Divisive Howard Is UnAustralian

Member for Lingiari and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs Warren Snowdon today called on Australians to resist any attempt to define and limit Australian values.

Speaking at the Cox Peninsula Australia Day celebrations at Mandorah today, Mr Snowdon said true Australian values, particularly the concept of a fair go, were under threat.

'The fair go for workers vanished with the so-called workplace reforms, yet you can – and should - build an economy without abandoning it,' he said.

'The concept of equality before the law vanished when this government stood by and let the Americans imprison David Hicks without trial – five years and counting.

'Whatever he may have done, he's entitled to the presumption of innocence and a fair trial buy a jury of his peers, not a military tribunal with its own rules.

'The concept of generosity is under threat when the Government cannot bring itself to use the word 'multiculturalism' to describe the society we live in.

'It's one thing to integrate people – which means respecting cultural difference – but an entirely different thing when a government starts insisting that they have to accept what it claims are 'Australian values'.

'Being equal in life and before the law doesn't have to mean that we all become the same, but that's clearly the intent of Mr Howard's flag-waving.

'Politicians do not own Australian values and Mr Howard's way is not the Australian way,' Mr Snowdon said.

2007-01-26