Thursday, 11 September 2025

Multiculturalism

Nicole WERNER (Warrandyte) (10:34): There has been a lot of gaslighting and misinformation about who and what the Liberal Party is and what we stand for, and I am proud to stand up here today and put it on record. I am the granddaughter of an illiterate peasant woman from Malaysia who was a World War II survivor, and I am a Liberal MP.

The member for Western Metro Region Trung Luu came here on a boat as a Vietnamese refugee, and he is a Liberal MP. The member for Caulfield’s extended family survived the Holocaust, and he is a Liberal MP. I say this to all Victorians: whatever your origin story, whatever your background is – whether your heritage is Chinese, Indian or English, whether you are Indigenous, a new migrant or your family has been here 200 years – we are all Australian and we all belong. My son is both a grandson of Chinese Malaysian migrants and also a seventh-generation Australian, and it is my dream for him and for Victoria that people are judged by the content of their character rather than by the colour of their skin.

We have all had enough of Labor’s divisive politics and race-baiting. I am sick of the Premier using multicultural communities to play political games and score political points. How dare she put out press releases to imply to Chinese Victorian kids: ‘Hey, some people hate you.’ We in the coalition are offering Victoria a new way. I say to every Victorian: you belong and you matter.