Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1021 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

community. If this Government was fair dinkum about creating an Australia "for all of us", they should be focusing on the growing gap between the rich and the poor. People in Australia are rightfully fearful about their future; they are concerned about high levels of unemployment. What our leaders will not stand up and say is that it is their economic policies that have led to the unacceptably high state of unemployment and erosion of economic security because we have been selling everything off and pursuing economic policies that are not bringing social or environmental benefits to most of the community.

Unfortunately, people from different cultural backgrounds, Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people are easy targets; but, sadly, they are being manipulated by this Government which finds it a convenient distraction from the main game, which is finding a sustainable future for all Australians. We need much more focus on equity in our society. Inequity and economic irrationalism are the single biggest cause of creating a divided community, not what colour or sexuality you are.

MR CORBELL (11.17): Mr Speaker, Pauline Hanson is a dangerous and divisive ideologue, and for that reason I believe it is important that this Assembly today state very clearly our opinion of the views that she is currently promoting within our community. This Assembly has to demonstrate leadership. We are elected as representatives of the people of Canberra to represent their views and to govern on their behalf. I think on this issue it is fundamentally important that we state clearly our views and, I hope, our overwhelming opposition to the views that Pauline Hanson has promoted. What Pauline Hanson does is promote divisiveness and hatred within our community, and the role of an elected representative is not to do that. We are here to help bind our community together; to make it a better place in which to live; to make it a fairer place in which to live; to make it a more peaceful place in which to live. When an individual goes out and deliberately spreads misinformation and innuendo for their own political purposes, they create divisiveness; they create hatred. That is what Pauline Hanson is doing. We, as an Assembly, have to reject that divisiveness.

What Pauline Hanson does, Mr Speaker, is this: She says that anyone who does not look like she does is to blame for the ills of society; anyone who does not speak English as their first language, anyone who does not have an Anglo-Saxon background, anyone who has not been in Australia for more than goodness knows how many years is to blame; immigrants are to blame; Aboriginal people are to blame; people from any different social background to hers are to blame. That is a horrible, misleading, divisive and hateful thing to say. But what we have to examine, as Ms Tucker raised earlier, is this: Why is she able to capitalise on her views and tap into the discontent and the feelings of insecurity that exist within our community? She is successful because people are willing to accept simplistic solutions to complex problems, just like they were able to accept a simplistic solution for a complex problem in post-World War I Germany - a breeding ground of mass unemployment, high inflation, disillusionment and a complete lack of social security. That is the same situation as we are beginning to encounter in Australia today. We are encountering it because of unemployment; we are encountering it because of homelessness; we are encountering it because people fear for their jobs; they fear for their future. Political parties of all persuasions have failed so far to adequately address these concerns.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .