Page 3585 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 8 December 1992
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Mr Humphries advises me that the Bill he is proposing was not the Bill to fix that problem identified last week, but something which, while it would have a similar effect, he had been working on for quite some time. He has tabled those documents. I have not seen them, but I accept Mr Humphries at his word. I apologise to Mr Humphries for those words quoted. Given the facts that I now know, Mr Humphries had not plagiarised the work we had done. I had been told by a journalist that Mr Humphries had indicated that he was going to fix the problem. We had been through what the problem was and how we were fixing it, and I had assumed that that was what Mr Humphries was doing. So, I withdraw those comments, Mr Humphries.
Mr Humphries: Thank you.
RACISM
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, I have received letters from Mrs Carnell, Mr Cornwell, Mr De Domenico, Ms Ellis, Mrs Grassby, Mr Humphries, Mr Kaine, Mr Lamont and Mr Westende proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with the provisions of standing order 79, I have determined that the matter proposed by Mrs Grassby be submitted to the Assembly, namely:
The need for positive measures within the community and schools to combat racism.
MRS GRASSBY (3.18): Madam Speaker, no-one here can deny that Australian society has vastly changed since Federation. Australia has progressed from being a British outpost on the edge of Asia to being one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. We in Canberra live in the most multicultural city in Australia, and that is why I wish to speak on racism and the positive steps being taken to stop discrimination and to educate our society in equality.
In 1901 the first Commonwealth Government legislated three separate Acts to entrench a policy that came to be known as the white Australia policy. This policy legalised racial discrimination as a reason to exclude potential migrants. At that time, Madam Speaker, to keep out migrants who were not of the same colour as most of the settled white Australia migrants, a test was given in many languages, always chosen so that the potential migrant sitting for the test was never able to pass it, thus keeping Australia white.
Madam Speaker, as many of us here are aware, it was due to Arthur Calwell, the Minister for Immigration in the Chifley Government, that the door was slightly opened to non-Anglo-Saxon immigration. The post-World War II immigration policy enabled many persons who previously would not have been welcome to come to Australia. In 1972 the Australian people elected the Whitlam Labor Government on a platform of reform. One of the most significant reforms was the dismantling of the white Australia policy, and the institution of a policy of multiculturalism and equality for all Australians. Twenty years later it is fitting that we consider whether our society has truly cast off its racist beliefs.
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