Page 2756 - Week 08 - Thursday, 24 August 2006
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Friday, 25 August 2006
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for the Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (12.00): Firstly, I thank Mr Pratt for his contribution to this debate. I think Dr Foskey’s contribution was abysmal. It was based on a position of weakness and absolute rank ignorance. I have to say, for the record, that I have had the pleasure of Mr Pratt’s company on many an occasion out there in the multicultural community.
From time to time we have to pay credit to our counterparts on the other benches for their commitment to multiculturalism, and I do. But I would like to ask Mr Pratt probably the most challenging question of his life so far. When was the last time you saw Dr Foskey at a multicultural event? I will keep going because Mr Pratt is going to take an awfully long time to actually try and figure that one out. The answer to that, Mr Speaker, is that it rarely happens. We never see her anywhere, and there is usually a pretty good reason for that. She is never invited to anything.
Mr Pratt: I have seen her at a significant number of them.
MR HARGREAVES: Well, I have not. Let me tell you, I walk with the community very, very significantly and I have not seen her at any of them. Why is that? It is because, in fact, she is irrelevant to the process. One day those opposite will form government and they will have the destiny of the multicultural community in their hands. At the moment we have, but the Greens will never ever have the reins of power. They will never have the ability to actually change a thing. That is why the people in the multicultural community, who are actually politically aware and astute, ignore her, as I intend to do.
I will say this, Mr Deputy Speaker. In her diatribe Dr Foskey said, “You did not give money to this person. You did not give money to this organisation. You did not give money to this. You should give money to this other activity. You should give money to ACTCOSS.” Did she say who was going to miss out so that those organisations could get that money? No, she did not. From the beginning of this debate she has not said which part of the community is going to suffer because another part of the community gets something. I think that is irresponsible on her part.
I just remind the good doctor of what happened in the Weimar Republic in 1927, I think it was, when people used to take a wheelbarrow to work to get their pay. The people in the Weimar Republic continually printed money. That is what she wants us to do—continually print money and hand it out. Well, it does not work that way. We have a sizable cake of resources and they have to go as fairly as we can distribute them.
Mr Deputy Speaker, you asked about the Ministerial Advisory Council for Multicultural Affairs and why it was not needed. There were two reasons, as I have articulated before to you and to the Assembly. One is that I do not believe that a globally appointed body can truly represent the smaller and emerging communities. It cannot. I challenge people to think about how one would go about appointing people to such a council. Is it ministerial favour, like the Prime Minister’s Muslim Advisory Council? That is not acceptable. There were awful difficulties with that.
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