Australian Culture and Society

The Hon. CATHERINE CUSACK [3.24 p.m.]: Our community is fracturing. The urgent matter dealt with today by way of special legislation is a law and order emergency. But that is only the visible surface of a far deeper wound that has been allowed to fester and will not be healed simply by giving the police more powers. The Opposition does not stand against the urgent measures requested by the police. However, I have little confidence that the new police powers alone are a sufficient or complete answer to what is happening. Nor is it honest, fair or adequate support for our police, emergency services, teachers and health professionals, who are at the coalface of the underlying violence and disrespect that has been allowed to spread beneath the political and media radars. What, then, should be our long-term response to stop the violence? At its formation in 1946 the Liberal Party made this pledge to all Australians:

Our task is to give this nation every hope for the future, to give all its citizens every chance for free, useful and happy lives.

In 1954 the Liberal Party published a concise statement of 17 principles, including statements such as:

We believe in the Great Human Freedoms; to worship; to think; to speak; to choose; to be ambitious; to be independent; to be industrious; to acquire skill; to seek and earn reward ...

We believe in religious and racial tolerance amongst our Citizens.

In 1961 the Federal Secretariat published a statement on liberalism called "The importance of being YOU". It said:

The importance of being allowed to be You is the clue to Liberal Party thinking. The Liberal Party believes Australia can be strong and vigorous only when the importance of the individual is asserted and recognised.

In 1964 Robert Menzies outlined to the Liberal Federal Council our "Liberal Creed", which is:

There was and is no uniformity among personalities or talents, or energy. We have learned that the right answer is to set the individual free, to aim at equality of opportunity, to protect the individual against oppression, to create a society in which rights and duties are recognised and made effective.

Today is the day to reassert those beliefs. Today we must ask ourselves: Are we honestly fulfilling those commitments to all our citizens? Of course, the official answer is yes. We have world-class education for all our children. We have laws against racism. Australia is a classless society; there are no second-class citizens. That is the official position. But the truthful answer is no, particularly if one is a victim of either gang or mob violence. We are not fulfilling all our promises to all our citizens. Furthermore, the benefits and privileges of being an Australian are not being shared equally, and the inevitable result is a brewing undercurrent of violence and hate. Instead of covering up the facts we must have the courage to face them.

The 1996 McGraw report published rare data about educational outcomes across New South Wales. For Higher School Certificate English results, the average outcome for the State was given statistically as 1. For girls in the northern Sydney region, the result was 2.2—which is obviously outstanding. For boys in south-western and western Sydney the results were between 0.4 and 0.5. That means that girls in northern Sydney are achieving results four to five times better than boys in south-western Sydney. The knock-on consequences of equitable access to education and employment opportunities are simply devastating.

It is disingenuous to claim there are no second-class citizens. In the Premier's electorate of Lakemba 2,000 of his 66,000 constituents have never been to school at all and 7,000 have either a very poor grasp of English or cannot speak English at all. How can one be considered to be first-class in that system when one's parents do not speak English or have never attended school, and these and other circumstances block one from realising one's personal potential? These are deep and difficult issues that have been made harder to solve by covering them up. It is a system without energy, vision or hope that covers up these problems. It leaves lifesavers, police, ambulance officers and teachers at the front line with the violent consequences of what I would argue are systemic failures.

What happened at Cronulla last Sunday was a terrible destruction of basic human rights, not just for one group but for all of us. Rights and freedoms are universal. One cannot wipe them out for a few without wiping them out for all. In standing up for the worth of the individual, we must not seek to explain, excuse or forgive such behaviour. If we do, we permit an environment in which evil can and will flourish. If we fail to provide leadership at this crucial moment we are no better than the disgusting mob that turned on anybody of Middle Eastern appearance last Sunday. Our community is fracturing, and lack of leadership and lack of loyalty to our values and beliefs as Australians are at the core of the problem. It is the duty of all who aspire to be leaders to call for calm and to re-assert the rights of all Australians to their personal freedom and security. Innocent citizens are getting hurt and worse will come if we fail in this duty to our fellow Australians. [Time expired.]