it is to be Australian, which is to be there for people in need and to offer safety and security to people who deserve it. So I am offended by the rhetoric from the Leader of the Opposition, the nature of this motion for suspension of standing orders and the continued attempts to divide Australian society on these lines and issues. We are better than this. We've just seen the Olympic Games, where we've got the idea that sport is bringing people together, and you are doing everything you can to separate and divide our communities.

We are a multinational, multicultural country, Member for Kennedy. We are multicultural, and it is important to remember that.