Page 832 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 9 April 2014
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MS PORTER (Ginninderra) (12.19): I welcome the opportunity to speak on this topic and thank my colleague Dr Chris Bourke for moving the motion. For a long time Australia has been known as a welcoming country willing to give us all a fair go. I would say that the ACT in particular can be proud of that. Some would argue that when it comes to accepting migrants to our country, be it through refugee programs or through school migration, we are punching above our weight, though personally I believe we could do better.
Many would know that I am a beneficiary of an earlier migrant program, arriving here as a 12 year old with my parents and my sister through an assisted passage in the 1950s. As we know, and as many members have mentioned this morning, the ACT itself is one of the most diverse jurisdictions in Australia, with a very large percentage of its population having been born overseas. Many members have spoken about the way we celebrate this diversity in our community.
The ACT is also home to a number of educational institutions that welcome thousands of international students who come here to study each year. Further to this, Canberra, as the seat of Australia’s government, is also the home to over 90 diplomatic missions and embassies with many diplomatic staff employed from their home countries, which adds to our diversity.
Under ACT Labor we have seen Canberra blossom into one of the most inclusive and cohesive communities in Australia. Research has proven it to be true that a cohesive and inclusive community has many social and economic benefits. For example, it makes the ACT an attractive place for a skilled workforce across a range of fields, particularly when the government is focused on diversity and the economy, to come here and work.
It attracts tourism from all over Australia and, indeed, from the world to our major events and exhibitions. We saw this last year when we were celebrating our centenary, and it continues into this year, when we successfully hosted international events such as the women’s golf, rugby and cricket matches. As I have previously stated, we have attracted international students to our world-class tertiary institutions.
Madam Speaker, this is necessarily a good thing and something that needs to be nurtured and protected because, as you know, there are disturbing developments that can threaten our community. As much as I do not like admitting this, it is true that racism is present in the Australian community today. It can be seen in incidents of racial abuse and harassment in public places and in bigotry.
Only recently we saw various incidents of racism at our major sporting codes, as has been mentioned this morning. I do not hesitate to commend the leadership of these codes on the swift action taken to address it. Mr Rattenbury reminds us of the Cronulla riots. Who can forget the infamous maiden speech made by Pauline Hanson to the House of Representatives. Many have said that this speech unleashed a torrent of racism through the Australian community at the time.
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