Page 1385 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 12 May 2021
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Nation. That woman and the people that she preselects for parliament have made a disgusting political profiteering racket for decades out of pushing marginalised Australians further into the corners. First, she told us we had to be afraid of First Nations people, and we told her to go jump. So she came back after a few years and she told us, “Actually, no, it’s Asian Australians you have got to be worried about.” A few people bought that but most of us told her to go jump. It did not take her very long to come back and tell us, “No, it’s actually Muslim Australians—I had it wrong this whole time—that you have to be concerned about.” And another five to eight per cent on the margins of Australia put her and her ilk in parliament based on that. She has not won much from those fear campaigns, so now it seems that Pauline Hanson and her ilk are solidifying around trans, non-binary and gender diverse Australians. I hope we will show them the door again on this one.
I grow frustrated because this is a political movement that has profiteered for decades by convincing working class Australians who are feeling a substantial change to their social and economic position that it is always the smallest, most marginalised and most vulnerable among us who are responsible for the economic and wealth pressures they are feeling. That political movement is convincing working class Australians that they should not be scared of the mega-rich like the gun lobby—which gave $6,000 to Mark Latham to help him buy his seat in the New South Wales upper House—or the mega-rich who avoid paying tax and supporting programs to help marginalised Australians—the mega-rich like Alan Jones, who gave $10,000 to Mark Latham to help him win his seat in the upper House. No, that political movement is trying to convince marginalised, poorer and working class Australians that they should be scared about First Nations people, Asian people, Muslim people, and, now, trans people.
Well, I have had it. I am pleased to see that this parliament has had it and that we are going to make that point expressly clear to the New South Wales state parliament. I hope that more Australians who have thrown their support behind Pauline Hanson, Mark Latham and other right-wing nut jobs because they are growing increasingly despondent about their social and economic position in a changing global landscape, start to ask themselves hard questions about what exactly they are supporting, who exactly they are putting into parliament and what exactly they stand for. Those right-wing people do not stand up for working class people as they profess to. They certainly do not stand up for marginalised and vulnerable Australians. They certainly do not stand up for transgendered, non-binary and gender diverse Australians. And I am incredibly proud that they do not have any place here in the ACT.
MS ORR: (Yerrabi) (3:37): I give my absolute support for my colleague’s motion and I praise the initiative taken to introduce this to the Assembly. First of all, I would like to express my disappointment at the Legislation Amendment (Parental Rights) Bill of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party. I have one word for it: nasty. I am truly appalled that we are, yet again, having to defend the rights of LGBTIQ people from being discriminated against under the law—this time defending minors from being discriminated against. This bill affects children who are at an age where feeling condemned, unsupported and hated has lifelong consequences. One can only imagine what it is like to question and struggle with your own identity at such a young age; but
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