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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1027 ..

MS REILLY (continuing):

prominence that she has. There has not been leadership shown in the Commonwealth Government at this time. The action taken by Bill Wood today and the words of the rest of us now will show leadership to the community, as we should in view of the positions that we hold. This will show what we should be doing and what we should be looking for in a community to hold all of us together and to recognise difference. We should recognise the diversity of our community and be proud of it.

It would be interesting to know what the response has been for those right-wing paranoid hacks behind Pauline Hanson who provided material for her so-called book. It must be amazing to them to get the publicity which they are getting at this time. For all the years they have been peddling this tripe they have never managed to get the response they are getting now. You wonder what sort of community it is that gives so much airplay and wastes so much print on this unsubstantiated rubbish. It has been referred to as shallow today. I think that is too deep a description for the rubbish that it is.

One of the complaints of Pauline Hanson is the fact that there is positive discrimination; that Aboriginal people get more than others. We have a long tradition in Australia of positive discrimination. The oldest positive discrimination program is the one set up during the First World War for the returning servicemen, for the returned soldiers. Recognising that these people would need additional assistance, there was a system set up to help with jobs, housing and land. This continued for many years. We still have a Department of Veterans' Affairs.

If we can have positive discrimination for one group, why cannot we consider it for a number of groups within our community? Why cannot we consider it for Aboriginal people without having them vilified? Why cannot we recognise the special needs of people coming from other communities? Why cannot we recognise their courage and bravery in coming this far to a new community with a new culture and a new language? Why cannot we recognise the contribution made by these people to Australia by helping them to set up house, helping them to raise their families and assisting them with education? If we can have positive discrimination in one part of the community, why cannot we have it in the community as a whole?

We continue to give other forms of assistance to many groups in our society. Consider business. Business gets assistance with tax in a whole range of ways. It gets assistance with health systems. It gets assistance through school fees. So we are quite happy to give assistance in some parts of the community, but when it is assistance to Aboriginal people it is seen as bad; it is seen as giving something for nothing. Aboriginal people also contribute to our community.

Apart from the leadership that we can provide by the statements we make today and by the statements we make in other public areas - hopefully beyond just dinner parties; I think we have a much broader role than that - we need to take other action. Consider the book that she has produced. We should make an agreement that we do not purchase that book. We should consider the bookshops that are offering it and write to them and bring to their attention that it should not be given any shelf space. (Extension of time granted)This is a way in which we can show leadership to the rest of the community about what we consider are the attitudes and opinions of Pauline Hanson and those faceless men behind her.

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