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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1023 ..

MRS LITTLEWOOD (11.27): I would like to commend Mr Wood for having brought this matter forward today, as I think it is terribly important, and I think it is important that we have some comments on it. Like Mr Moore, I believe that people have the right to free speech, and I will defend their right to speak irrespective of how ridiculous that may be. I do not wish to make any political points today. Really, I wish to send a message to the community of Canberra and, I suppose, the community of Australia who are non-English-speaking and non-Anglo-Saxon.

As members of this house may be aware, I spent my formative years growing up in a town which I believe was probably the first multicultural town in Australia, Cooma. It grew like that from the Snowy Mountains scheme. I went to school with people from every nation around this world and I appreciated what they had to offer. I very much appreciated being part of their community, as well as them being part of mine. I believe it gave me a much broader understanding of the world and some of the problems. At a young age, even though I had not travelled overseas, I felt I knew far more of the world because of their input. I very much appreciate what our migrants have done for this country. I really admire their courage in leaving their country of origin and coming to a completely foreign place, without having our language, without our customs, and many other things that confronted them when they arrived.

To the members of our community who fit within that category, I really would like to say this: I appreciate you and I hope that what is happening with the Pauline Hanson debate is not impacting on you too dramatically. I am quite sure that the majority of Australians do not hold that point of view. I suspect that some of the polling, rather than having a racist component, may indicate a frustration at previous political correctness. I do hope that our ethnic community and our Aboriginal community hang in there and really do take some heart from what is being said here today.

MR OSBORNE (11.29): I will be brief this morning, but I would like to leave no doubt about my opinion of Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party. Mr Speaker, I believe that Ms Hanson is a dangerous racist imbecile. Her political ideas are repugnant and her supporters are badly misguided. In spite of Ms Hanson's protests to the contrary, there is no doubt in my mind that she is a racist. Having quickly skimmed through this book, I think it proves it. On page 77 the question is asked, "If racism is such an evil, why did God create races?". This is the same kind of vile and poisonous thinking that fooled whole societies into supporting slavery and cultural genocide in the past.

Mr Speaker, I am a proud Australian and I firmly believe that Australians are, on the whole, among the most tolerant people on earth. The fact that we have managed, until recently, to be home to so many diverse cultures without falling into the ethnic violence that typifies so many nations is proof enough of that. I appreciate the easygoing tolerance of the currency lads and lasses and the vibrancy and goodwill of the many cultures that have joined us at all stages of our development, but in greatest numbers since the Second World War. I also believe that we owe the traditional owners of this land no less respect than we demand for ourselves. After all, it was their home first.

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