MOTIONS
Senator FARUQI (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (12:22): Finally, after three decades of piling hate and racism on Muslims, Asians and people of colour, at least some of us in this chamber want to hold Senator Hanson to account. Of course, the decades of harm that One Nation and Senator Hanson have caused to people of colour, Muslims and Asians by her racism and dog whistling won't be taken away by this motion, but it is a start.
Eight years ago, when Senator Hanson did this pathetic stunt for the first time, there was no Muslim in this chamber. There were no Muslim women in this chamber. There are two of us now, and we have been making sure—and we will make sure in the future as well—that racism and Islamophobia is called out every time and that people who perpetrate it are held to account.
It says so much about those sitting opposite me. They talk this talk of a wonderful multicultural nation. I must say that when I came here first, in 1992, I did think that the richness of people that came here from all parts of the world was what made this country so fantastic.
But you can't just speak words. You can't just speak words and not call out what is actually happening— Senator Canavan interjecting — The PRESIDENT: Senator Faruqi, please resume your seat. Honourable senators interjecting— The PRESIDENT: Senator Faruqi, I've asked you to resume your seat.
This debate will be heard in respectful silence. Senator Canavan interjecting— The PRESIDENT: No, Senator Canavan! If you can't do that, leave the chamber.
There will be no interjections and no comments from anywhere. I want to be very clear about that. When I request a senator to sit down, Senator Faruqi, that's exactly what you do.
Senator Canavan, when I say to you 'no interjections', that is exactly what I mean. Your leader has just been on her feet saying, 'We support what the President does.' That means, when I require you to be quiet, you are quiet. Senator Faruqi, please continue.
Senator FARUQI: The coalition try to talk the talk, but when it actually comes to the crux of it, they want to remove anything of consequence in this motion and talk in abstract terms about everyone being respectful to everyone else. Sure, we should all be respectful, but this is a particular instance where the motion says that this one senator has vilified and mocked people based on their Muslim religion.
It talks about disrespecting Muslim Australians. It talks about disrespecting parliament. So you want to remove all of that, and you just want to talk about respecting each other.
Well, this is where respecting each other and just talking the talk has got us. This parliament drips now in racism because for decades politicians—and both major parties, can I say—let it happen. Today, there's a senator here who effectively said that he hates Muslims.
That is what it has come down to because you all let it happen, and I won't let that go. I won't let that go, because for years Muslims have been warning you all that, if we don't deal with this now, this is where it'll end up. Christchurch happened when an Australian man mercilessly murdered 51 Muslims.
This country did nothing. The dog whistling on migrants goes on. The dog whistling on refugees goes on.
It's done by both major parties. It's done by the media. That is what has legitimised what we see in this chamber almost every other day.
Yes, this motion is good. It's finally holding someone to account. It's finally holding Senator Pauline Hanson to account for the pathetic old tactic that she used in the chamber yesterday.
Yes, that's a step forward, but there is so much more to be done. On the minister's shelf there is a road map that has been gathering dust for the last 12 months—the National Anti-Racism Framework. Take that off the shelf, dust it off, put funding into it, and start implementing it right now.
If you say that there are some red lines and that one red line is racism and discrimination, then do something about it. Nazis are literally marching on our streets, and that is being allowed to happen in New South Wales by the New South Wales Labor government. A motion is good, but that is nowhere near what we need to do.
Every single person in this chamber should be forced to do antiracism training. That has been a recommendation for a long time of various committees and frameworks. Let's start there.
At the end of the day, unless discrimination, racism and inequity for First Nations people are ended, nothing will change, because this country was built on violence, on racism and on discrimination against First Nations people. Today, as a Muslim woman who has faced this racism and discrimination from the day she stepped into public life, I plead with you to act on it, because it gives me no pleasure to say I warned you, when I stepped into this parliament, about where the normalisation and legitimisation of racism would lead to.
Let this motion today be a wake-up call. Let this be the start of actually dealing with structural and systemic racism that pervades this country. Let that be grounded in justice for First Nations people.
The PRESIDENT: Before I call Senator McKenzie, I'm not having advisers at the back of the chamber walk around. If an adviser is in here, they are sitting in the box, not standing up. It's a privilege to be in here.