The allegations of racism levelled at me and the Liberal Party by the New South Wales Secretary of the ALP, Mr John Della Bosca, were completely baseless.
They were the desperate smears of a man and a Party who have nothing relevant to say about the bread and butter issues of concern to mainstream Australia.
Mr Della Bosca's outburst was typical of the McCarthyist tactics of the Keating era and to which I drew attention in my speech to the Queensland Division of the Liberal Party two weeks ago.
There can be no earthly justification for what he said.
That the Opposition Leader, Mr Beazley, should leave Mr Della Bosca's remarks unrebuked displays both hypocrisy and weakness.
Accordingly to Mr Beazley, I have an obligation to comment in detail on the maiden speech of an independent member of Parliament, yet he as Labor leader carries no responsibility for what the General Secretary of the largest branch in his own Party says at the annual conference of that branch.
It is hard to conceive of a greater double standard.
Perhaps the real explanation is that Mr Della Bosca was the ventriloquist's dummy.
In recent weeks, I have confirmed the non-discriminatory character of Australia's immigration policy. On several occasions, I have said that as a group Aborigines are the most disadvantaged of all Australians.
The crowning hypocrisy is that these smears have come from the General Secretary of the NSW Labor Party which has just concluded a preference deal for the Lindsay by-election with Australians Against Further Immigration. It was his association with this group which was one of the reasons why the federal Member for Kalgoorlie, Mr Graeme Campbell, was expelled from the Labor Party last year.
Mr Beazley has a clear duty to either repudiate Mr Della Bosca's comments or attempt to justify them.
6 October 1996