Mr WATTS (Gellibrand) (13:35): Last week, I was pleased to attend the Asian-Australian Leadership Summit in Melbourne, organised by Asialink, PwC and the ANU. The summit brought together hundreds of Asian Australians to tackle the important question of why, despite making up around 12 per cent of the Australian population, Asian Australians make up only one to three per cent of senior leadership positions in Australia's parliaments, Public Service, businesses and universities. Putting it another way, it asked why there are only four or five Asian Australians in this parliament, rather than the more than 30 that we would expect if they were represented proportionately. The success of Australia's multiculturalism shouldn't stop at the doors of power in our nation. So I say to all Australians: don't overlook the leadership potential of Asian Australians in your organisations or industries. And I say to all Asian Australians: we need you here and in the other institutions of power in our country. The summit also highlighted the dangerous and irresponsible misjudgement of the Prime Minister in the parliament last week in conflating legitimate and specific concerns about the personal conduct of a member of his government with the equally legitimate but completely separate issue of racial prejudice and the structural racism faced by Asian Australians. Australia has got to get better at responding to these issues; they're not going away. This foolish intervention was harmful both for the Asian Australian community and for Australia's national security interests. Perhaps if there was someone of Asian Australian ancestry in the Morrison cabinet they might have warned the Prime Minister of how destructive this course would be. The Prime Minister must stop this line of argument immediately. (Time expired)