Tuesday, 9 December 2025

 Anthony CIANFLONE (Pascoe Vale) (14:50): I am delighted to again rise to speak on this very important motion, which is all about supporting multiculturalism and our cultural and linguistically diverse communities.

Sam Groth interjected.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I will get there, member for Nepean.

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Pascoe Vale, I will sit you down unless you speak through the Chair. Member for Nepean, you are not in your place.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I am very happy to rise again to speak in support of our multicultural communities. Again, as I was saying, as someone who is from a multicultural community myself, my parents proudly migrated here from Italy. My mum came in 1968 on the ship called the Galileo Galilei, and my dad came a couple of years later on a ship called the Angelina Lauro. They were originally born in southern Italy in little towns called Nicastro and Pianopoli. Growing up at a time just after the end of the Second World War, there was very little opportunity to no opportunity for a future. My mum tells the story really retrospectively, where she heard these echoes from Australia that really were echoes from then Prime Minister Ben Chifley and immigration minister Arthur Calwell, which was the call for Australia to populate or perish. They answered those calls by coming to Australia, like so many migrants of that generation. From Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Turkish and Maltese heritage, they came here, and the Irish of course too. My mother-in-law came from County Tyrone and my father-in-law came from Cyprus. They came here with nothing but a suitcase on their back, a suitcase that was filled with dreams – dreams for a better future for themselves, their children, their grandchildren.

When they first got off at Station Pier they became Merri-bek locals for life. My parents first rented a home in Edward Street in East Brunswick, just off Lygon Street, before renting in Vincent Street in Coburg, before buying the family home in Jamieson Street, Coburg – the still very humble Californian bungalow my mum’s in – for $30,000, my mum tells me, back in 1977. She moved in the day that Elvis Presley died, she consistently reminds us, so she remembers the anniversary as the day she moved into the house. But that is the house that we grew up in – me, my brothers and my sister as well. We went to the local primary school at Coburg West with many other people from multicultural backgrounds, and my brother and sister went to Coburg High at the time, before it was closed by the Kennett government in the 1990s, which left us with no viable secondary school for some time in the 90s, which caused me to go to Northcote High and make many new friends over there.

Just like previous generations, as a local member now for Pascoe Vale, Coburg and Brunswick West, I remain an absolutely staunch advocate to want to continue welcoming new generations of communities to my electorate and also giving young people the same chance that previous generations had to buy a home in our electorate that is close to family. My wife and I, when it came time for us to buy a home, bought off the plan in Pascoe Vale, and it is still our family home now. It was thanks to the doubling of the first home buyer stimulus by the Rudd government that allowed us to get into the housing market then. So whether it is immigration, whether it is housing, whether it is jobs, I am absolutely committed to doing everything I can to support future generations to have the same opportunity.

That is why I stand with multicultural communities all over. Regardless of where you are from, everyone is welcome in Victoria, and that is why I stand with our First Nations communities as well. That is why I support our approach to voice, treaty and truth. That is why I support the apology that was put today. I am very disappointed, as I was saying, to conclude, in the approach of the opposition, who have opposed voice, treaty and truth. They have opposed treaty in this state, yet at the same time today they were out the front, part of the smoking ceremony, part of the formalities. They had the hide to show their faces there. They had the hide to come in here and vote against the apology. And then they supported –

Sam Groth: On a point of order, Speaker, I was quite enjoying the member for Pascoe Vale giving me a history of his family and –

The SPEAKER: What is your point of order, member for Nepean?

Sam Groth: Relevance.

The SPEAKER: I ask the member for Pascoe Vale to come back to the motion.

Anthony CIANFLONE: I will conclude in saying that I support multicultural communities, I support our First Nations communities and – unlike the Liberals, who oppose treaty but support the tuna sandwiches in Queens Hall – I stand with all of our communities.

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:55): I rise to speak in support of this motion. Melbourne is a great place to live, and we are blessed to have an extraordinary multicultural community here. It is a privilege to represent an electorate that is so diverse, so vibrant and so caring and compassionate. In Melbourne people have come from more than 160 countries. They speak over 150 languages. More than half the residents in the inner city of Melbourne were born overseas, almost half speak a language other than English at home – how lucky are we to have all of these languages around us? – and around 80 faiths are practised in my electorate. This diversity is one of our city’s greatest strengths. It is part of who we are, and it is something we must continue to nurture and protect, especially in times like these.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the community leaders that I have had the privilege of working alongside over the past few years, particularly those from the African Australian community, the public housing residents, our Muslim community and our First Nations communities who it has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside over the last 11 years. Our diverse multicultural communities have been through a lot in the last few years, but they have stood strong in the face of vilification and division and continue to demonstrate an unwavering commitment to a safe, united and multicultural Victoria.

Our public housing residents in particular are among the most diverse parts of my electorate, and they have lived through a lot in the last few years. They have lived through the traumatic, hard lockdowns, in North Melbourne and Flemington, during COVID that no other residents were subjected to. They are now facing displacement again as Labor pushes ahead with the privatisation of their public housing homes. Our young men in public housing have faced unfair targeting by the police over the years – and that is not just me saying it; court cases have found this to be true – particularly our young African Australian men who have often been targeted for nothing other than the colour of their skin. Conflicts overseas often have a very significant impact on my community in the electorate of Melbourne, as people feel a deep solidarity with their brothers and sisters that are often facing similar things, similar conditions, that our refugee communities faced when they came to Australia. Our Muslim community in particular has deeply felt the pain of the genocide of their Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine and the ethnic cleansing in Sudan. And it is the African Australian community that I most often see running community fundraising events for charities in Palestine or Sudan or elsewhere, often giving so much when they themselves do not have a huge amount. I am so proud to have these communities in my electorate and of how much they have welcomed me into their communities with open arms.

Despite everything that our multicultural communities have been through, they continue to show extraordinary strength. Our African Australian community leaders are constantly going above and beyond, supporting individuals and families who are struggling and holding communities together. I want to give a personal shout-out to a few of these people. First, I would like to start with, Barry Berih, who runs Young Australian People, empowering the next generation of African Australian leaders. He also volunteers on the boards of other community organisations and runs local soccer tournaments and any number of other things. Barry continues to fight tirelessly for the rights of public housing residents, becoming the public face of post-lockdown advocacy and leading the class action to save public housing.

I also want to acknowledge Farah Warsame, a leader in the Somali community who I have known for almost my entire 11 years in Parliament as a wonderful leader in that community, bringing community members together and providing a link often between government organisations and the Somali community; Salah Ibriham, for his advocacy and individual support for families across his community; Sara Ali, who works tirelessly for the Eritrean community in North Melbourne; Awatif Taha, supporting the Sudanese community across Melbourne; and Khadija Hashi, who empowers and supports Somali women in particular. Each of these leaders go above and beyond every day to support and strengthen our community, often working after hours and in addition to their work and other commitments – their family commitments et cetera. Even in the face of deep grief and rising division, our Muslim communities continue to thrive, creating vibrant community spaces, supporting one another and really enriching the lives of Melburnians in countless ways.

They are people like Sheikh Adam Salam. He is the sheikh at the Australian Muslim Social Services Agency, our mosque in North Melbourne. He is a wonderful leader who provides support, advocacy and care for our local Muslim community and offers young people safe spaces for connection and learning. He is always available, whether it is to provide wise counsel to young people or whether it is to provide translation services, which he often does off his own bat, for community meetings where he feels like the community really deserves to have information from government agencies – he is often there providing those translation services. They have been trying to get a basketball court at the back of the mosque to ensure that young people have safe sporting facilities to come to. Sheikh Adam is just a wonderful leader in our community.

Our public housing residents are fighting quite hard right now. They are fighting for their neighbours and for their right to stay in their homes, even as the Labor government pushes ahead with a plan that will displace more than 10,000 people from their public housing homes. There are too many leaders in this space to name who have been leading this campaign, and I want to thank each and every one of them for standing up for public housing. But in particular I would like to give a personal shout-out to Mahdi Sudi, who leads the North Melbourne Public Housing Residents Association – a resident-led group making sure that the people directly affected have a real say in decisions that shape their homes, services and communities – and to Shu’aib Ali and all the volunteers at the Melbourne Public Tenants Association, who are fighting to make sure that residents are not pushed out of their homes into unsuitable properties.

A thankyou should also go to Awil Hussain, who works closely with the Somali community and my office and champions local issues affecting his community in North Melbourne. He is an absolute gun at writing petitions. He knocks on people’s doors, he goes around and collects petitions from his neighbours to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard, and he is very good at taking issues to the local media and to the government and advocating tirelessly for the things that his community needs. One of his recent wins was ensuring that the local public housing kids were not locked out of the local school zone when a change was going to be made; he was able to advocate to make sure that kids in public housing got to go to their local primary school just the same as anybody else. Last but not least, an incredible shout-out to Mukhtar Mohamed, who works with us every year to provide a free iftar to our Muslim community members during Ramadan. He has worked with us over the last 11 years in a huge number of capacities. These wonderful community leaders are rarely thanked. They do not often get invited into the halls of power, but they absolutely deserve to be celebrated, and it is my privilege to read out their names in Hansard today.

I also want to make some comments more specifically on the motion itself. It is clear that anti-immigration sentiment is rising. It is clear that the far right is rising. We see it on our streets, online and sometimes even in our parliaments. It is something that should frighten all of us, and I would hope that everyone across the political spectrum should consider it their responsibility to do everything in their power to stop this. Back in 2018 the Greens initiated a parliamentary inquiry into the rise of the far right. We heard worrying evidence that the far right are deliberately targeting young men with their violent and extremist views. One Nation is rising in the polls despite holding openly racist and anti-immigration views. Neo-Nazis have been emboldened to hold rallies in the streets of multicultural Melbourne and are even planning on starting their own political party. They could even get a seat in the Victorian upper house with less than half a per cent of the vote due to our undemocratic, vote-buying, preference-whispering group voting ticket system that Labor still has not committed to remove, and this needs to change. We will not be supporting the Liberals’ amendment to remove the words ‘anti-immigration’ from this motion, because we need to confront this.

Recently, neo-Nazis marched through our city and attacked First Nations women and elders at Camp Sovereignty, just a short distance from where we are today. It sent a chill through our community, and it raised very serious questions about how these men were allowed to move through our city, masked and armed, without consequence. Many people I speak to tell me they cannot help but wonder if their skin was a different colour, would the police response have been the same? It is the kind of threat that governments need to take action to condemn but also to stop, rather than making multicultural communities sign social cohesion pledges before receiving government grants, as Labor wants to do, which is something that the government does not require of any other group except for our multicultural communities. This is not the way to increase trust; it is a way to make multicultural communities feel othered, excluded and unwelcome in our city.

But I believe we should celebrate our multicultural communities, because here in Melbourne we completely reject division and hate. We reject racism. We are a city of inclusion, of love and of diversity. We celebrate it, and we are fortunate to have both: on one hand, the oldest continuing living culture in the world, and on the other, newly arrived migrants who bring all the richness and vibrancy of their own culture to share with us all.

As we head into the Christmas period, or whatever celebration that our multicultural communities are celebrating over this summer period, I would like to thank my incredible staff who work so hard to support our diverse multicultural community, in particular to Jayda and Jordy, who sit one-on-one with community members who need help with housing or other issues and do that week after week after week, who work closely with our public housing communities and who run incredible events and campaigns to get real change for our local residents, and they do incredible work. Whether you come to us with an issue that just affects you or whether you come to my office with an issue that is affecting a large group of neighbours, they will give you their absolute, undivided attention and they will do their absolute best to create change for you, and I cannot thank them enough for that. Thank you to Amy for managing our office, budgets and communications and for keeping our team together and on track – a huge job that she does fabulously; to Chris for managing all our stakeholders and policy and keeping me organised for Parliament, and for the incredible amount of amendments and legislative change that they have been able to achieve this year – it is quite extraordinary; and to my parliamentary advisers across the Greens team, Matt, Rose, Claire, Anushka, Iliana, Domenica, Tim and Caitlin. They work more than anyone should be reasonably expected to work because they believe so much in our communities and the hope that we have for a shared future. And to my wonderful MP team and all their staff: it is a privilege to work with a team that is smart, principled, compassionate and very, very hardworking. We have faced lots of new challenges this year, but they have done us absolutely proud. They all deserve a long sleep and to read a good book by the beach.

 Bronwyn HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (15:07): I rise to support this extremely important motion and hope that it receives the strongest support in this house. We are recording our sincere thanks to community leaders across Victoria, particularly those that have stood with Victorians targeted by vilification and division arising from recent anti-immigration protests, and we support and thank them for their steadfast commitment to working for a safe, united and multicultural Victoria.

It is time for all of us to stand up and speak out against racism, vilification, hate and division, and we applaud those who do this. There are so many community members and leaders within, for example, the Thomastown electorate, and I am sure across Victoria, that work every day to support each other and uphold values of equality, peace and care for others. I condemn the March for Australia rallies, scapegoating immigration for all the woes of society, when in fact migrants have contributed so much to this country’s prosperity, wealth and cultural richness. I am so proud that the overwhelming majority of Victorians reject racism and celebrate multiculturalism and diversity. We are united in our humanity. It makes me both angry and sad that the anti-immigration rallies have emboldened a small minority of Victorians to become loud with their views of racism and hate, unconcerned about the hurt and pain they cause other Victorians who are helping to build our state and increase its prosperity.

Recently I visited the Board of Imams Victoria in the electorate of Thomastown and was advised through their Islamophobia project that reports of racism and discrimination have skyrocketed. Most of these complaints have been against women. Similarly, just recently I was talking to a well-respected lawyer, who told me that since these rallies she has noticed increasing incidents – just an extra elbow as she is walking down the street, or refusal to serve her first even if she is in the queue first at a shop. These seemingly fleeting issues that cause so much pain and just show so much hate are examples of how the forms of this racism can be perpetrated in different manners.

Similarly, when I go to schools I hear about the abuse directed at young Australians just because of the colour of their skin, yet they are contributing, again, so much to make our society and state a good place to be, as we know it is.

The Thomastown electorate is very multicultural. More than 50 per cent of households have at least one parent that is born overseas. The leaders in our community, these parents and young people that live in the Thomastown electorate, they are so strong, they are so courageous. They provide guidance, support, advocacy and care to all, not just within their own households or community but across the electorate of Thomastown. The extent of volunteering is phenomenal. As the year comes to an end, I thank you for all the incredible work that you do to fight against racism, to uphold values of equality and justice, and how you fight for all Victorians to work and live their life in a state of equality and prosperity.

 Will FOWLES (Ringwood) (15:11): It is my pleasure to make a contribution to this motion. I want to take the chamber through a little bit of a journey as seen through my eyes as obviously a white bloke growing up in Melbourne. One of my first experiences of the really difficult and really challenging parts of Australian political life was with the rise of Pauline Hanson. She became a member of the federal Parliament as a recently disendorsed Liberal in 1996. I was in year 12 that year, and it was the first time I think I knew of someone that I could identify in authority speaking in such appalling terms about my peers, the students I went through school with, particularly students of an Asian background. When she uttered that famous phrase, ‘I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians’ in her inaugural speech in September 1996, I was horrified. I am still horrified, but what I am additionally horrified about and what I am really, really sad about is that was 30 years ago, and I am just not sure we have actually made any progress at an aggregate level.

In 1998 I attended a rally outside Hawthorn town hall – that well-known bastion of socialist activity, Hawthorn – with I reckon 10,000 people who were there to protest One Nation holding a meeting. Nothing more or less than that – not a rally; just a meeting. They were just there to hold a branch meeting. They rolled into their organisation a similarly morally bereft organisation called Australians Against Further Immigration. The AAFI and One Nation had merged and were having this meeting to talk about their racist agenda in 1998. Ten thousand of us were there outside Hawthorn town hall, linking arms, singing songs, chanting chants, united in our view that there was no place for Pauline Hanson in our body politic. There was no place for that sort of hatred and racism in our body politic. It saddens me enormously that 27 years since that rally, here we have all of a sudden Pauline Hanson being spoken about as being a viable alternative to the coalition. Well, I will tell you, if there is one thing I will give Pauline Hanson credit for, it is this: she has not changed. She has probably been the most consistent political leader in the last 30 years in Australia in many respects. She has not changed, not changed one iota. None of her bigotry, none of her hatred, none of her racism, none of her small-mindedness – none of it has changed. Yet here we are, watching the coalition vote collapse, and much of it, it would seem, running to the right, running and joining that racist party of protest, One Nation.

That saddens me enormously, and it horrifies me, because what has run parallel to that of course is the rise of populist right-wing movements right across the globe, be they purportedly Christian nationalist movements like in the US and the MAGA Republicans, whether it has been Reform UK – previously the Brexit Party – whether it has been those parties in France and in the Netherlands and in Germany and in Austria. These parties of the hard right – the anti-immigrant, nasty, populist rhetoric of the hard right – have been on the rise. Pauline Hanson has not changed, but sadly the Australian electorate, I feel, may very well have.

I want to spend a little bit of time today talking about this absolute furphy of mass migration. One of the reasons that Pauline Hanson is presently allowed to enjoy some oxygen and talk about her party in terms of being the alternative party of the right, not just a fringe party, is because of this furphy around mass migration.

I am a longstanding champion of multiculturalism. In fact if I could point to anything that has been completely consistent in my views and perhaps has not enjoyed any great evolution because I started there, it is my unbridled championing of multiculturalism and rights for LGBTIQA+ Victorians. It saddens me enormously that we are now in an environment where that is under challenge by these nuffies who insist on putting about this suggestion that mass migration is the cause of all our problems.

Mass migration, with that word ‘mass’ being added to migration, is a complete furphy. If you go back all the way to World War II and run a line all the way through to today, basically net migration into Australia has averaged 0.9 per cent per annum – that is, the population has grown in net terms by 0.9 per cent as a result of immigration. So from World War II all the way through until today – 0.9 per cent; call it 1 per cent in round numbers. It is not a big number, nothing approaching a big number. There was a little correction around COVID, because in 2020–21 net immigration was basically nothing and then in 2021 and 2022 it was 2 per cent and 1.6 per cent respectively. But the average, which we are now returning to, was about 1 per cent. If I can say one thing in the clearest possible terms, it is this: there is no mass migration, there is just migration. It is migration that is completely consistent with all the immigration that has occurred in the eight decades since World War II ended. Of course there are moments in our national story as a nation of migrants when there have been difficulties that have attached to social cohesion, and people have at times pointed at immigrants – largely irresponsibly – and immigrant communities as being the source of that problem. But Australia is fundamentally a successful and multicultural nation because of migration, not in spite of it.

This is so easy for the hard right to jump on. They peddle this furphy that there is mass migration when in fact there is not. You do not need to look far to find completely dumb things said by the hard right on this topic. Nigel Farage said in response to a question on the campaign:

[QUOTES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

I think people in this country –

being Britain –

whether they admit it or not, are deeply concerned about the fact that since the EU opened its doors we have seen an unprecedented rise in violent crime, and a lot of that is to do with migration from Eastern Europe.

That is not an assertion supported in any way by the data of course, it is just naked bigotry. He said on the BBC in 2013:

We have a population of 485 million. There are 485 million people who, if they wished, could come to Britain tomorrow.

Again, that is another furphy. I do not need to look too far into Donald Trump’s legacy to talk about ridiculous things said about immigrant populations:

You have people coming in from the Middle East. You don’t even know where the hell these people are coming from.

This was in relation to a migrant caravan that had originated in Central America. The racism is so wildly non-specific as to just point to a general bigotry, a general fear and hatred by the billionaire white Christian nationalist right and a fear and hatred of, it seems, just about anyone but their own.

We have an environment where Nazism is on the rise and where antisemitism is on the rise – all of these things are significantly worse, on my assessment, than they were back in 1998 when I locked arms with a bunch of other protesters outside a One Nation meeting at Hawthorn town hall – and it saddens me that that is where we find ourselves.

Migration has done so much for Australia. We know that areas with a higher share of migrants have higher labour productivity and that an increase in migration inflow produces an increase in employment for the workers that are already here.

We know that a 1 per cent increase in the share of highly educated migrants is associated with a 5 per cent uplift in patent applications. We know that migration materially supports long-run GDP growth through higher labour force participation. Migrants tend to come in with a lower age profile than the balance of the population, so the participation rate improves and productivity improves. Over that same period that I spoke about, where there has been 1 per cent net migration, the birth rate has gone from 2½ per cent to sub-1 per cent. Migration has delivered so much for our nation. It continues to deliver so much for our nation. The Productivity Commission has gone over this again and again. We have had a migration variation due to COVID, and political actors on the right are seeking to take advantage of it. It is simply outrageous. There is no such thing as mass migration in Australia; there is only migration. It is good. We should welcome it, and we should endorse it at every possible opportunity we have.

 Chris COUZENS (Geelong) (15:21): I am pleased to rise to thank leaders in my community today. It is a privilege to work with so many great, strong leaders within my community and the leaders who have worked so hard in the fight against division, hate and racism. It is fitting today that my focus will be on our Aboriginal leaders in the Geelong community, on Wadawurrung country.

I want to start with Corrina Eccles, who is a strong Wadawurrung woman, who has dedicated her life to culture. Corrina has worked tirelessly on Wadawurrung country to strengthen First Nations knowledge of language and particularly history and to support up-and-coming young Aboriginal people in our community who need those strong role models. I really appreciate the work that Corrina Eccles has done in our community, supporting the next generation of young Aboriginal leaders, and of course her sharing of culture with all of us.

I also want to acknowledge Simon Flagg, who is a strong and proud Wemba Wemba man. Simon continues to demonstrate his commitment to the community and has worked tirelessly to ensure that their culture is shared, initiating things like having a smoking ceremony every Monday morning for everyone in the community, not just for First Peoples but for everyone that lives in our community, inviting people to come into their space. As an Aboriginal community controlled organisation, they provide so many services to their community, but they also have a huge focus on culture and on sharing their experience around racism, division and hate and trying to stamp that out throughout our great community of Geelong. It is really important that we acknowledge the work that they do.

Given that we now have the anti-vilification legislation that was passed some time ago and having worked on that, I drew my strength and energy from what our Aboriginal leaders were doing in our community. Uncle Mark Rose, for example, is an extraordinary Gunditjmara man, who has such a strong focus on education and educating the general community about racism and hate and the damage that that does, the generational trauma that we see and that we heard about in this place today, and the important role that Aboriginal communities play in making sure that their young people in particular get the right education and get a culturally safe education so that they can move on in their careers. All of those people have taken such a strong stand on racism, hate and division right across our region, on Wadawurrung country.

I also want to give a shout-out to Marsha Uppill, who is a proud Adnyamathanha woman, who is held in really high regard in my community for the work she does, particularly in organisations and businesses and entities across Geelong, in educating them about Aboriginal culture, about what racism and hate does to her community and how important it is that we continue to address those issues that we know are still out there in our community.

She is an incredible woman and an incredible educator, as I said, which is held in very high regard, and takes a very strong stand on these issues in our community.

I also do want to call out Jack from the QHub and the work that he does and how he leads that community around homophobia and supports families, in particular, of young people who are transgender who are going through some difficult times, and addresses the hate and division that they have to experience on a regular basis as well. So I do want to give a shout-out to QHub and in particular to Jack and thank him for all the work that he does.

I do want to finish by acknowledging and thanking the clerks here at the Parliament, the parliamentary staff, the Speaker and her office and Tom in there, and wish everybody a safe and happy Christmas and festive season – and make it safe, because I think it is really important that we all return here next year. Being an election year, we all want to be on board. I really do want to thank the staff, because without them and the clerks and the catering crew we would not be able to do what we do. So I do want to pass on a huge thankyou to them and wish everybody a safe and happy Christmas.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:27): Speaking on this motion on vilification and multiculturalism can I acknowledge that multiculturalism has been for decades the secret ingredient that really brings Victoria together. It is something that we harness and we cherish, and those that come to Victoria and make this state their own, that embrace our traditions and values, make it better. That is the reason why Victoria has been so successful for hundreds of years. But unfortunately that has changed, and the reason why it has changed is because we have seen a government that has been complicit in so many issues of allowing hate to be fuelled on our streets. And it is not the problem of the far right solely, it is also the problem of the far left. What we have seen since October 2023 is a horseshoe of hate, where the far right and the far left have come together and have particularly targeted those people that they do not like, and we have seen that especially with the Jewish community of Melbourne, that have been targeted on our streets simply for being Jewish. Whether it be the nazis in their filth that they have peddled out there, or whether it be the far left that have signs calling all Zionists terrorists and putting Jews in the bin with this graphic, horrible imagery, all of that stuff is unacceptable.

And all we have heard from the government over this period is words but no action. We saw a plan to bring in masking laws to de-mask these gutless cowards. We know that the people that hide behind a mask are the extremists. They are the people that are too gutless to put their name to what they do, so they hide behind a mask – and they do that quite deliberately. We saw the protesters that went off on a Friday night, on the Sabbath, to Miznon, the Israeli-owned business, turned the chairs upside down, threw food and everything in the alleyway up in the city and made many of those staff that work in that store fearful of turning up the next day. What happened? Nothing. We have seen these protesters, whether it be the far left or far right, continually do this. What does the government say? ‘We are going to de-mask these gutless cowards.’ They bring legislation with more exemptions than you have ever seen – cultural, religious, health reasons; if you have got a reason for doing it, you have to be committing an offence before actually being de-masked. None of this stuff works. Victoria Police have said that.

We know that the Liberal–Nationals have been calling for move-on laws. The move-on laws, which were the first thing that the Andrews government cut when they came to power in 2014, were the very laws to be able to take those extremists and say, ‘If you want to target people for their faith, for their background, for being from another country, for ethnic reasons or for multicultural reasons, then you will be moved on.’

What did this government do? They completely took the move-on powers away, allowing the extremists to go out there and do whatever they like on our streets. And that is what we have seen – our streets being hijacked by extremists, whether it be from the left or from the right – and all we hear from the government is excuses. Motions will not take these extremists off our streets. Words will not; actions will. This has been a weak government that has not delivered the consequences necessary to do it. We have been calling, and the Jewish community has been calling, for permits, for stronger masking laws and for move-on laws. All three have been knocked back by this government. The government are hypocrites. They bring on a motion today saying that we need to embrace different communities that are being targeted but they do not do anything to bring the laws in to protect them. It is no use talking about it; you actually need laws to be able to support communities that are being targeted. This government are the ones that have been gutless in their acts and weak on the consequences, and the multicultural communities in Victoria, unfortunately, are weaker for it.

 Eden FOSTER (Mulgrave) (15:31): I rise today to speak in strong support of this motion, which seeks to record this house’s sincere thanks to the incredible community leaders across Victoria, particularly those who have stood steadfastly with Victorians targeted by vilification and division arising from recent anti-immigration protests. I do so with the lived experience of representing the vibrant, diverse community of Mulgrave and with the deep understanding gained from my time as the mayor of the City of Greater Dandenong. Greater Dandenong is proudly one of the most multicultural communities in the entire country, a place where over 60 per cent of residents were born overseas and speak more than 150 different languages. I know firsthand the immeasurable strength that diversity brings to our state. Recent protests filled with rhetoric and designed only to divide and to spread hate are a profound disappointment and, frankly, disgusting. They are a direct attack on the very foundations of our social harmony.

I do not speak about these issues only as a representative; I speak about them as a Victorian of Indian heritage. I have seen, and unfortunately I have felt, the sting of prejudice. I have witnessed the impact of racism on my own mother – being told to go back to where she came from – and I have been subjected to it myself, and I have seen this increase over recent months with vile commentary online about my own place in society and what visa I might be on. It is a deeply personal betrayal when someone attempts to tell you that you do not belong in a country you call home simply because of your background or the colour of your skin. This is why the reaction to this division, the response from our community leaders, is so vital.

In the face of this ugliness we have seen something truly wonderful in our communities: the courage and resolve of our community leaders. These individuals – often volunteers, often unpaid – are the genuine pillars of our society. They are the ones who step up when their community is fearful and hurting, and they do so with messages of unity, acceptance and love. These are our interfaith leaders who bring different faiths together to share a common commitment to peace, including those that represent both the Monash and Greater Dandenong interfaith networks; our cultural associations and their presidents who ensure that their members feel safe and supported; and our local business owners and associations who treat every customer with respect, regardless of where they come from. In my community it is the Springvale Asian Business Association for all their work in bringing not only businesses together but our entire community. I am blessed to have such a diverse community, whether they be from Vietnam, China, India, Greece, Italy, Burma, Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu, Armenia, Ukraine – there are probably a lot more that I am missing. It is a culturally diverse community that I am so proud to be part of. Every weekend and every night of the week there is a cultural celebration going on in my electorate, and I am honoured to be part of those events every week. These leaders share with us their strength, and I like to see it as the gift that they bring to our community. They share their culture. They share their language, tradition, music, dance, food – everything that goes with the beauty of cultural diversity.

Vilification attempts to isolate us, it fearmongers and it turns us against one another. It has no place in Victoria, and the views of a small, vocal minority do not represent the spirit of this state. Victoria’s commitment is absolute. We are a place of belonging and opportunity for all, regardless of background, faith, where you were born or the colour of your skin. For people like me, whose families chose to build their lives here, our diverse background is our absolute strength, and I commend the Allan Labor government’s continued work in upholding and strengthening our multicultural framework, including our recent anti-vilification laws. But the true work is done on the ground.

To the community leaders of Victoria, particularly those in the diverse community of my electorate of Mulgrave, who have faced down hate with dignity and courage, I say thank you. Your steadfast commitment to a safe, united and multicultural Victoria is not just appreciated, it is the very heart and soul of our state. I wish them all a happy end of the year, I hope they feel rested in this time, and I look forward to celebrating more multicultural events over the coming months, because I know it is going to be a big year ahead next year. I commend the motion to the house.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Edbrooke): It appears, after some consultation with the clerks, that we had a clock error when the member for Caulfield was on his feet. Under the standing orders, members are given 10 minutes to speak, and the member only spoke for 5 minutes, so we will extend this out for another 5 minutes. Over to you, member for Caulfield. You have the call. Sorry for the interruption.

 David SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (15:36): Thank you for the indulgence of the house. As I was saying, the protests that we are seeing, particularly over the last two years, which have been hate fuelled, have certainly triggered many things in the Jewish community, which is a large part of my constituency. One of the things that we need to be very mindful of is some of the messages that we are seeing in those weekly protests going to the very young people that we are trying to educate. When we talk about multiculturalism, one of the important things that we need to do is ensure that we have people who are properly educated to a point where they do not use things that they might see or hear second- or third-hand to incite and vilify others. We have seen that in a report today, in which 30 schools across Victoria have been using horrific, vulgar Nazi slogans, using Nazi Heil Hitler remarks, saying things like ‘Jews should go back to the Holocaust’ – I mean, that also shows just how ill-informed these individuals are – and doing a whole range of other things. This has been happening in our schools. That is a direct correlation with ignorant people, uninformed young people – the very groups that we need to educate – that have experienced two years of these protests going unchecked on our streets. Now that hate is spewing into the classroom, which is unacceptable. Somebody should lay blame for that, somebody should accept responsibility for that, and it is the government’s responsibility to make sure these things do not happen.

But it is not the only time when this has happened, and I want to draw the house to a situation that happened back in 2013, between 2013 and 2020, which was the Kaplan v State of Victoria case, in which the state of Victoria was found vicariously liable for a school principal’s failure to adequately respond to bullying by students. Here was a situation where a school had a number of bullying incidents from Jewish kids at the school, and the school was found to have failed in its obligation to keep kids safe. This very principal, who resigned in 2023 as a result of this, was still kept on with the Department of Education. What message does that send, when you have got a principal that has failed to keep kids safe in a school, in Brighton Secondary College, that not only resigns afterwards but gets given another cushy job within the department? No wonder we have headlines today which talk about these further things happening within schools when it comes to hate and antisemitism.

As I say, it is no use just talking the talk, you actually have to walk the talk. That is not happening at the moment. We are seeing a failure by this government. I want to put on record, those people that stand up against hate: we support you and we thank you. There are many in my community, there are many in the broader community and there are many in the various community events that I attend, whether it is with the Chinese, the Indian, the Islamic – there are many communities – or the South American community. I attend their events. I love going to multicultural events. I love supporting our multicultural communities. I think it is really important.

We have two great schools teaching bilingual language programs in our schools. Caulfield Primary School runs a very good Japanese program and Caulfield Junior College runs a very good French program. This is how it should be done – kids learning at a very early age, being embraced in the culture, in the language, and also being able to understand and be great champions for multiculturalism. I support that, I encourage that, but we need to do more as a Parliament. We need to do more than just talk about it or put motions on the agenda. We actually need the laws. I would call on the government to strengthen our laws: our move-on laws, our protest permit system, which we have been calling for, and proper masking laws to de-mask the gutless cowards and extremists that march on our streets and try to vilify and target others. This is unacceptable in the state of Victoria, and it should be stopped.

 Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (15:41): It gives me great pleasure to rise this afternoon to make a contribution to this motion that records its sincere thanks to community leaders across Victoria, particularly those who have stood with Victorians targeted by vilification. It is a motion that goes to the heart of the anti-vilification legislation that we moved through this Parliament just this year. As you could imagine, as the member for Tarneit – one of the most multicultural places anywhere in Victoria, a district where over 50 per cent of residents were born overseas, many first-generation and second-generation migrants, particularly from South Asian communities – this is a motion and indeed anti-vilification legislation is legislation that is deeply important, deeply personal to them and legislation that they lobbied for for many, many years.

As I said, I have a significant South Asian population in my electorate. I am lucky enough to have two gurdwaras, several Hindu temples and three mosques in my electorate as well. They are all multifaith communities, typically first-generation migrants, who contribute significantly to the community there in Wyndham. It is in saying that that it deeply saddens me to report to the house that on Friday evening one of my beautiful mosques, Virgin Mary Mosque, the first mosque in Wyndham, was targeted and vandalised with hate speech. Some clown on Friday evening thought it was the right thing to do to vandalise the Virgin Mary Mosque and write something deeply offensive to our Muslim community – deeply, deeply offensive.

That mosque was the first mosque in Wyndham, and the Imam Sheikh Abdulla Hawari, the president Hanif Shaik and also the secretary Dr Seyed Sheriffdeen are absolutely amazing members of our community. They came to Australia and chose to make Wyndham their home. Many live in Tarneit or Hoppers Crossing, and everybody that attends that mosque is a person of charity, of goodwill and of faith, having come to this country to contribute – and all do so in absolutely amazing ways. We are talking about TAFE teachers, university lecturers and doctors. They are people that have come to our community and have been a part of making Wyndham the absolutely amazing place that it is. Representatives, obviously from Virgin Mary Mosque, which was the target of that horrible attack, Melbourne Grand Mosque and Golden Wattle mosque all gathered there on Saturday evening for a community meeting to talk through the issues. Then Minister Ingrid Stitt from the other place and I, and also the federal member Joanne Ryan, went out on Sunday to speak to the community and to consult with the community and work through what is an ongoing police investigation.

That was devastating to that community, who have done nothing but the right thing since making this country home. For them to rock up on Saturday morning and read those words spray-painted on their mosque, and for Muslim children to rock up on Saturday at the mosque to see that as well, it has just made that community feel a little bit more unsafe and, frankly, saddened that somebody in the community that they call home would wish to do that to them.

That was a horrendous thing on Friday when I found that out. What was even more frustrating was during the drive to Parliament this morning I was listening to Raf Epstein’s program on the ABC as I was coming in and he had Ms Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell from the other place, who apparently is a member of One Nation or something, on the program. For her to describe Muslim immigration and the Muslim faith in Australia as dividing Victoria, I thought was one of the more abhorrent things that I have heard on mainstream radio. Let us be clear: the only people seeking to divide our state and divide our country are those like Pauline Hanson and those that belong to One Nation and the others that choose to rally through the streets on Saturdays or Sundays, some of them Nazis – not all. They are the only ones seeking to divide our state and divide our country. It is not those from our multicultural and multifaith communities that do nothing but good work.

I have spoken a lot about my Muslim community, but we have also got the Sikh community. We have got two Sikh gurdwaras – we have got Amrik from the Hoppers Crossing gurdwara and Pritam Singh from the Tarneit gurdwara. They are consistently first on the scene when there is a natural disaster, whether that be flood or whether that be fire. They are first on the scene to help and to help feed those that are needy. They also set up at the Werribee train station every Saturday afternoon and feed people in our community that are hungry through their food truck.

I have got to wind up because we are only going for 5 minutes, but I will reiterate: the only people seeking to divide our community are those like Pauline Hanson and Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell that belong to One Nation, those that stand with them and those that march with them on Saturdays and Sundays. I commend the motion to the house.

 Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (15:48): I also rise to speak in support of the motion to record sincere thanks to community leaders across Victoria, particularly those who have stood with Victorians targeted by vilification and division. Sometimes we find leadership in the form of a child, and today I wish to speak with thanks about a local constituent who has demonstrated leadership in our community despite her young age, not with tricky words or arguments but with a sure and simple understanding of what is right and what is wrong.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

I speak of Kiah Isalovich, who is a young woman who is graduating grade 7 this year. She first came to my notice last year on Anzac Day when she stood in front of the hundreds and hundreds of people gathered and spoke with incredible dignity and pride about her ancestors and their role in World War I and World War II. She spoke of the role of the five Lovett brothers, all from one set of parents, who went and defended Australia in World War I: Alfred, Leonard, Frederick, Edward and Herbert, the sons of James Lovett, an Aboriginal man from South Australia, and Hannah Lovett, nee McDonald, a descendant of the Kerrup-Jmara clan of the Gunditjmara nation in western Victoria. Kiah spoke of the mighty fighting Gunditjmara, which they were and are and continue to be.

She stood and spoke with incredible pride of people who fought to defend a nation that did not always defend them at that time. All Lovett brothers returned safe and well, and some of them, of those five and then other Lovett family members, signed up for World War II. If we consider the fight in World War II against the Nazis, we thought it was history. Unfortunately, we see in Victoria today that ugly spectre raising its head.

People like Ky-ya, who with the certainty of what is right, with the pride in her ancestors and with the willingness to speak in front of such a large crowd about the fantastic legacy of her family, has demonstrated leadership for the whole community. This young woman is going to go on to amazing things. I was very happy to find that she went on to become my daughter’s NetSetGo coach. She has been awarded many awards locally in the community. She recently designed the Aboriginal round jerseys for the local cricket club. Her leadership is something that inspires me and should in fact inspire the whole community. So I thank Ky-ya for her leadership.

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (15:51): It is terrific to be able to follow the member for Yan Yean, as I was being interrupted by the member for Wendouree. But I am here, and I rise to talk on the motion on vilification and multiculturalism and to stand in support of the amendment moved by the member for Bulleen. Listening to people get up and talk in the chamber on this, I think it is right across the board that everybody here realises and stands united that vilification and antisemitism, which does go on in our community right across the board, not just here in Melbourne but around regional Victoria too – we do not miss out on it as well – is not right. We need to stand firm in here and make sure that we do bring in tough laws that stamp it out.

As other members have today spoken about issues that are going on currently in schools around regional Victoria, I sat back and thought: well, what has changed from back in the day when I was going through school? Yes, you had your issues with other students – we used to work it out – but not to the level that we do see nowadays. Walking the streets, the hatred – and it is a hard word to use, ‘hatred’ – that is pushed out towards certain members of our community regarding their religious beliefs or their ethnic backgrounds is something that I think we have let slip, standards in our community that we have let slip. We have let it roll on for too long, and now we are trying to catch up and make laws that are going to work and put things in place that are going to make our community a better place to live. You have only got to listen to my friend the member for Caulfield and also my friend the member for Box Hill when they get up and talk; they have had massive issues that have gone on in their own communities.

We need to be seen to be doing something here in the chamber. This is where it all happens. We can talk about it outside. We can listen to people ask why we are not doing this and why we are not doing that, but the people that actually stand in this chamber can actually change what goes on in Victoria, what goes on on the streets and what happens in our schools. That is one of the privileges of a sitting MP. We get the opportunity to actually change laws and to actually change people’s lives and keep them safe.

I spoke before about letting certain standards slip. We see the rallies that happen here in Victoria, here on Spring Street, and rallies where we allow people to come up onto the steps of Parliament and protest. I find that strange, because this is the house of the people and we should be protecting that. We should be pushing back against those rallies and making sure that we draw that line in the sand to say, ‘Hey, enough is enough.’ We also see those standards slipping on our streets with our criminal element running amok, whether it be here in Melbourne, whether it be through country Victoria, because we have walked past them. We have got to get to a certain time in this place where together we all move forward and make sure that we are keeping our community safe.

Down in the Latrobe Valley we are the same as every other seat around Victoria with our multicultural pot of people that come together. You have only got to walk down the streets of Moe, Morwell or Traralgon and surrounds and you will see various communities doing the most wonderful things together to make sure that we do stay safe. As the member for Tarneit said, they are the first people to put their hands up to be able to come and feed people that are in need, or if there is a flood or a bushfire, these people put their hands up first. We welcome them wholeheartedly into our community. I certainly enjoy being able to walk down the streets of Traralgon of a night-time past all our different restaurants. We are very, very blessed in Traralgon to have many, many restaurants, and Acting Speaker Edbrooke, I am sure you have been down through there before with your connection to the Latrobe Valley. We are very lucky to be able to welcome such wonderful people into the community. You have only got to go to our medical centres now, where our doctors and the people that actually work in our hospitals are doing the right thing trying to keep us safe medically, looking after our health. We know we need to give back to those people and make sure that we are doing things here in the Parliament to keep them safe. These are first generations of certain ethnic backgrounds that are coming out now that are needing our protection. I think that what we in this place need to be able to do is change laws, give police more powers to disperse people and make sure that if we do have an issue with antisemitism and vilification we do jump on it straightaway and actually stamp that out.

As with others, we are trying wind this up a little bit for our speaking spots on this so that everybody does get a go. I think that we do need to be very, very mindful that this is the place here, inside these four walls, with our members sitting here in the chamber, where we are the ones that have the opportunity to bring changes for Victoria to keep all Victorians safe. No matter where you come from, no matter what religious beliefs you do have, we are all Victorian. Our job here – and we will do it – is to make sure that we keep the community of Victoria safe.

 Gary MAAS (Narre Warren South) (15:59): I too rise to support the motion and make a contribution on the motion that has been put forward today by the Minister for Health. My contribution will really be about the community-building work that my multifaith and my multicultural community in Narre Warren South are doing. It is not about division out in Narre; it is about forming meaningful connection and it is about making sure that everyone has a place. It does not matter where you are from and it does not matter what faith you believe in, it is all about connection and it is all about community.

There are several leaders in our community of Narre Warren South who do some really heavy lifting. While I was initially remiss, or while I was initially thinking I would not go into mentioning names, because of course in a couple of minutes there will be names and organisations that I will miss, I do want to give them all a special shout-out.

[NAMES AWAITING VERIFICATION]

First and foremost to Rahimi Baryalai, an Afghan community leader who is doing some tremendous building work, and to Marlena Kupczyk from the Afghan Women’s Organisation Victoria, thank you very much. To Nazir from the Victorian Afghan Associations Network and to Shugoofa Bakhtari from the Shugoofa Organisation, thank you very much. To Bassir Qadiri, thank you so much. To Harpreet Kandra of Gurdwara Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Officer, thank you, and also to Jasbir Singh. To Peter Aguto of Multicultural Youth Support Services I say thank you very much for the work that you are doing in our African community and especially with our young South Sudanese, and also to Deng Kor of Community Abundance. Thank you very much to Therese Taylor of the Hampton Park Senior Citizens Club, who is really doing some fantastic work with our elderly Sri Lankans. Thank you so much to Kim Hassan from our Turkish community – she is over at the Hallam Senior Citizens Centre. Thank you to Zorah Hasib from Hampton Park Community House. And of course let us not forget the terrific bigger picture work that Sylvia Coombe does together with Viv Nguyen as well.

To Dur Aschna of the Afghan Australian Philanthropic Association we say thank you very much, and to Andrew Gai, founder of the South Sudanese–Australian Academic Society Incorporated. I say thank you to Alok Paudel, the president of the Nepalese Association of South East Melbourne, and thank you very much to Ramesh Khadka, vice-president of the Nepalese Association of South East Melbourne. Thank you as well to Ed Zaid, president of the Malay Council of Victoria, and of course to my good friend Temese Leilua from the Victorian Samoan Advisory Council. For those of us who have been to that basketball club of a Friday evening, what a riot that is – a riot in a good way. To Anthony Sofe, Pasifika community leader, we say a very big thankyou for his work on the Victorian Samoan Advisory Council. To Dr Damitha de Mel from Lankan Fest, putting on that extraordinary festival that he does each year, thank you. To Siva – K Sivasuthan – the chair of the Tamil Festival Australia and to Pradeepa Saram, a fantastic Consul General of Sri Lanka we say thank you.

Of course, the member for Cranbourne and I will always argue about where the Sikh Volunteers Australia actually sit. I believe it is in Cranbourne North. But anyway, we will argue the toss of that. She believes it is in Cranbourne. I think it is –

A member interjected.

Gary MAAS: Up in Hastings – okay. They do terrific work, and of course thank you very much to Jaswinder Singh. To Usha Gullapalli of the Hindu Society of Victoria and Rishi Patel from the BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir as well – thank you.

They are the ones I could think of in about an hour. As I said, I do know that I have certainly missed some leaders. But to all of our community leaders who are doing that really hard work of making sure that we are lifting rather than dividing, I say, thank you very much. And in closing, I would just like to say a very big thankyou to my electorate staff, who are absolutely amazing and ensure that when I do get up here I do not look so foolish. I thank Myles, Stella, Di and Suzanne. I commend the motion.

 Chris CREWTHER (Mornington) (16:04): I rise to speak on this motion before the Assembly today not only as the member for Mornington but as the shadow assistant minister for multicultural and multifaith affairs. In recent weeks, since I have been in this role, I have had the opportunity to attend many multicultural and multifaith events. These include, for example, the Armenian National Committee’s event the other day; a Greek Orthodox Church event in Red Hill over the weekend; a pan-Macedonian event as well involving the Greek as well as the Assyrian, Armenian and Indian communities; an Indian event, recently, for Diwali; a Pakistani and others event yesterday; a South Vietnamese dual identity event over the weekend; a Chinese event; and an African cultural music event – and so much more.

They are just a few examples in just several weeks in this role of some of the many, many events I have attended, and it shows and reflects the huge range of people we have in Australia and in Victoria from all across the world and from all different faiths.

We have the opportunity in Australia and Victoria through celebrating these different cultures and so forth to share music, to share language and to share dance, food, culture and much more. When we do share this with each other we aid integration in Australia. We aid the development of a shared culture, which Australia has perhaps done more successfully than many other countries around the world in recent decades. And by developing that shared culture we can bring about the best ideas from all around the world, which can aid us in so much, whether it is in business, in our community or in agriculture, much as the Greek communities and Italian communities in Mildura and so many other places have contributed to the way we do horticulture. I know many of my in-laws are from an Italian background up in Mildura and elsewhere, and I am sure Jade – sorry, I should say the member for Mildura – knows a number of them. I know growing up in Horsham in western Victoria my immediate neighbour came from Italy and went through the period of conflict over there and really appreciated the opportunity to be here in Australia and the opportunities that we provided her and her family.

My wife Grace has also benefited from Australia’s openness. She came to Australia from South Korea at the age of just three or four years old and became a citizen at a young age. So without the opportunity of Australia being so open and being able to integrate people from all around the world and grant citizenship, I would not perhaps have met Grace and we would not now have our 10-year-old and now seven-year-old children, who I know the member for Frankston knows well. My seven-year-old was six-seven over the weekend – he turned seven on Sunday. I was at multicultural events all day, so I felt really bad; I actually did not get to spend time with him on his birthday, so we celebrated a six-seven birthday the day before, which as we know I have to mention a few times given it is a very popular thing at school awards and everything else recently.

Jess Wilson interjected.

Chris CREWTHER: Something for socials, as the member opposite said. The member for Bulleen has also moved an amendment to this motion, and I will read the motion again:

That this house records its sincere thanks to community leaders across Victoria, particularly those who have stood with Victorians targeted by vilification and division arising from recent anti-immigration protests, for their steadfast commitment to a safe, united and multicultural Victoria.

Much as the member for Bulleen has said, I think the issue is around the word ‘anti-immigration’ protests, because yes, there are some people who are anti-immigration altogether, but there are others who are against very high levels of immigration, where they are not against immigration but they are against certain levels which are not optimal or are not sustainable. And that is much like with one’s own household – I can easily accommodate, say, three or four people or even 10 people maybe in my house, but if you have 30 or 40 people come all at once, that is a stretch on resources and my ability to support them. It is the same in our society in Victoria and Australia. We need to provide the resources and support for people coming into Australia so they can access banking, they can access services and they can integrate well into Australia, develop that shared culture and share their identity and background. But they need that support, and without that support there we also have issues with housing, with roads and with many other things where you put pressure on our systems that are in place. So I am a supporter of immigration, but it needs to be optimal and sustainable immigration. We of course do need immigration, in particular because we have our lowering birth rate in Victoria and in Australia, and we need to offset that with immigration. We also have skills that we do not always have in Australia and Victoria, where we need to source talent from overseas. And perhaps we can benefit from that as well by bringing in people who may have been educated elsewhere, and we are bringing in talent from around the world so we can actually develop Victoria and Australia better. But we need to get the balance right and it needs to be sustainable and optimal, which is why I support the member for Bulleen’s amendment to this motion.

I want to note that many Victorians either have a parent or parents who were born overseas or were born overseas themselves. Half of all Victorians either were born overseas or have at least one parent who was born overseas. That includes my wife Grace and my two kids. I note I have probably got a little bit of a boring background, with a Welsh, Irish, English and Scottish background. I also have part Indian heritage, which many people would not know about. I was actually the first member of the federal Parliament with an Indian heritage in Australia’s history, but not many people would know that. Maybe the member for Frankston does. It is only a small percentage. They came from what was Goa, Daman and Diu in the gold rush era – so the 1850s, 1860s – when many people came from all across the world to seek an opportunity to seek gold and everything else, whether they found it or not. Indeed I went to a Chinese event recently, and we noted that the percentage of Chinese in Victoria in 1861 was about 7 per cent, whereas it is about 6.6 per cent now. We have always been a nation of people from all around the world. There are not many people who have a solely Indigenous heritage, so we all have a bit of an element from people who have come from all across the world.

I mention that opportunity because we are a country where many migrants share the values that we have, and the values that we have in the Liberal Party as well, those values of hard work, reward for effort, freedom – many have come to Australia seeking freedom – opportunity, aspiration and hope. They want hope for themselves, their kids and their grandkids for a bright future, no matter their background, no matter their culture and no matter their religion and so forth.

I know that my wife’s parents had a similar background as well. My wife’s father was qualified as an engineer in South Korea, and he worked in Libya on the man-made river project. He worked in Saudi Arabia building dams over there. But when he came to Australia his engineering qualifications were not recognised at the time. That has since changed, thank goodness, but he entered the building industry because of that. I know that he and my mother-in-law worked extremely hard at Australia Post and at all sorts of jobs, often to the point where my wife and her sister were home alone watching TV and doing all these things growing up because their parents were often working two jobs. That is the story of many migrants. They grew up in Blacktown in western Sydney, and they had to work hard to achieve success in Australia. I know my wife now has achieved success – she is now a special counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright – and her sister is a dentist. They are just two examples of the many people who have come to Victoria and Australia who have achieved success.

I do actually commend a number of elements of this motion, except for the part that the member for Bullen talked about before. We also have people fleeing conflict from all around the world. I mentioned the Armenians earlier, and there is obviously an ongoing conflict there. But many people have fled, whether it was ISIS or whether they fled during World War I or World War II. They have come to Australia seeking freedom, seeking life and seeking opportunity. I know that we are the best when we can celebrate those different identities, those different cultures and those different religions from all around the world.

 Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (16:14): I rise in support of this unamended motion. It is an important motion that speaks to the values that I think we ought to be representing in this place. I certainly do, along with the member for Broadmeadows, represent one of the most heterogeneous communities in all of Victoria, where our constituents have come from all parts of the globe and where effectively all faiths are represented as well. While a few people in this debate have touched upon protests and policy debates around the level of population growth, suggesting that some of the actions we have seen on the steps of this place are legitimate actions, I do not think that those clomping around in black shirts like some Roderick Spode wannabes from PG Wodehouse are in any way constructing a legitimate debate.

They are not talking about the level of population growth or the level of immigration, noting of course that these are federal government domains. They are talking about the composition of our immigration intake. They are talking about our communities, those of the member for Broadmeadows’s electorate and mine – communities who are deeply proud to be Australian, communities that we see reflected at citizenship ceremonies on a weekly basis. Each week 150 or more people and their loving and supportive families profess their belief – their faith if you will – in Australia and the values that we share: freedom and democracy and everything that this country represents. I think it is important that I disabuse the member for Mornington of the idea that somehow those values are quarantined to the Liberal Party. They are not. They are proud values that we share and any democrat should believe in in this country – the belief in the unalienable right of people to express and engage fully in the political process, to join in our democratic institutions. They are not quarantined to a political party; they are Australian values. They are Labor values too.

I want to thank the community leaders in my area in the seat of Greenvale but also those in Broadmeadows. It is such an interchangeable, permeable border between the wonderful electorates of Broadmeadows and Greenvale. The community leaders in our part of the world do so much to advocate for their own communities and to give them a voice to their parliamentary representatives and to civil society more broadly. I think of the Islamic Community Milli Gorus team in Meadow Heights; the Quba Mosque team on Somerton Road; the many Islamic schools and mosques that are represented by the member for Broadmeadows; the Chaldean Catholic parishes of St George and Our Lady Guardian of Plants; the Syriac Catholic Church; the Holy Spirit Church; the Maronite Catholic community represented by Father Charles Hitti; and the St Charbel parish in my own electorate of Greenvale. Those faith communities are often comprised of relatively recently arrived migrants, many of whom came to this country as refugees. I thank them for the contribution they make to our community – both individual members of those communities and their leaders – in advocating to us as their parliamentary representatives but also in engaging so closely with each other across what might otherwise be faith boundaries and ensuring that we have such a strong and positive interfaith community in our part of the world, in the City of Hume but also on a more informal basis within the communities that the member for Broadmeadows and I represent.

I thank each one of those leaders. I recognise that what we have seen take place in our community has caused harm. It has caused a deep sense of hurt to those who have come to Australia and who are effectively being told, on account of their skin colour, their ethnic background, their nationality or their faith, that they are not welcome. I stand here to repudiate that. I thank them for the pride they have in our community – the pride and belief they have in Australia and Victoria and its freedom and its tolerance and the things that we celebrate. We do not ‘just tolerate’ those from different backgrounds, we actively celebrate them. The member for Broadmeadows and I see every single day the extraordinary impact that those communities have, both collectively and individually, in building our state to be a better place. They contribute so actively – through sports clubs, through schools, through churches, through mosques, through temples, through mandirs, through gurdwaras – to making our community whole.

Just very briefly, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs I get to see this replicated across the state as well. It was a joy and a privilege to be with the Governor of Victoria at Government House last Thursday for the Victorian Multicultural Awards for Excellence, where I saw so many members of our community – in particular, I might note, the member for Broadmeadows’s community and my community in Greenvale – represented on the day. I very quickly want to acknowledge the Centre for Muslim Wellbeing, Arabic Welfare, Northern Health and Australian Chaldean Family Welfare, who were awarded special awards in recognition of their contributions to our community, and all those who joined the multicultural honour roll. They include many friends and those with connections to Greenvale: Dr Raju Adhikari, Dr Teresa De Fazio, Sunny Singh Duggal, Rana Shahid, Ange Kenos, Tammy Nguyen, Kifarkis Nissan from Foundation House, who does an amazing job, and Dr Bruce Wong, among so many more. Thank you for the contribution that you all make to our great state. I commend this motion unamended.

 Steve DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh – Minister for Environment, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Outdoor Recreation) (16:20): I move:

That the debate be now adjourned.

Motion agreed to and debate adjourned.

Ordered that debate be adjourned until later this day.