Hansard debates

  Hon. ANDREA COOTE (Monash) -- I have much pleasure in  speaking on  the Racial
and Religious Tolerance Bill and in supporting it. Some members of this  chamber
have  been  subject  to  vilification  and  others  have  not.  I have been very
fortunate in not having been subject to racial or religious  vilification.  I do
not have the temerity to begin to understand how that would affect people.

However,  listening  to  the speeches in this chamber and reading those made  in
another place,  I have been very moved by the courage many members of Parliament
have  shown  in  the courageous  way  they have  spoken  about  the vilification
addressed to them  and to members of  their  families. It says a  lot  about the
Victorian government and Parliament, and all  of  us,  that  we  can  share such
thoughts and speak about them in such a public place.
However, for those who are vilified there is something we should all understand.
In  its submission on the bill, the Australia Israel and Jewish Affairs  Council
put it very concisely:
Incidents of racially motivated hatred  and  violence  humiliate,  denigrate and
destroy the quality of life for those Australians who are its victims.

That is a very salutary point  to  understand  and something that all honourable
members should consider in debating the bill, and indeed when we go out into the
wider community.
The Liberal Party has approached the bill with dignity and an enormous amount of
understanding. The shadow  minister in the other place, Helen Shardey,  has done
an excellent job in consulting around the state and, with the  Honourable  Carlo
Furletti  and  the  honourable  member  for  Bulleen in  the  other  place, Nick
Kotsiras, has listened to a number of multicultural groups and  others  who  had
grave concerns about the proposed legislation, particularly the model bill which
was first presented for public discussion and which caused a great deal of angst
and concern amongst members of both the multicultural and wider communities.
I  am proud to be a Liberal. Liberal values are  enshrined in freedom of speech,
the freedom to make up one's own mind and to have a look at a number of issues.

I believe the debate we  had in our party room was healthy and constructive  and
underlined the very fundamentals of  what the Liberal Party stands for. This was
reflected in the very amenable way  in  which  our  leader,  Dr  Denis Napthine,
allowed  Liberal  members to have a free vote on this issue, which  encapsulates
Liberal philosophies.
The  bill and its clauses have been dealt with in  great detail by my colleague,
the Honourable Carlo Furletti. I  commend him on his presentation because it was
very thorough and  set  a high standard for the rest  of  the  debate. I want to
mention  four  clauses, as I  am particularly pleased  with  the Liberal Party's
approach to these provisions.
Clauses 7 and 8  now  provide  that  vilification, both racial and religious, is
unlawful but not criminal. This conduct will be  dealt  with  through  the civil
process.

I remind the  house that clauses 24 and 25 make  it a criminal offence to commit
serious racial and religious vilification. That aspect will be dealt with by the
courts and  will  attract criminal sanctions.  I  commend the  Honourable  Carlo
Furletti and the honourable member for Caulfield in  the  other  place  on their
approach to those clauses.  I will not go into the detail of  the bill clause by
clause because I believe that has already been dealt with.
I would like to speak about freedom of speech. It is  a fundamental right in our
community. Many members have spoken about the need for freedom of speech and 

 Page 1487


how  well regarded  Australia,  and Victoria in  particular, are throughout  the
world for this most treasured of opportunities.
I would like also to quote from a submission that  all members probably received
from  Liberty Victoria. It is a letter dated 23 May and signed by Chris Maxwell,
the president of Liberty Victoria. He says:
First, there are competing rights and freedoms to be considered. As the bill now
acknowledges, the  right to freedom from discrimination and personal attack must
be balanced against the right of free expression.
Freedom  of expression is a precious freedom. It must be jealously  guarded.  Of
course freedom of expression  is not absolute, but it is vital to the  health of
our  democratic  society  and  must  not  be curtailed  except  where absolutely
necessary.

I  think  everybody  in this chamber would believe in those fundamentals, and  I
agree totally with what Liberty Victoria had to say.
Parliamentarians  in this chamber  and  the other place  have been flooded  with
emails, faxes, phone calls and letters about this bill, and not all of them have
been positive.  Although I do not  want  to give credibility to  a number of the
letters members have received, I want to quote from a couple because I feel that
it  will give balance  to  what this debate is  about.  This shows the  sort  of
pressures members were  subjected to. I have  one  email dated 9 June.  I am not
sure  where  this  person comes from because members have had many requests  and
have been lobbied by people from as far as way as Toowoomba as well as places in
Western Australia and Tasmania.  These people say they will be interested to see
how we vote  on  this  bill because  it  will  affect their vote.  I  have  many
constituents in  Monash  Province,  but  I  do  not think  any of  them live  in
Toowoomba.

The email is addressed to 'Senators' which I thought was quite interesting. This
is indicative of some of the mail members have received. It says:
Imagine if this bill goes through and you or a member of your family  or friends
were accused under this act, would  you be able to look yourself in the eye each
morning in your bathroom mirror?
I have a lot  of  difficulty doing that anyway  so  I do not think I  will worry
about what he has to say.
I have another letter that is a more disturbing. I will read it into the record;
it comes from the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia, and states:
There is  not  an Australian in the lot of  you  to let this fascism get passed.
Don't you know your history of how Hitler was put in power just 69 years ago?

To  vote  for  that  legislation  you  would  be traitors to  Australia  and  to
Australians.
I find  that  fairly heavy, and it is important to  include  it in Hansard so we
understand what some people in our community are thinking.
  Hon. Andrew Brideson -- It is offensive.
  Hon. C. A. Furletti -- Despicable.

  Hon. ANDREA COOTE --  It is very offensive and  very despicable and I am  most
concerned about it.
My electorate is an interesting one.

It contains a  number of  multicultural groups,  but by  far the  majority of my
province is  in  the lower house electorate of Caulfield, where we have probably
the largest Jewish  community in Australia  and certainly the largest  number of
Holocaust survivors outside Israel. I am very  proud  to  be  speaking  on their
behalf. They have lobbied me significantly and I have a lot of understanding and
sympathy for  the feelings they  have  expressed. Many people  have spoken about
this bill as  a  Jewish bill. I take umbrage  at that because I believe  it is a
multicultural bill. It is not just about the  Jewish  community,  although it is
seriously  concerned  about  this  issue.  As other members have said, it  is  a
multicultural bill that affects the many people who constitute the population of
Victoria. I know my Jewish constituents best, so  I will  concentrate on some of
the  issues  of concern to them. I would  like  to reinforce that this is not  a
Jewish bill. I will quote from a  letter from the presbytery of Benalla dated 20
February. It says:

There is no public demand  for such  legislation. It seems only the Jewish B'nai
B'rith movement wants it, as they do around the world.
I apologise to the house because the author of this next piece does  not seem to
have signed the letter, but it is headed 'Jewish community leaders in US, UK and
Israel rebel against ADC'. It goes on to say:
Its Australian branch, the ...  (ADC),  has  helped  to  destroy the trade union
movement.  Today  not the unions but ADC runs the Australian  Labor  Party,  the
working man's party no more.
I  am  sure the Labor Party  would  be very interested to  hear that. The letter
continues:

ADC is the sponsor of a spate of  un-Australian  legislation  erasing freedom of
speech  and  Australia's  identity.  Democracy is easily manipulated  by  secret
societies  through control  of  education,  media and  party  backrooms. Why  do
liberalism and humanism eventually turn into terror and totalitarianism? Because
he who does not stand up for something will fall for anything!
This is  the calibre  of  information we  have been  flooded with.  Some of  the
correspondence I have just read out is among the milder examples.

 Page 1488


As I said before, I dispute the assertion that this is just a Jewish bill: it is
a multicultural bill. However, as I suggested,  I know the Jewish community best
of all. In looking  into this bill and the  reasons we need it I have been quite
horrified  to realise the depth of some of the vilification  that  is  happening
within my  electorate.  These  are  not  things that happened 10 years ago, five
years  ago  or  even  two  years  ago --  they are  things happening  within  my
electorate right now.
While I do not  want to give credence  and  credibility to the vile  and hateful
sorts of letters  people  receive, I want to  put them on the  record  because I
think  it  is  important  to  balance  this  debate and understand some of these
issues. I will  quote  from the  Australia/Israel  and Jewish Affairs  Council's
submission on the Racial and Religious Tolerance Bill dated 25 May.  I want also
to mention a letter; I will not  read  it all because, quite frankly, it is  too
disturbing to read.

The  letter  begins,  'Dear  Thea,'  and   is  written  in   someone's  personal
handwriting. This letter is being  sent to people who have had a bereavement and
put a death notice in the Jewish News. If my husband were to die and  I placed a
bereavement  notice I would get one of these letters. In  this instance  it says
'Dear Thea'; in my  instance  it would say 'Dear  Andrea'.  It is written  in  a
handwriting that  looks as if it may be familiar. I  will use Thea because it is
easier. The letter starts:
Dear Thea, I don't know if you remember me. It is a couple of years ago since we
briefly met. More about that later.
...
I am terribly sorry to hear about your bereavement ...

It then goes on to say in the vilest, most ghastly and racist language that they
are not  sorry that Thea had a  bereavement, they are sorry that  Hitler did not
wipe out the Jews completely. It is  an appalling letter. I have to say that  it
was sent very recently. As I said, this is not something that happened 10,  5 or
2 years ago -- it is happening in my electorate now.
I  believe  the  bill  will  help  address  these  issues.  A pamphlet from  the
Hitler-Australia Alliance Group was handed out to synagogues in my electorate --
a flyer handed out to people as they were going to their place of worship. It is
appalling  that this is happening now in Victoria and Australia,  which  have  a
truly multicultural community.  Again I indicate that  I am referring  to  these
documents not because I believe in them but to provide balance to the debate and
to put into  the  record some of the views of different  groups,  so that we can
understand  what  is  happening in the community, a community that  is  just  15
kilometres from here. The flyer states:

Hitler was right
It is about time that we as proud Australians put a stop once and for all to the
influx of outsiders into  our  society.  We've  had  enough of our country being
overrun  by ring-ins,  the large  numbers of chinks wogs and  Jews are  of great
concern to us.
That is the tenor of the information in the flyer.
I have  a  number  of  examples  of  such  incidents  that have  occurred in  my
electorate,  and I will  read one  or two  of those  examples. There  were three
incidents in  October last year  when  Jewish people returning  from a synagogue
were pelted with eggs. That is unacceptable behaviour in our  community,  yet it
happened in East Kilda and Caulfield. We should all be ashamed.

Glass panes on the front door of a Jewish community organisation were smashed by
a person  or  persons unknown using a  brick  or a rock. There  are many similar
examples.  These things did not happen  10 or 15 years  ago,  but just six month
ago. I hope  people will  have more  security when going to the synagogue, going
about  their daily lives, and living a peaceful and respectful  life, as  do the
rest of us in the community.
An article in  the Herald Sun of 12 June demonstrates what has been happening in
my electorate in recent months. The article by Michael Harvey states:
A far-right group accused of anti-Semitism has made Melbourne's Jewish community
the target of a new propaganda blitz.
The Citizens  Electoral Council has provoked outrage by dropping  its newsletter
to thousands of homes in Caulfield, Elsternwick and St Kilda.

A resident yesterday described the campaign as 'grotesque'.
...
Elsternwick resident,  Andrew  Hockley,  who  received  the  newsletter, said he
wasn't Jewish  but had been  offended by 'virulently  anti-semitic' CEC material
before.
This is totally  unacceptable. If we are to  stop this and live  in  a community
that never  has  to  evoke a bill such as  the  one  being  debated today, it is
incumbent  on all of us to ensure future generations are taught to  be tolerant,
understanding and supportive of all of those who are different.

If I am critical of the bill  it is because  it does not go far enough to ensure
there  is a proper  place  for education, understanding,  adequate funding and a
proper strategy that will ensure we have  tolerance in the future. I was pleased
to  read from  a  Herald  Sun  article dated  28 February  that the  Premier has
promised a $850 000 grassroots campaign to promote community harmony. That  is a
start,  but significantly more funds should be allocated, and it should be  more
formalised rather than just a grant. I call on the government to 

 Page 1489


promote and  develop  a strategy for  the  education and promotion  of tolerance
within Victoria.
In summary, I refer to a number of articles that sum up what I believe.  I refer
to  an  article in the Age of  9  March  written by the Reverend David Powy,  an
Anglican minister, which states:
Victorians have many  reasons to be  wary  of broad laws  prohibiting  religious
vilification. People should  be protected  from discrimination and  vilification
regarding  race  and other  fixed  attributes.  And  they  should  certainly  be
protected  from discrimination and  vilification regarding  religion,  and other
matters over which they have no choice.
David Powy then goes on to state something that I believe:

The  trick  is  to build that protection without removing the capacity  for  the
freedom of choice.
It is a salient lesson  for all of  us to take  out of the debate today. I refer
also  to  an article  in  the  Herald  Sun of  28  February,  which refers to  a
submission by the Jewish B'nai B'rith anti-defamation commission. I place on the
record my admiration for B'nai B'rith, whom I have worked closely  with, and for
Kerry Kleinberg and Danny Ben Moshe. The article states:
...  anti-defamation commission said in its  submission  that  Victorian  needed
protection from several racist groups active here.
'We do not expect  racism to  cease with  the passing  of such  legislation', it
said. 'But we believe that it would ... be a hindrance to those who sow division
and hatred.

Finally I quote from  a speech many of us  heard when we attended the  memorable
commemorative meeting  of the Parliament  of  Australia at the  Royal Exhibition
Building. It was the speech that many of us believed touched us most, and it was
from a young Asian girl, Hayley Eves, who stated, in part:
I'm proud to be part of a multicultural Australia. I was born in South Korea and
am part  of a very multicultural  family.  I'm happy that many  of them could be
here with me today.
Whether you are born here  or  overseas it does not take long for  you to become
part of Australia, to feel that you belong. I  know this hasn't always been  the
case and I know we have to  keep working  on tolerance and understanding between
us all.
...

In representing the voice of the  future I hope to leave you with a sense of how
we, young Australia, view our nation, of how we view our future.
...
I  am young. I am a woman and I am an Asian Australian. That I  am standing here
in front of you demonstrates clearly that we have changed.
I believe we have a  long, happy future to look  forward to and in the  words of
Hayley  Eves, 'We have  a  country  to be proud  of'.  I have much  pleasure  in
supporting the bill.
  Hon.