2 February 2022, Canberra, Australia
Thanks Deputy Speaker, well it’s normally my custom to come to this dispatch box and deliver and thunderous, passionate address. There will not be much thunder today, but with no less passion.
There are 10 sitting days remaining in the 46th parliament.
There is a crisis in our aged care system. Hundreds of Australians are dying in understaffed, underfunded homes and yet this government seems powerless or unwilling to do nothing about it.
Two years ago the government promised to introduce a federal anti-corruption commission. The attorney general told us yesterday that no such promise will be delivered.
There are skills shortages and supply shortages which are preventing businesses from opening and the economy recovering.
Interest rates will certainly rise which will make existing cost of living pressures even worse.
These are the matters we should be focusing on in the final weeks of this parliament.
Instead we’ll spend the best part of two days debating a bill which pleases no one.
I support freedom of religion. I understand many in our community who want to see the existing laws strengthened to protect their freedom of religious expression. Although we are a long way from the days when employers could lawfully place ads in newspapers that say Catholics, my faith, need not apply – I understand the desire for a greater recognition and rights for people of faith.
But regrettably, the sometimes toxic debate that has been unleashed by the prime minister has put a spotlight on the fact that no rights are unlimited. Where the exercise of one person’s rights comes crashing up against another person’s freedom, we need to find a solution. It can be done and it is the role of this parliament to do that.
The contest of ideas and the ways of life is usually dealt with by social norms, by civility and human decency – regrettably, sometimes not. Unfortunately, when parliament steps in, the law has a very blunt way of dealing with it.
If we are to do this ... Then we must do it properly, thoughtfully, consultatively, and to date we have not. If we are to believe the reports in today’s paper, the government has failed to bring forward a law which protects children.
For me, this is not an academic issue.
The courage to swim against the tide
Last week my family said farewell to my nephew Ollie. He was just 15 when he took his own life. No mother or father should ahve to endure this sight. No brother should have to clean up afterwards. He was a beautiful, creative, courageous young man. He was loved and accepted by his parents, brothers and friends. His mum and dad are in anguish. We all are. He was gay. He was uncertain about his gender and he struggled with his mental health. Now he is gone and we will no longer be able to love him and support him on his journey throughout life. Clearly the love and acceptance of his family and friends was not enough.
My own son is also a beautiful, creative, intelligent 14-year-old. He designs and makes his own clothes, he is a gifted makeup artist, he moves seamlessly between the wardrobes of men and women. He wears heels that give me vertigo and has more handbags than his sister.
He has more courage than any other boy of his age that I have ever met. He swims against the tide.
I love and support him unconditionally and I brag about his talents to anyone who is willing to stop for two minutes and glance at his Instagram page.
But I worry myself sick every time he leaves the house. I think to myself, ‘you look beautiful, but do you have to go out looking like that?’ Because I know that the love and protection that he enjoys with his mother, with his friends and family is very different to the reception he may receive in the outside world.
Could this be the day when we receive the call = telling us that something has happened? That he has been attacked, for just being who he is?
Yet, this is about my kids, but it’s also not … this is about the families and every child who has the courage to swim against the tide just to be who they are..
What message do we want to send?
Earlier today the prime minister said we should exercise our power in this place with love. Look I know the cynic in all of us could easily giggle at that phrase and dismiss it as a political line … But I don’t. I agree. I’m asking the prime minister to reflect on those words as we consider this bill.
I’d ask the prime minister and every other member in this place to put themselves in the shoes of the parents, or the heels of their kids, as they step out in public.
What message do we want to this parliament to send to these kids. Are they as loved and cherished and respected as every other kid? Surely we aren’t saying to them – it’s OK if you are gay … Just so long as we can’t see it. Surely we can do better than that. At some stage we have to do better than that.
Because the thing that every parent of every gay or trans kid knows is that the love and protection that we provide for them inside our family and inside our homes and is not enough.
It is not enough.
At some stage they have to step out into the world and deal with it as it is.
So we as parliamentarians have the power to shape that world … by what we do and what we say. and how we vote. What message do we want to send to our kids?
Shaping the Australia we want to have
You know there’s a simple ease in which members of this place toss sausages at a charity barbecue, drink a beer, place a cap on our head and smile for a camera, put a footy jumper on and cheer for our favourite team. I do it regularly.
And when we do that we are signalling to Australia that we are just like you … or at least that Australia as we imagine it to be.
But the fact is Australia is a much more diverse place than that which we project from our pulpit in this place.
Being an Aussie is much more than punting on the Melbourne Cup or shouting ‘Go Saints’ or “Go Sharkies”.
It’s much more complex that that.
It’s the responsibility, the high responsibility of all of us called to this place to reflect and shape the sort of Australia that we want to have.
And it’s a bloody diverse place!
It is black. It’s white. It’s brown.. It prays in a church, it prays in a mosque, it prays in a shrine, in a synagogue, in a hall … or on a surfboard just behind the breaks
It’s men and women, it’s straight, it’s gay , it’s trans, it’s intersex … it’s the whole bloody lot.
We are the Australia of Storm Boy, of Breaker Morant, of Puberty Blues and, yes, of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.
It’s not easy crafting a national story that includes us all – but that’s our damn job! That’s our job. And the national story must have a place for all of us and all of our kids – how we imagine them, but more importantly how they are.
If a young kid has the courage to be themselves and own their identity – the least, the very least we can do is say “welcome”, we love you, and we respect you, and you’re okay, just the way you are.
My family are grieving like so many others. There have been too many funerals, too many grieving families. We have in our gift the power to do something, let’s not let the opportunity pass.
I thank my friends who have come to provide me support, I thank the leader of the opposition, my good friend, for sitting through what for me has been a difficult address. And I know there are many people who are listening, or who will read this speech afterwards, who want me to conclude with the words, ‘let’s dump this bill!’’
But I’m not saying that. What I’m saying to the leader of the opposition, and the prime minister if he;’ll listen, is ‘let’s take a step back’. Let’s imagine a national story that talks to all of us. And let’s not do something, in the name of freedom of religion, that does damage or harm to those of us who we love.
We’ve been to too many funerals.
Let’s get this done.
But let’s do it properly. Surely it is not beyond the wit and wisdom and decency of every member in this place, to get this done properly.
I thank you for your time.