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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3812 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

What I am trying to get at, Mr Speaker, is that we have gone through a lot during those 40 years. Perhaps people like the Federal member for Oxley should read history. Perhaps they should experience some of the things that people like me and others have experienced. As I said, it is very nice to know now that you are not called wog, dago or plonko. Yes, we were born overseas, and, yes, we do like red wine. It is not a bad drop from time to time. It took people like Al Grassby, and others, I must say, to put the word "multiculturalism" on the map, and thank God that they did. It is nice to all get together like we are going to do tonight and support a good motion as moved by the Chief Minister.

I am delighted to be able to stand up in a place where we can boast of people like Mr Stefaniak. I recall another candidate in the last election named Gregor Aouad, who was from the Middle East. Another, Sylvia Zamora, was from Latin America. I am aware of Ms McRae's Italian background. I have not forgotten you, Ms Horodny. I recall that Mr Westende came from Holland. Canberra, really, is the jewel in the crown in terms of allowing its citizens full access to social, political and economic life.

Mr Hird: What about the Irish?

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Hird asks about the Irish.

Mr Osborne: What about Lucy Horodny from the Ukraine?

MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, I mentioned Ms Horodny. We are not the token migrants. It gives me great pleasure when people say to me, "Yes, you are called De Domenico, but you were obviously born here because you speak English without an accent". My reply to that is that I speak English without an Italian accent because I speak Italian without an English accent. It is always good to be able to say that. I am delighted to be able to stand here and support the motion as presented by the Chief Minister, and I hope that all members of the Assembly will do the same.

MS HORODNY (10.05): Madam Deputy Speaker, the Greens are very happy to support Mrs Carnell's motion tonight. I want to read a paragraph from the Canberra Times of 3 November. It was in a letter to the editor from Robert Johnston of Rivett. In his closing paragraph he said this:

I am ashamed to admit that I agree with Ms Hanson in one respect: Aborigines should be treated the same as everyone else - their communities should have ready access to schools, quality medical and dental care, sanitation, good roads, and all the other infrastructure that mainstream Australia takes for granted.

I have to say that Robert Johnston of Rivett got to the heart of the matter here. Where is the equality between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians? Unfortunately, equality is not there. If we look at access to education, to health and to work, there is no equality at the moment, I believe. Maybe, in the view of some people, a lot of money is being spent on Aboriginal issues, but I believe it is a huge problem. It has been neglected for such a long time. We are not going to solve it overnight and we are not going to solve it without huge amounts of resources.

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