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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4284 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

many years now. Ever since 1989 we have been gradually taking over functions that previously were accepted as being the domain of the Commonwealth. For anybody to convince me that discrimination in this community is a job for somebody else to worry about, they are going to have to do a lot of talking. It is our responsibility. The circumstances are right for us to take yet another function from the Commonwealth, which perhaps we should have taken a long time ago, but prior governments have been happy with the arrangements that were in place at the time.

It is timely that the Government is moving to establish our own Discrimination Commissioner to deal with matters that need to be dealt with locally, and all I can say is: The sooner the better. I do not see it as part of the job of accepting our responsibility to somehow say, "Somebody else is at fault for all our problems. It has to be the Commonwealth, it has to be John Howard, it has to be somebody else". We are responsible for what happens in our community, and I would have thought Mr Moore would have unreservedly given his support for the action the Government is taking to establish our own Discrimination Commissioner to deal with matters that occur in our community. I assume that, when the vote comes on the motion that the Bill be supported in principle, Mr Moore and every other member of this place will support it.

MR BERRY (10.48): I was not going to speak in this debate, but something Mr Kaine said in his contribution has caused the need for a few words in relation to the racism debate that is being fuelled outside in the community. Mr Kaine blames the media for the debate that has ensued. If it had not been for the Federal member for Oxley, there would have been no debate, and Mr Kaine ought to have referred to that Federal member when he talked about the racism debate that has developed in the community. He should also have mentioned that the Prime Minister sat back and let this debate develop to the stage that it has, and it is only in most recent times that we have heard the Prime Minister use the H word, the Hanson word. The people of Australia deserve better leadership on that front than they have received, and I think the Prime Minister has let the country down severely.

I am deeply disappointed that Mr Kaine would try to distract attention from the fact that it has been the leadership of this country, not the media, that has fallen down in the debate that has ensued on discrimination. The media have merely drawn attention to it in this case. With all their faults and the need for good front-page stories, the fact of the matter is that this debate could have been put to bed at the earliest moment had the Prime Minister not decided to let it rage for the time it has. The Prime Minister has let us down in relation to this matter, and I think Mr Kaine should try to relate to the facts as they have occurred rather than try to divert attention to people who merely report the events that occur out in the community.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.51), in reply: In closing this debate, may I thank members for their various contributions and for what I think is support for passage of this Bill through the Assembly today.

Mr Berry: You are welcome.

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you for that welcome. The legislation we have put before the Assembly is, in a sense, legislation designed to make a virtue of necessity.

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