Page 691 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 19 March 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
community have also expressed that through flowers and messages. Tonight I will be joining the Chief Minister at Canberra Nara Peace Park to come together with members of the Canberra community for Christchurch and to support our Muslim community during these dark times.
The Canberra Muslim Community President, Mainul Haque, said to us and to his members of the mosque last night that the national dialogue must change. Let us take time this week, including on Harmony Day on Thursday, to promote peace, inclusion and harmony, to stand with our Muslim community members in Canberra and to stand with all New Zealanders and the New Zealand Muslim communities that have been so badly affected, and support them. As New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said so powerfully, “They are us.”
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (10.38): As representatives of the people of the ACT, we stand united today in this chamber. A profound sense of grief and a deep sense of shock have impacted so heavily on our community here in Canberra. We in this place carry a heavy responsibility to speak in a way which conveys, from each of our various perspectives in this place, the loss that is felt by the people of the ACT.
On a great many occasions over the past 25 years, my calculation is that several thousand times I have led people of faith who have come together. There have been a great many moods and experiences in those thousands of times, but there have always been constants. They are times of community, of trust, of significance and of peace.
For those who gathered in the mosques in Christchurch last Friday there was, I am sure, a similar sense of community, of trust, of significance and of peace, because the people who gather as part of one of the three Abrahamic faiths have at the very core of their identity a deep understanding that we travel this world with those who are similar to us, as well as those who are different. And that same identity is shared with people of other faiths and people of no particular faith framework. It is the central part of our human condition.
When that identity, that understanding and those expectations are broken, it is truly devastating. The horrific events of last Friday in Christchurch, New Zealand, not only shattered those communities of faith but devastated the people of that city and of that country. Those events have shaken us and have wounded us on this side of the ditch because of the strong and warm bonds that we share.
At a time when so many words are being spoken, the reality is that no words can be sufficient. Our grief is at times most clearly articulated in silence. Our resolve to address individual and collective failures is demonstrated in our ongoing action. To the people of New Zealand, the people of Christchurch, the people of the communities of the Al Noor and Linwood mosques, we convey our deepest condolence and sympathy at this time which is beyond description. To the Islamic communities in Canberra we express our deepest regret for the times that they have been isolated and excluded.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video