Mr TED O'BRIEN (Fairfax) (09:13): I want to commend the minister on a very fine speech. I rise on behalf of the coalition to respond to the statement from the minister about the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a day observed around the world on 21 March each year. It's a day that provides an opportunity for contemplation, reflection and action. Not least, it's a day that helps us to focus on the harms that result from racism and discrimination. It encourages us to think more clearly about the responsibility incumbent on all of us to build and maintain societies founded on dignity, equality and respect. In Australia specifically, it provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the best elements of how multiculturalism has contributed to our nation. Over the course of our history, Australia's national story has been shaped by people from every corner of the world. Generations of migrants have come to this country seeking opportunity, safety, freedom and a better future for themselves and their families. In doing so, they have contributed enormously to the prosperity and vibrancy of modern Australia. Our communities today reflect that history. Indeed, the Australia we know today would simply not exist without the positive contributions of so many people who have come here from elsewhere and chosen to make this country their home. This is worth recognising and celebrating. Australia is widely regarded as one of the most successful multicultural societies in the world. In our nation, people from many cultures, faiths and traditions have come to live together in relative harmony, not bound by their sharing the same ethnic background, the same religion or the same colour of skin but by a common set of values—Australian values: freedom, equality, a fair go, and a belief in democracy and rule of law. Our national mindset has long been shaped by these values. The more we diversify as a nation, the more we will rely on these values to unify our nation. In Australia, life itself is sacrosanct, and one's worth as a human being is defined by one's character, not by where one comes from. One of the greatest joys of being a parliamentarian is attending citizenship ceremonies, where we have the privilege of welcoming new Australians to join the Aussie family. The moment these new Australians join our country, they are immediately blessed with freedom: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom to pursue whatever future they wish for themselves and their families. And they are immediately equal. As a new Australian, they are every bit an Aussie as is the prime minister of the country and the oldest Indigenous Australian. Such is the egalitarian nature of our country. Acknowledging Australia's overwhelming success in this regard does not mean we can ignore the challenges before us and the need to foster social cohesion and to reject discrimination wherever it occurs. In recent years we have, regrettably, witnessed a series of events that have concerned all reasonable and fair-minded Australians. I refer in particular to the disturbing increase in antisemitism—the hateful rhetoric, harassment and attacks directed at Jewish Australians and Jewish institutions. The Bondi massacre of 14 December last year, now nearly three months ago, was the worst terrorist attack on Australian soil and one of our darkest moments. It represented a continuation of a shameful pattern of abuse and hostility towards Australians of Jewish faith, with synagogues and businesses firebombed, homes vandalised, schools targeted, and appalling behaviour on university campuses in the arts sector and elsewhere. At public rallies, we have heard calls to 'globalise the intifada', a call that has been used to incite violence and terrorism against Jews. Australia's Jewish community has been subjected to horrifying vilification, intimidation and abuse, despite their extraordinary contribution to Australia's intellectual, cultural, economic and civic life. They are an integral part of our Australian community. On a personal level, I am proud to call many Jewish Australians my friends. No Australian should ever be made to feel unsafe because of their faith, their heritage or the community to which they belong. An attack on any one Australian on such grounds is an attack on all Australians and, by extension, an attack on the Australian values that should unite us. Prejudice and hatred, if left unchecked, will corrode the social bonds and mutual respect that allow a diverse country like ours to flourish. The fight against racism requires moral clarity. We cannot be selective. We cannot condemn hatred in one context while ignoring it in another, or speak loudly about discrimination against some groups while remaining silent when it targets others. Racial discrimination must be confronted in all its forms. A lesson I have learnt in recent years is the importance of meaningful debate about these issues. Too often, complex issues are reduced to slogans, chants or media campaigns. But serious prejudice and discrimination cannot be satisfactorily addressed in these ways. It requires a deeper understanding of history, culture and values that allow diverse societies to live together in peace. We must get better at agreeing to disagree without ourselves becoming disagreeable. Australia's success as a multicultural nation has not been derived from performative partisan outrage and activism. It has come from a deep commitment to shared civic values: freedom, equality, a fair go, respect for the rule of law, respect for life and for the lives of others. These values provide the framework within which our diversity can be our strength and not our weakness. For these values allow people of different backgrounds to live alongside one another peacefully while contributing confidently and positively to the greatest country in the world and one that can become even greater still. Over our history, we have seen countless examples of Australians coming together. We have seen it in schools, where children from different cultural and racial backgrounds play together, learn together and bond together. We have seen it in workplaces, where people from different backgrounds collaborate together. They create and they innovate, not despite their differences but because of their differences. We have seen it in community groups and sporting clubs, where people from different cultural backgrounds come together and they work or they play on the same team. We have seen it in the success of migrant families who have arrived with little to their name other than the steely and clear-eyed determination they hold before they then proceed to build families, businesses, careers and, along the way, earn the respect of their fellow Australians. So we look ahead to the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. And as we do, let us reflect not only on the importance of confronting prejudice wherever it appears but on the remarkable success of Australia, not because we fluked it but because we've worked on it, we've worked on our social cohesion. Our diversity can be our unity. Diversity and unity must co-exist, and that can only happen if we continue to anchor to a common set of values of freedom, of equality and of a fair go.