On the day Senator O'Chee spoke my own twelve year old daughter was told by a school friend 'your father is a bastard - he sticks up for Abos all the time'. The Council was notified of 275 incidents of anti-Semitism in the year to the end of September 1996. Much of the recent racism has been justified as the exercise of free speech. Of course debate on matters of public importance is acceptable provided it is fair, truthful, sensitive and tolerant. But what we have been experiencing has not been debate.
Debate requires logic, facts and rational argument.
We have heard not debate but pure racism. The bipartisan parliamentary motion on racism, immigration and Indigenous affairs was the turning point in this latest episode. The Prime Minister described that motion as a statement of 'some common Australian values which are held by all Australians, irrespective of whether they were born in this country and irrespective of whether their ancestors came from the British Isles, Europe, the Middle East or Asia'. The motion was welcome and unfortunately necessary but it will take quite some time to heal the wounds our community has suffered this year. Recognising and acknowledging past and present failures is not for the sake of making people feel guilty for other people's actions.