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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3817 ..

MS REILLY (10.22): Looking at the amendment that Mr Humphries has put up and subparagraph (c) of Mr Whitecross's amendment, I am surprised, to some extent, at the objection, because tonight we have had two moving speeches on language and the importance of language to people coming from another culture who have to learn a new language. The speeches from Ms McRae and Mr De Domenico underlined how important language is. They also underlined how language can be used against people as well. I think that to cut out language at this point, considering the speeches that have been made tonight, would be sad. There is an opportunity to report on what a language policy could do.

In fact, this Government has already done a number of things. Look at the interpreter cards that they have produced and their support of other services that assist people with learning a language. I am not quite sure of the reason for their fear about that part of the amendment. If you look around this Assembly I would suggest that everybody here has come from somewhere else at some stage. It was sad to see that we use surnames as a marker about whether people came here recently or came from another place. There is nothing wrong with holding an Anglo-Celtic surname. In fact, it does not give you an indication of a person's background and what their cultural ties might be. I think it is also sad that we end up with almost like a hierarchy of ethnic groups by discussing it in that way. The point is that most Australians have come from another place at some time, apart from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent.

That aside, Australia has a proud democratic tradition that has fostered freedom of speech and freedom of political activity. We believe in giving people a fair go. We have been world leaders in giving votes to women, in setting up universal suffrage and in setting up a number of social welfare measures. These are things that Australians can be justly proud of. But, in order to continue to enjoy freedom of speech and political activity, we must always guard against losing these privileges. It is sad to see the current debate in this community in Australia dissolving into the ugly and often destructive discussions that have happened. We are seeing Australians abusing other Australians, taking away their freedom to live within this community of ours, through this discussion and through allowing the abuses that are going on currently in some places.

Australians have been willing at times to acknowledge our prior history and policies that are no longer acceptable. Consider how recently it was that we got rid of the white Australia policy. It was dropped from all political parties' policies and from government policies and programs. We have been willing to acknowledge over the last few years the fact that there was not a peaceful settlement of Australia. We have been willing to accept that there were people already living here. In fact, settlement from 1788 onwards was an invasion of Australia. There was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resistance to the European settlement of Australia. To recognise these things is a central part of any reconciliation process.

This willingness to change and to consider where we fit into the global stage has led to Australia becoming a decent society. Our cultural diversity and pluralistic society are two major indicators of the fact that we are a decent society. This ability to change and to maintain this climate of tolerance has strengthened our community as a whole, but we must continue to maintain the tolerance and to maintain the important and good parts

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