Page 524 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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Canberrans second and whatever they else want to be beyond that. They have fully integrated.
Let me give an example of this. In recent times the ACT Islamic Society have taken sensible and quiet steps to move on a very small but vocal group of extremists in their own community. They have moved to sort that out; they did not need our encouragement to do that. They had the backing and the support of ACT police. Our ACT police worked most sensibly and sensitively with them to sort out a number of extremist issues. The ACT Islamic Society sorted out the problems that they had with an Islamic preacher who they thought was simply not representing Australian values—who they thought was working against integration. The ACT Islamic Society took steps to ensure that Canberran Muslims continue moving down that path of integration. They were not prepared to allow a small minority of people to spoil the objective of integration. That is to be applauded. I single out the ACT Islamic Society as a group that really loves this country, that puts Australia first, and that took the necessary steps to take action. That is a concrete example.
We will not be seeing in the ACT the sorts of initiatives taken in south-western Sydney by Sheikh al-Hilali, who now seeks to organise an Islamic political party to stand for parliament. If you listen to what he and Keysar Trad, his spokesman, have said, their objectives are not Australia first; their objectives are something else. I simply make a comment in passing about that initiative being taken by Sheikh al-Hilali and hold it up as an example of where things are not integrating well in Sydney society.
You will not see that here in the ACT. Mohammed Berjaoui, Mr Ikebal Patel and people of that calibre are Australians first. They work hard to ensure that their own community is harmonious—and it is; it really is. I know that Mr Hargreaves has given some support in their direction, and I applaud that too.
The opposition are saying that the key, the cornerstone, to a successfully multiracial, multicultural or multi-religious society is the strength of its integration. Whatever we as an assembly can do, and whatever you as a government can do, to promote integration is what we must do. That is what the broader Australian community expects: the promotion of integration, by government as well as others.
I support the third element of Ms MacDonald’s motion, about the National Multicultural Festival. The multicultural festival is a very important part of our celebration of community. It is a concrete demonstration of how our cultures, whilst integrated, continue to celebrate their histories and continue to celebrate the great strengths of old homelands and old societies. That is as it must be. The opposition will stand shoulder to shoulder with the government to ensure that the multicultural festival is always successful in this town—at least as successful as we have seen in recent times. I think that this year’s was one of the best that we have ever seen.
The ACT opposition celebrate the ACT’s diverse societal make-up. We celebrate the fact that integration is the cement in what is a harmonious society. The ACT opposition call upon other societies across Australia to look at the model which is the ACT, to emulate that, and to perhaps head off the sorts of difficulties that occur in other societies.
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