4 years ago
UNITY OVER FEAR
ANDREW GILES MP
I rise to present to this Parliament a statement in support of unity over fear, a petition signed by over 80,000 Australians.
And to associate myself with its call – to say no to racism against Asian Australians. To say no to racism; and encourage all Members and Senators to join me.
I pay tribute to the organisers, to Jason Yat-Sen Li, John Yu, Benjamin Law, Su-Ming Wong, Tony Ayres, Annette Shun Wah, Albert Tse, Albert Wong, Adam Liaw, Benjamin Chow, Wesa Chau, William Yang, Brad Chan, Jieh-Young Lo, Claudia Chan Shaw and Cindy Pan.
Thank you – your leadership matters.
It has brought people together, shone a light and delivered a powerful call to action. Tonight, I bring this to Australia’s parliament. For those of us who have the privilege to represent our fellow Australians to respond to.
And I thank also everyone who signed the petition, who demonstrated their solidarity with this just and pressing cause. I acknowledge in particular those who shared their stories, bravely, generously and made clear what racism is and what it does.
Racism hurts people, damages lives and diminishes us all.
Its effects are both obvious and insidious: we need to stop the physical and verbal abuse but also recognise that the continued existence of racism shapes how people live their lives, denies opportunities and confines even the places people feel safe in visiting.
I seek leave to table a copy of the document containing the petition.
This will also be tabled in the Senate, by Senator Bragg. I thank him for doing so, and for taking a stand against racism.
It is critical that we strive for bipartisanship when it comes to confronting the scourge that is racism.
It is critical that our parliament unites in standing up for our multiculturalism, and for every Australian, in particular that we recognise that Chinese-Australians have been subjected to awful and shocking racism through the coronavirus pandemic and respond to this without equivocation.
I hope the way in which this petition is presented to the parliament goes some way towards this.
This evening, we start the process of recognising as a national parliament, that ending racism is a national responsibility – that when we say, we are all in this together, that we mean it.
Australia is a successful multicultural society, and the vast majority of Australians abhor racism.
But we can’t take this for granted.
As the petition states, in the course of the pandemic we have seen racism on the rise. Violent assaults on Asian Australians, abuse in the streets and on public transport, offensive graffiti and much more.
The data that we have from the Australian Human Rights Commission and the New South Wales anti-Discrimination Commission – and we should have better data – shows that covid-19 has driven a spike in complaints. This is echoed by the work of Being Asian Australian and the Asian Australian Alliance, whose survey has identified nearly 400 incidents targeting Chinese-Australians since April. Disturbing, this also found that the vast majority of these were not reported to the police. I recognise the role of my friend Osmond Chiu in this survey.
This is a threat to our social cohesion and national unity. It demands an unambiguous response, that all of us in leadership positions make clear our opposition to racism and our solidarity with Asian-Australians.
Working towards bipartisanship means supporting a common goal – confronting and defeating racism - and striving in good faith to achieve it.
How we do so will no doubt involve some disagreements along the way.
Let me be clear: I won’t rest until we have committed to a national strategy to tackle racism.
I’m proud to serve as Labor’s Multicultural Affairs spokesperson, and to have the chance to contribute to debate on modern Australia’s greatest achievement – our multiculturalism.
To highlight the enormous benefits are diversity has brought to us, and to work to ensure that this diversity is reflected fairly in all those places that matter. Including this place, of course, which needs to look much more like our country today.
But we can’t ignore racism, nor its consequences.
The unity over fear petition is a powerful statement.
It demands an equally powerful response.
As the events of the weekend have demonstrated, fighting racism is everyone’s business.
Where we see it, we must call it out.
We must recognise the damage it does, and recognise our collective responsibility to end this.
Racism stops with us.
ENDS
And to associate myself with its call – to say no to racism against Asian Australians. To say no to racism; and encourage all Members and Senators to join me.
I pay tribute to the organisers, to Jason Yat-Sen Li, John Yu, Benjamin Law, Su-Ming Wong, Tony Ayres, Annette Shun Wah, Albert Tse, Albert Wong, Adam Liaw, Benjamin Chow, Wesa Chau, William Yang, Brad Chan, Jieh-Young Lo, Claudia Chan Shaw and Cindy Pan.
Thank you – your leadership matters.
It has brought people together, shone a light and delivered a powerful call to action. Tonight, I bring this to Australia’s parliament. For those of us who have the privilege to represent our fellow Australians to respond to.
And I thank also everyone who signed the petition, who demonstrated their solidarity with this just and pressing cause. I acknowledge in particular those who shared their stories, bravely, generously and made clear what racism is and what it does.
Racism hurts people, damages lives and diminishes us all.
Its effects are both obvious and insidious: we need to stop the physical and verbal abuse but also recognise that the continued existence of racism shapes how people live their lives, denies opportunities and confines even the places people feel safe in visiting.
I seek leave to table a copy of the document containing the petition.
This will also be tabled in the Senate, by Senator Bragg. I thank him for doing so, and for taking a stand against racism.
It is critical that we strive for bipartisanship when it comes to confronting the scourge that is racism.
It is critical that our parliament unites in standing up for our multiculturalism, and for every Australian, in particular that we recognise that Chinese-Australians have been subjected to awful and shocking racism through the coronavirus pandemic and respond to this without equivocation.
I hope the way in which this petition is presented to the parliament goes some way towards this.
This evening, we start the process of recognising as a national parliament, that ending racism is a national responsibility – that when we say, we are all in this together, that we mean it.
Australia is a successful multicultural society, and the vast majority of Australians abhor racism.
But we can’t take this for granted.
As the petition states, in the course of the pandemic we have seen racism on the rise. Violent assaults on Asian Australians, abuse in the streets and on public transport, offensive graffiti and much more.
The data that we have from the Australian Human Rights Commission and the New South Wales anti-Discrimination Commission – and we should have better data – shows that covid-19 has driven a spike in complaints. This is echoed by the work of Being Asian Australian and the Asian Australian Alliance, whose survey has identified nearly 400 incidents targeting Chinese-Australians since April. Disturbing, this also found that the vast majority of these were not reported to the police. I recognise the role of my friend Osmond Chiu in this survey.
This is a threat to our social cohesion and national unity. It demands an unambiguous response, that all of us in leadership positions make clear our opposition to racism and our solidarity with Asian-Australians.
Working towards bipartisanship means supporting a common goal – confronting and defeating racism - and striving in good faith to achieve it.
How we do so will no doubt involve some disagreements along the way.
Let me be clear: I won’t rest until we have committed to a national strategy to tackle racism.
I’m proud to serve as Labor’s Multicultural Affairs spokesperson, and to have the chance to contribute to debate on modern Australia’s greatest achievement – our multiculturalism.
To highlight the enormous benefits are diversity has brought to us, and to work to ensure that this diversity is reflected fairly in all those places that matter. Including this place, of course, which needs to look much more like our country today.
But we can’t ignore racism, nor its consequences.
The unity over fear petition is a powerful statement.
It demands an equally powerful response.
As the events of the weekend have demonstrated, fighting racism is everyone’s business.
Where we see it, we must call it out.
We must recognise the damage it does, and recognise our collective responsibility to end this.
Racism stops with us.
ENDS