Thursday, 19 March 2026

 Paul HAMER (Box Hill) (17:23): (1608) My adjournment is also for the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. The action that I seek is for the minister to provide an update on the action that the Labor government is taking to support our multicultural communities in the Box Hill electorate. It was almost 30 years ago that Pauline Hanson delivered her inaugural speech to federal Parliament. In that speech she stated, ‘We are in danger of being swamped by Asians,’ and ever since then Pauline Hanson and her One Nation party have demonised migrant communities, who have worked hard to build lives for themselves in Australia, and questioned their loyalty to our country. Prior to the 1996 federal election the federal Liberal Party disendorsed Pauline Hanson because they understood that her message of hate and division had no place in Parliament or in our public discourse. At the time, coalition members such as the late Petro Georgiou and the late Senator Ron Boswell took a strong and principled stance against One Nation and its legitimisation through preference swaps. I wish I could say the same thing about the modern Liberal Party today. Not only has the Liberal Party refused to rule out the possibility of doing a preference deal with One Nation at the November state election but former Premier and Liberal Party elder Jeff Kennett has called on the Liberal Party to form an alliance with One Nation. The fact is that a Liberal–One Nation alliance would do untold damage to our multicultural communities and undermine the enormous contribution that migrants from all backgrounds have made to our great state.