Wednesday, 20 March 2019

 Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale) (10:03): My dark hair may appear straight, but hair irons do wonders at straightening out a Maori frizz. My great-grandmother was half Maori. She was born in Dunedin, Otago, in New Zealand’s South Island. And whilst we really only know our New Zealand roots from Dad and I piecing together family anecdotes and plotting them on ancestry.com, I have found that looking Maori has always given me a sense of belonging in New Zealand. Knowing my Maori ancestry has always been an important part of understanding my own identity.

And so it is with great sadness that I express my sincerest condolences for the people of Christchurch, for the people of the South Island and indeed for the people of all of New Zealand. The tragic events of last Friday are of course an assault not just on the people of New Zealand but on humanity. Freedom of religion, freedom of conscience and freedom of expression are fundamental human rights of all people. The assailant stole these human rights from his victims and in so doing attacked the fundamental human rights of all of us. This rightly concerns all of us, and sadly it also alarms us, particularly those directly attacked—our Muslim communities.

The great thing about the area I represent is that people come from every walk of life, are of every age and come from every corner of the globe. I am acutely aware that the district I am privileged to represent includes a large number of constituents who are Muslim. They are our students, our teachers, our business owners and our aged-care workers. We are with them.