Politicians don't usually admit to mistakes when they address the national parliament, but veteran Liberal Russell Broadbent confessed to a big one on Monday evening: failing to repudiate his colleagues who promote fear and division.
Mr Broadbent expressed his regret for not immediately rejecting a "diatribe about the rise of Islam in this country" by fellow Coalition MP George Christensen back in September.
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Liberal MP condemns colleagues 'cuddling up' to Hansonism
Veteran Liberal Russell Broadbent confesses he 'failed' to repudiate Coalition MP George Christensen over anti-Islam remarks.
That same week, Pauline Hanson had delivered a similar speech in the Senate, warning that Australia was in danger of being swamped by Muslims who did not share Australian values.
Mr Broadbent, who holds the west Gippsland seat of McMillan, spoke immediately after Mr Christensen in an adjournment debate that week, but ignored his remarks, believing that "saying what I thought" would only result in them receiving more attention. That, he now says, was a big error.
"It was a long and lonely walk before the penny dropped as to why I had not called out the member for (Queensland seat of ) Dawson on the spot," Broadbent explained in a speech to Parliament on Monday night.
"The issues swirling in our multicultural nation are for me public and passionate, but for me they are not personal. The truth is I didn't act as I should have because I am not Muslim, Chinese, Afghan or Greek looking. Not Italian, Sri Lankan or Sudanese. Not Aboriginal."
Having realised his mistake, Mr Broadbent told the nation what he really thought in Monday's address, appealing to all MPs to reflect on their relationship with the Australian people because "right now it's broken".
"It's time for us to rise above the politics of fear and division because our love of diversity, difference and freedom will endure," he said.
Mr Broadbent made no reference to the two divisive debates of this week – one about the proposed life-time visa ban on refugees processed offshore; the other the push for changes to laws outlawing racial hate speech.
But he did challenge those on his side of politics who were "cuddling up to Hansonite rhetoric" to think again, saying: "Those propositions and policies will only hurt the Coalition parties in the long run in the same way as the once great Labor Party now is captive to the Greens."
Part of the answer, he said, was to have empathy and consideration for those doing it tough and "speak to the people in their language about basic concerns affecting their daily lives".
"The politics of fear and division have never created one job. Never come up with one invention. Never started a new business. And never given a child a new start in life, or lifted the spirits of a nation."
And part of it was to show leadership, and convince those who were targeted by Christensen and Hanson that they haven't been left out.
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