MOTIONS

Senator McKENZIE (Victoria—Leader of the Nationals in the Senate) (12:30): I rise to speak to Senator Ruston's amendment moved on behalf of the coalition. It affirms that Australia has been built by people of every race and faith, Senator Faruqi, through the chair, including white Australians. It reaffirms that Australia is a nation that welcomes different races, religions and views and is united by respect for each other and each other's right to live in peace.

Moving motions here and pointing the finger across the chamber and calling each other racists does nothing to move our joint cause forward, which is to continue to be the most successful multicultural nation on the globe. When you stand up and say 'all you white people' are somehow the problem, it does— Senator Thorpe: You are! Senator Canavan: There you go!

The PRESIDENT: I'm sorry, Senator McKenzie. Senator Canavan and Senator Thorpe, you are being rude to the point that I have to interrupt a senator's contribution. This debate is talking about respect.

Show respect for one another, whether you agree with the opinion or not. Senator McKENZIE: Thank you. It is beholden on us to demonstrate this unity in this chamber, in how we raise our children and in how we conduct ourselves in our communities, our streets and our country towns in a way that affirms the promise that Australia gives everybody, whether it's Senator Wong's family, who came here for a better future, or my own family, who came here for a better future.

That is the promise. Our motion also reaffirms that all parliamentarians have a role to play in upholding appropriate standards of behaviour in parliament. The very respect for diversity that we call on today in both motions before the chair and the very freedom to practise our faiths in this country are built on Judeo-Christian values.

Those are the values that mean we can have these debates. We can respectfully listen to a diversity of views. Muslim Australians, Christian Australians, Buddhist Australians and atheists can live their lives in safety and security.

For the last couple of years, we've been debating how Jewish Australians have been impacted by issues overseas and their right to worship in our suburbs and our cities. This is, as Senator Faruqi laid out, having a real impact out there in our communities, and not just for Muslim Australians. The values that allow us to have these debates, hopefully respectfully, here and outside, are not reflected in so many countries around the world, like North Korea, Somalia, Libya, Sudan or Nigeria, where 4,000 Christians were killed in 2024.

We do not have that issue in our beautiful democracy at the moment and nor should we wish it upon us. But the challenges that we see overseas, whether it is the persecution of people of faith, such as Christians in places like Nigeria, the impact of migration in Europe or, particularly, the United Kingdom, or in nations that have decided to ban the burqa—these are debates that we should have honestly and respectfully here in this country, not where we choose to appropriate religious symbols for political purposes.

I think there is a need for respectful and honest debate about migration and values in this country, but this chamber needs to be a place where all the diversity of opinions that our great country holds—and they're very wide, diverse opinions—is expressed. If you don't want to listen, as the President often says to me, and if you can't listen in silence, leave the chamber.

The contribution needs to be made anyway. People will violently disagree with my views on migration, on values and on the number of people that need to come in. They don't have to listen to me, but I do have a right and also a responsibility to express that view in this chamber.

That's what this chamber's for. I think, without violence, without murdering people of faith and without blowing up places of worship, we have a responsibility as senators, as executive, as citizens, as parents and as community members to be the very best leaders that we can be, not just in this chamber but outside of this chamber too. So I hope that all of us can honour the people and the diversity of views that have sent us all here and support the coalition's motion, which seeks to uphold our traditions and respectful debate here in the chamber, not the disrespectful way in which it was conducted yesterday.