In keeping with Bronwyn Bishop losing her bid for a prestigious international position. The following is the speech I made in front of Parliament House on Thursday 9 October as part of the inter-faith event. It touches on the role of parliamentarians. When the architect, Walter Burley Griffin envisaged Canberra as the capital of Australia, he did not envisage a parliament, rather a building where people could gather and share ideas and recognise their high achievers. The symbolism here being that ‘the people’ were to hold the parliament to account. It would be many years later that Griffin’s design was transformed to what we now see the grassy area over parliament house, a symbolism that allowed people to walk right over the top of the politicians. A reminder that people are important in a democracy and politicians were only there because of the will of the people. We stand here today in front of this building that seats our democracy, a place where for decades many politicians have come and gone, in roles representing their electorates or their states and territories, but all come here to work towards a betterment of an Australia that can stand proud and independent on the world stage. But sadly, we have seen in dismay recently how this place is being used to develop social fabrication and politician’s roles are being blurred between social commentators and proponents of social engineering to suit political expediency. Last week was a dark day for the Australian Parliament when politicians sought to deny a minority of Australians access to the building, and then proposed to segregate those very Australians in the House based on religious attire. This is not what our forebears envisaged when developing the constitution. Indeed the constitution makes it clear in Section 116: The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth. The constitution, though not perfect, as it did not recognise our First Nation Peoples and left them and their rights out of the equation, is still our guiding model. Parliament House is important to Canberrans as it forms part of the Canberra landscape. This city is considered one of the most successful in Australia, in good part due to a strong multicultural framework which has always had bipartisan support. Multiculturism sets out to accept and celebrate the wonderful diversity of peoples that forms the building block of Australia and what has made this city thrive and grow. The use of divisive language from this building does not sit well with the inhabitants of this city. That is why today we gather here, representatives from a diversity of faith groups to honour the role of democracy, the successful role of multiculturism and the need and reminder that division of a community will be questioned and the well-wishers and good people of this city and nation will not accept prejudice and will always speak out and provide support to those who need support. We continue to work towards a cohesive social and harmonious society. Diana Abdel-Rahman
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 06:58:48 +0000
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