Category Archives: Speeches

“We had forgotten that the right to free speech is not absolute. Without a sense of responsibility, of community, and of judgement, free speech can become divisive and destructive. And it’s not good enough for people in authority to say somebody shouting racist obscenities and wrapped in the Australian flag to say he has a right to do that. Nobody has a right to do that.”

“A civilised society is be judged by its adherence to the rule of law, to due process and the ease with which all people would have access to the law. And nobody knows that better than all of you who are here tonight.

It is judged by the way it treats minority groups. Australia would today – not would, today is – judged badly. Today for a variety of reasons, but not least because the government has sought to set Muslims aside, discrimination and defamation against Muslims has been rising dramatically. Too many have taken the easy path and accepted the governments contentions that Muslims aren’t like us and therefore it doesn’t matter if discrimination occurs and if access to the law does not apply. We have forgotten that discrimination once it starts, spreads. It cannot be contained. This situation is already leading to increased discrimination against Jews. It will spread from minority to minority.” Continue reading →

I want to tell you, that after 500 years of be looked down upon, at times considered to be savages, animals, in some regions condemned to extermination, thanks to this consciousness and this uprising and to the struggle for the rights of the peoples, we got here to repair the historic damage, to repair 500 years of damage. Continue reading →