Page 3596 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 8 December 1992
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Now I come to the question of the community - "The need for positive measures within the community". What is racism? It is very difficult to identify. We have seen the goings on in Germany which the media like to call the rise of neo-Nazis, et cetera. I do not know enough about that to comment with any authority. I do understand, and Mrs Grassby referred to this in her comments, that the unemployment levels that exist in Germany and the influx of people from the East since the wall came down and the break-up of the Eastern bloc have obviously put a great many pressures upon the employment opportunities in West Germany, and that may be a contributing factor. That is one aspect that perhaps you could say is racism.
Would we also call racism any criticism of people I would term the overseas heroes, the people who demonstrate here in Australia about matters that are going on in their own countries? We give them the right to do that. I do not find it offensive, but I do know that other people object very strongly. Again, is that racism? I am not convinced that it necessarily is, but it might be in some people's eyes. Is deploring the actions of a particular race or country necessarily racism? For example, is the attitude of the Israelis at the moment towards the Arabs, particularly in relation to the Intifada that is still going on in Israel actually racism? I know many people who have Jewish friends who deplore that activity in Israel. Again, is that a mark of racism? I do not know.
If I could take it into the sporting field, Madam Speaker, is the fact that I am prepared to support Australia against either the Pakistanis or the West Indians in the one-day matches evidence of racism? It depends on how you wish to look at these things. Or should we be even more selective? We on this side of the house were rebuked for talking about Vietnamese nurses; yet I read in the papers regularly complaints about New Zealand shearers and I hear Labor members of the Federal Parliament complaining about them. Is this a form of racism? If you cannot answer those questions, I do not know how you are going to take positive measures to combat racism.
Mrs Grassby: I do not think you understand racism.
MR CORNWELL: One thing I hope we never do is do what your husband did, Mrs Grassby - start burning books because you did not like what was written in them. That, after all, is something that somebody else did - - -
Mrs Grassby: I think it is a very good thing. I think it is disgusting to have a book that calls people bad and evil because they come from India.
MR CORNWELL: I also think it is disgusting to start burning books.
Mrs Grassby: I think it should be burnt. I would burn it too.
MR CORNWELL: What are you going to do?
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