Page 146 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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approach to this particular portfolio. I have invited him, I have shared the stage, I have invited Liberals, I have invited the Greens, to take part in almost every function that I had in my capacity as Minister for Multicultural Affairs and afterwards. Now, all of a sudden, it is okay for an amendment to be dropped on the table to me with no consultation about it whatsoever.
Mr Doszpot: You’re telling porkies again.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, Mr Doszpot suggests that I tell porkies. He cannot suggest that I have been consulted on this amendment.
Mr Doszpot: My office consulted with you this morning.
MR HARGREAVES: He has not consulted me on this amendment, and it is not good enough at all. Because of relevance deprivation, and that is all it really is, you have to have a slice of the action. What is wrong with supporting a motion which is saying that our Multicultural Festival is a great thing for celebrating cultural diversity? What is wrong with supporting a motion which says the ACT community was standing out there, at one point, alone, to get rid of discrimination? What is wrong with supporting something which says this is a welcoming city? Mr Doszpot’s amendment takes out the notion of a multicultural city. Mr Speaker, I understand I can talk to his amendment when he moves it.
Mr Doszpot interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Doszpot, you will have a chance to give your response in three minutes and 35 seconds. I would ask you to listen to Mr Hargreaves in silence, as challenging as that is.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I understand that I have an opportunity to speak to this amendment later on.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, you will.
MR HARGREAVES: I have only just seen it, so I will address my remarks to it at that point.
I had hoped that members would have seen this motion that I have put forward for what it was. This is not a grab for glory for John Hargreaves. This is to celebrate our multicultural community and celebrate the way in which the ACT community has taken people under their wing. What part of telling the north African people from Taree who were rejected that they could come here is a bad idea? What part of Mr Stanhope’s invitation to create a processing centre here is a bad idea?
That is what this is all about. And it is not about us. It is not about people in this chamber; it is about the people out there. It is about people like Kathy Ragless, who has now got a well-deserved AM for her work, not only with Companion House but in the community, behind the north African soccer groups, and the fact that she has paid out of her own pocket to go and work in refugee camps in Thailand, Burma and places
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