Some political remarks racist: former PM

November 16, 2006

Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser believes many comments by Australia's politicians about Islam are racist.

Mr Fraser also said many of the words used to stimulate debate about the need for a set of Australian values were code for saying Muslims did not comply with Australian values.

And he questioned whether the next federal election would be fought using a race card.

Mr Fraser made the statements during the official launch of the Australians All website aimed at promoting an inclusive, diverse, multicultural, peaceful and prosperous Australia.

More than 40 eminent Australians are involved in Australians All - taken from the opening line of the national anthem - including ACTU president Sharan Burrow, the Reverend Tim Costello, Islamic Council of Victoria's Waleed Aly, and Muslim Community Reference Group chair Dr Ameer Ali.

The members say they were forced to begin the website because of a lack of positive political leadership and diverse discussion about Australian issues.

"I think, and we all felt, that Australia needs a voice for sanity, for reason, for inclusiveness, for acceptance, for respect for diversity, respect for difference, and knowing of course that people who live in this country accept Australian laws and the primacy of Australian democracy and all the things which are necessary for a peaceful and prosperous Australia," Mr Fraser told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Fraser said no government had used the race card to build fear among Australians, until the "children overboard" scandal before the last federal election.

"(That) created fears about followers of Islam, fears about people who are different, fears of people who came from a different country ... I don't recall anyone from the parliament getting up and saying, `well we need to respect, we need to support people fleeing the Taliban'... no, we were told they were not the sort of people we wanted to have in Australia," Mr Fraser said.

Asked if he thought the current comments about the Islamic community were racist, he said: "Many of them, yes".

"I don't think it's restricted to one party or to one group because ... if there was a really vigorous debate about these issues in Canberra, a lot of the members of this supporting group might have felt, `well there's no need for us to do it, because there is a public debate about it'," he said.

"But what public debate has there been?"

Mr Fraser said the short term goal of the website was to provoke a moderation of language used to discuss Australian issues.

"If language is used that plays a race card, we will do what we can to expose it," he said.

"People do use coded words which are saying, `this group is not really conforming', and implying that this group don't really accept Australian values and whatever, we'll try and expose it."

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