Page 7 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 25 February 2014
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Let me first turn to the offensive tweet. Madam Speaker, this minister is now known nationwide for one of the most inept and offensive acts ever conducted by a member of parliament anywhere in the country. Retweeting such an extraordinarily offensive and abusive message about the federal education minister is not just beyond the norms of political conduct. It is practically beyond belief. Teachers have told us that if they had behaved as the minister had done and retweeted such vile and offensive material they would have been severely disciplined, if not sacked.
The criticism not only comes from us but from almost every observer of this debacle. As the federal education minister said himself, “If I’d done that, before my head hit the pillow on Thursday night I would have resigned or been sacked.” The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women said, “Ms Burch’s behaviour indicated she lacked the judgement required to discharge the responsibilities associated with her position. Politics may be a rough game, but there is a basic standard of human decency which Ms Burch seems to lack.”
Madam Speaker, I have spoken with a number of federal and interstate colleagues, and let me assure you that her credibility as a member, let alone the chair of the ministerial council on education, is shot. This is not made any better by Joy Burch’s delayed and stumbling excuse for sending the tweet—that she had pressed the send button instead of the delete button.
Many of us use Twitter in this place, as do representatives of the media. Joy Burch had previously tweeted or retweeted 1,116 times. We all know that her excuse is nonsense and a lame attempt to cover up what was an abjectly stupid and abusive action. What sort of example has this set? What culture now permeates the minister’s directorates? How does this minister address cyberbullying in schools when she engages in it herself? Sadly, Madam Speaker, causing insult and offence is a skill at which this minister excels.
As Minister for Multicultural Affairs she cannot seemingly comprehend how someone dressing up as a Nazi and then stripping in the middle of the National Multicultural Festival might be insensitive, insulting and offensive to a great many people. Who of those opposite, I ask, will stand in this place today and say that they condone this act and support the process that led to it?
Do not discount the insult this has caused, Madam Speaker—not to me, not to Mrs Jones, but to members of our multicultural community. Diana Abdul-Rahman, the chair of the Canberra Multicultural Community Forum, spoke out for the multicultural community following this stupid act. Let me quote what she said on ABC radio:
It insulted quite a few people along the way, definitely the German community and of course our friends in the Jewish community, it is just simply unacceptable.
What happened on the weekend had nothing to do with multicultural community and nothing to do about free speech. Ms Abdul-Raman continues:
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