Page 1181 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 29 March 2017
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In commemoration of the 1967 referendum, Old Parliament House was lit up in a dynamic lighting display celebrating our past achievements in tackling discrimination while recognising that we have more to do to ensure that our First Peoples enjoy the same quality of life as other Australians.
I was also delighted to see the sustainable development goals projected on the Questacon building, including goal 5, achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls, and goal 10, reducing inequality, including that based on income as well as on age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status. These are goals that form part of a universal, inclusive and indivisible agenda calling for action by all governments to improve the lives of people everywhere.
Enlighten was closely preceded by our famous National Multicultural Festival where more than 280,000 people celebrated all of the cultural diversity our city and our nation has to offer. The festival was celebrated with 419 stalls with 151 community stalls providing information, selling food and drink to raise money for their community work, and performing cultural and traditional dance.
At the same time in February rainbow flags were flying across our city to celebrate equality and to celebrate our commitment to one Canberra. For a long time we also have known Canberra as Australia’s friendliest city for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people. The flags were a bright and colourful statement of our commitment as an inclusive and welcoming city, but also one that is strong and taking leadership based on our values, our inclusive values, and to signal that our government values the inclusion of same sex couples in our nation’s laws by supporting marriage equality legislation in the federal parliament.
But it has not been just government that has stood up for equality during these past two months. In our airport, the Canberra Airport, they also chose to make a statement of equality with highly visible signs supporting the marriage equality campaign. We have seen hundreds of businesses here and around the country taking a role in speaking up for inclusion in their community through the marriage equality campaign, because businesses are part of, and have a legitimate stake in, our community and the debate on these issues. As Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said last week:
Qantas’ identity is the Spirit of Australia, and one of the most fundamental values in this country is the notion of a fair go. That’s why Qantas speaks up on gender equality. And recognising our Indigenous people. And for marriage equality.
This is a great example of a company championing inclusion because it is good for society and it has an economic side as well. There could not be a greater message for us here in the ACT when it comes to our university sector, which is a strength of our Canberra economy.
An open and inclusive society is so important when it comes to building our international reputation on which our education exports rely. We saw what happened in Melbourne with reported crimes and robberies that were allegedly racially
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