Motions Accorded Priority
Mr ANOULACK CHANTHIVONG (Macquarie Fields) (17:02): I have listened to contributions from members on both sides of the Chamber. Those opposite want to talk about a photograph published by the Australian Labor Party, but I will show members a different picture—it is members on the Opposition side of the House. That is diversity—it is me, the member for Bankstown and others. When it comes to diversity, NSW Labor has the runs on the board. Labor members are proud to represent the diverse communities in our electorates. In Macquarie Fields I represent a number of community groups, including Bengalis, Filipinos and Samoans. Every race is represented in my electorate, and I am proud of that fact. I am proud to be a New South Wales Labor member of Parliament from a diverse community to whom Labor has given the opportunity to represent his electorate and the values that our nation holds in great stead.
This is what NSW Labor offers the community: Labor will actively promote the right of everybody, regardless of their origin or religion, to seek any office—public or professional. That is the record of the Labor Party. Gesture politics in this Chamber is just as dangerous as race politics because it legitimises people's fears and anxieties and exaggerates their insecurity. Australia has a proud record stretching back to the 1940s and 1950s when the White Australia policy was still in play. The Australian Government launched the Good Neighbour Council in the 1950s to win public acceptance for mass immigration to Australia. That is a proud achievement. Our record on cultural and social harmony is second to none.
In 1973 Prime Minister Whitlam took three steps to take race out of Australian politics and government. He legislated that migrants to Australia would not be judged on their race and could become residents after three years, that race would not be a factor in selecting migrants to come to our nation, and that Australia would ratify all international treaties with regard to immigration and race. That is our a proud record. Gesture politics such as the motion before the House, which accuses the Labor Party of racism, supports race politics and dog-whistle politics. The Labor Party has a proud record of social cohesion and diversity. The Scanlon Foundation measures annually the level of social cohesion in the community and how Australians feel about social and cultural diversity. There are three statistics that I, and I am sure other Australians, find encouraging: 83 per cent of Australians believe diversity is a positive for the nation; 91 per cent of newly arrived Australians feel a sense of belonging in Australia; and 89 per cent of those born in Australia and 92 per cent of those newly arrived in Australia are happy about their life.
Those results are achieved not by accident but because civic and political institutions take a concerted effort to ensure that all people in the community are made to feel welcome and that every opportunity is afforded to them. Labor has a proud record in that regard. It was Labor that allowed a skinny kid with two long, funny names to put his name on a ballot paper to seek election to represent his community in Parliament. If those opposite want to talk about diversity, bring it on.
