02-August-2006
Speeches, Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Community
Rydges Capital Hill, Canberra
10am, 2 August 2006
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Introduction
It’s a pleasure to be with you all again.
Before I go any further, I would like to express my great sympathy for everyone affected by the loss of life and destruction that has occurred in the Middle East.
I certainly appreciate the time that members of the Australian Lebanese community have made available for briefing and feedback over the past few weeks since the crisis began.
I know this crisis will be of immense concern to everyone here today and I offer my very sincere hope for a speedy resolution to this conflict.
Contribution of the MCRG and sub-groups
My meeting with the Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG) in February was one of my first duties in my present role.
Since then I have met individually with all members of the Group and many members of the sub-groups, as well as a range of Muslim communities.
Thank you for your time, and the many important insights that you provided. Those meetings helped enormously in my understanding of the many and various Muslim communities in Australia, and it was very important in shaping the decisions taken by the Government regarding the National Action Plan (NAP).
I’ve been impressed by the drive and commitment of the Groups and sub-groups to make this process effective and successful.
I know there has been a great deal of work involved and I thank everyone here for your contribution.
I especially thank the drafting committee for the Interim Report completed in April.
I am very grateful for the report and especially the significant contributions each sub-group has made towards it — including the extensive consultations and forums you have held in the community.
Your draft Report has been crucial to the development of our National Action Plan, and most of the recommendations in your Report are being implemented through the Plan.
Of course, the major initiatives in the Action Plan complement the
58 projects funded in the last financial year following your Summit with the Prime Minister in August last year.
What has brought this work alive has been the commitment by many of you to be active in working in the community towards a stronger and more cohesive Australia.
I’m thinking in particular of your work in:
calming and informing communities during the Cronulla riots;
contributing to the youth summits and other community-based events;
contributing to the planning and organisation of the Conference of Australian Imams, and the very important actions that are likely to flow from that conference, and
reacting maturely to the publication of the Danish cartoons.
These have been critical actions which have done much to influence the broader Australian community.
I firmly believe that more than anything else, it is actions such as these that will make a difference to our social cohesion in the future.
So I thank you for being willing to put the discussion into practice in this way.
The challenge
At the last meeting of the MCRG and sub-groups, I asked you to work with the Government and the wider community so that everything possible is done to:
stop extremists from entering and staying in Australia;
prevent extremists from manipulating and recruiting impressionable young Muslims, and
create an environment which enables all young Australian Muslims to become productive members of our society through education and meaningful employment.
I haven’t changed my views that we are here because of the anxiety stemming from the actions of extremists – anxiety which affects Australian Muslims and non-Muslims alike. We have to stop extremists getting a toehold in Australia.
These actions by extremists in the name of Islam have seen the great majority of Muslims being unfairly stigmatised.
Our challenge is to overcome the unfair stigmatising and the community anxiety so that Australian Muslims can get on with their lives like everybody else, in the knowledge that they are respected as a normal part of the wider community.
The way forward
To meet this challenge, I believe we need to empower the Muslim community in Australia.
As mentioned earlier, my contact with yourselves and others over the past six months has given me an understanding of the great diversity amongst Muslims in Australia.
This diversity shouldn’t surprise anyone — all major religious groups, including the Jewish and Christian communities, have a very broad cross section of views and attitudes.
I also think it’s important that people in the broader community become aware of this significant diversity.
This will help to overcome the tendency for people to apply labels and assume that all Muslim people must be the same.
Nevertheless, this diversity provides a profound challenge for everyone here.
As a Government, we are mindful that we cannot make sweeping assumptions about your needs and that our work needs to reflect this diversity by listening and reaching out to a range of groups and individuals.
At the same time, diversity should not be a refuge for Muslim Australians from taking action.
After months of discussions with Muslim communities, I believe that the unfair stigmatisation will not change materially until all Australian Muslims take responsibility for addressing the situation they find themselves in.
Each Australian Muslim in their own way, in their own circumstance, should seek to address the fears and misunderstandings of the broader community.
It may seem tough, it may seem unfair. But all of us find ourselves, at times, in situations that are not of our own making. Yet we have to take responsibility for addressing a problem. It is life.
The difficult work that many of you did after the Cronulla riots and the publication of the Danish cartoons was a prime example of taking responsibility.
I encourage all Australian Muslims to challenge the pre-conceptions, the misunderstandings and the generalisations of other Australians. To put them straight. To take responsibility.
If the Muslim communities can find this strong, unambiguously Australian voice, they will find that the support of the Australian Government and the broader community will follow.
As part of this, I urge you to take ownership of the initiatives in the National Action Plan and make sure they work on the ground in your communities.
The key initiatives announced include:
Programmes, including pilots, in some disadvantaged suburbs, including some Muslim communities, involving:
A new values based education initiative;
Employment coordinators;
Employment workshops for young job seekers;
A sporting programme to increase the participation of children in local sporting clubs;
A mentoring programme to increase participation of young people in work, education, training and community life;
In the first instance, the pilots are to be conducted in Lakemba and Macquarie Fields.
The creation of a world class centre of research and educational excellence in Islamic studies within a major Australian university, to play a leadership role in exploring the place of Islam in modern society;
Interfaith dialogue projects;
Continuation of the Muslim Community Reference Group (MCRG);
A volunteer staffed counselling and support helpline for the Muslim community based on the very successful UK project;
Specialist training, educational materials and forums to bring law enforcement agencies and Muslim communities together to resolve issues;
Crisis management training to help empower the Muslim community to plan for and respond to issues, incidents and crises.
The Australian Government has committed $35 million over four years to support these NAP initiatives.
Specifically, these measures will help to reduce community anxiety by promoting cohesion and stronger national security.
I am pleased that State and Territory Governments have given their support for the National Action Plan.
Future arrangements
The term of the Reference Group comes to an end in September, and so this is likely to be our last meeting in its current form.
However, as you know, the Government decided, as part of the National Action Plan, to continue with a national Muslim reference group.
Now that the National Action Plan work is nearly completed, I am still considering what will work best for the reference group in the future, including both the size and role of the group.
I expect I will have more to say about this at the Conference of Australian Imams in mid- September, and I will seek your counsel in the meantime.
Whatever arrangements are made, they will build on the work of this Group and I again thank you for your contribution and for your success which has been recognised in the decision to continue with some form of Muslim reference group.
Your contribution to breaking down the barriers between Australians of different faiths has been the foundation for future engagement between government and the community. You have made a valuable contribution to Australia’s wellbeing.
Of course there is still much work to be done, and I am eager to hear from you in your final report on what you consider this work to be.
However, despite the challenges, my contact with the many young second and third generation Australian Muslims fills me with great confidence about the future.
With the support of the existing leadership, the Australian Muslim communities are well placed to bring on this next generation of leaders, to lock in a strong Australian Muslim identity, which allows Muslims to get on with their lives, practice their faith and yet be an integral part of the Australian family.
Conclusion
All Australians have the right to practice whatever faith they wish and this is one of the wonderful things about our country.
We have some great Australian values that make this possible.
It’s essential we continue to work together to make sure these values are protected, and serve as the framework in which individual communities can flourish and express their religious beliefs.
In the current context of hostilities in the Middle East, I think that Australian Lebanese and Australian Jews have the right to be concerned about what’s going on in their country of birth, but not to import disputes from the Middle East to Australia in a way which may undermine the social cohesion of the Australian community.
At times like this the onus is on community leaders not to make divisive statements and to be concerned for the society in which they live.
I’m counting on your advice and support.
In the meantime, I wish you well with the work you are undertaking today and look forward to seeing your final report.
It has been a pleasure working with all of you and I again warmly thank you for your contribution to building a stronger community.
ENDS