The Hon. R.A.SIMMS(17:08): I rise to speak in favour of the motion, and in so doing I want to commend the Hon. Jing Lee for her leadership in putting this matter before us for discussion today. I also thank her for sharing a bit about her personal story and for the leadership that she provides to multicultural communities in our state. I know that the honourable member engages regularly with those communities and does a lot of work in terms of amplifying the voices of those communities in this chamber, so I acknowledge that and I thank her for that leadership.
I want to indicate my unequivocal support for the motion that the honourable member has put forward today. Racism should have no place in our state. Our state, and indeed our nation, has been enhanced by the enormous contribution that has been made by migrant communities. Indeed, our state and our nation are great examples across the world of a truly multicultural society and we are strengthened and enriched by the enormous contribution that is made to our migrant communities.
I, like so many South Australians, was deeply distressed, saddened and outraged to see the anti-immigration rallies that happened right across the country and to see that happen right here in our home state, and I condemn those rallies. I am particularly concerned about the way in which white supremacist language is becoming normalised in our politics. It is rhetoric that I think is coming from the United States and is being normalised through the presidency of Donald Trump and it is now finding its way into the political discourse in Australia. It should have no place, and those who seek to sow the seeds of division in our society should be condemned absolutely because everybody should feel comfortable, safe and welcome in South Australia.
Like the honourable member, I have heard some of the experiences of people from migrant communities in South Australia in recent weeks who have reported feeling unsafe and uncomfortable, particularly on the day of those rallies, and I think that is really regrettable and really reinforces why it is so important that we have this discussion in the parliament today so that all members have an opportunity to make it clear that they reject racism and they reject what we are seeing, which is racist dog whistling seeking to scapegoat migrant communities for the problems that we are dealing with in our economy.
The reality is that migration is fundamental to our economic growth, and I refer to a report that has been prepared by Migration Council Australia that looks at some independent economic modelling, which was completed in 2014 and 2015 by the Independent Economics group. What that found was that Australia's projected population will significantly increase by 2050 and that migration will contribute $1.6 trillion to Australia's GDP.
Moreover, the report finds that this increase in migration would have added 15.7 per cent to our workforce participation rate, 21.9 per cent to after-tax real wages for low-skilled workers and it would have added 5.9 per cent in GDP per capita growth, so migration is fundamental to our economic growth. It is also fundamental to our social value and diversity as a community and we in our state and our nation have drawn so much from the diverse experiences of the many people from across the globe who have come to call Australia home.
I also want to indicate that this matter continues to be an issue of key concern for the Greens. Indeed, my colleagues in Canberra have been strong advocates for a retention of the Racial Discrimination Act, opposing attempts to try to repeal section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. We do not want to see a licence being provided for bigotry. Any attempt to water down racial discrimination protections runs the risk of providing a forum for bigotry and for this scapegoating to occur.
I also want to address one of the key claims that seems to be made in these rallies that somehow migration is to blame for the housing crisis and the cost-of-living crisis that we are dealing with in our state. That is just complete nonsense. That is a complete confection by the far right, who are deliberately using this rhetoric to try to stigmatise a group in our society.
The reality is we know that the housing crisis has been caused by a failure of governments over many generations to appropriately invest in housing, affordable housing and social housing. We know that it is also being caused by tax arrangements that are in place at a federal level that make it very attractive for people to invest in housing and to use housing as an asset class. Negative gearing and the like, all of these things combined, have priced people out of the housing market.
In terms of the cost-of-living crisis, we know that the main driver of that is an economic system that has been focused on corporate greed and wealth accumulation of the few at the expense of the many. These are the things that are driving inequality in our society and that are pricing people out of our housing market. It is not the fault of migrant communities or those who have moved to our state and now call Australia home.
So I strongly support the motion. I join with the honourable member in repudiating in the strongest possible terms those racist views that were expressed at that rally and, indeed, the displays of racism that we saw. It should have no place in South Australian society, and our strength lies in our diversity as a community.