PRIME MINISTER:
There is no place in Australia for racism. We are the most successful multicultural society in the world. We are a migration nation. Our immigration program is non-discriminatory.
The White Australia Policy was abolished by my predecessor as Prime Minister and Liberal Leader, Harold Holt. Senator Anning’s remarks are appalling. I condemn them and I reject them in their entirety.
JOURNALIST:
What do you say, Prime Minister, to the criticism that the Liberal Party engages in preference swaps with One Nation?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, can I just say to you that we condemn the remarks that have been made by Senator Anning. They have been condemned comprehensively by Australians all around the country.
The point, the simple point of the matter is, as we were just reflecting on in the dining room there, where we launched this book, The Last Post. This book is an account of 30 young Australian lives that have been remembered in Last Post ceremonies at the War Memorial.
You know, when you fling open the doors of this Parliament, from the Prime Minister's Office through the Cabinet Room, through the Members’ Hall below us, through the Great Hall, you see the Australian War Memorial. And it’s a reminder that every freedom we have and exercise here was won by the service and sacrifice of the men and women remembered at that War Memorial.
And they were of every race, of every religion and of none. Over 400 of them remembered there were First Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
We are a nation that does not define its nationality, its identity, by reference to race or religion or cultural background or ethnic background. We define ourselves by commitment to shared political values of freedom, of democracy and the rule of law. People from every corner of the earth, from every religion or of none and every race can connect, be inspired by, be part of those values.
That is Australia.
So, we reject, we condemn racism in any form. The remarks by Senator Anning are justly condemned and rejected by us all.
Thank you very much.