Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has praised an Australia Day billboard featuring two Muslim Australian girls in hijabs, and backed the wearing of Islamic dress in public.
The billboard, promoting a government-funded Australia Day event in Melbourne, was controversially taken down after threats were made to advertising company QMS.
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Following the decision to remove a billboard in Melbourne featuring girls wearing hijabs, the Immigration minister says he wasn't offended by it and people shouldn't abandon their beliefs. Courtesy 3AW.
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Billboard didn't bother me: Dutton
Following the decision to remove a billboard in Melbourne featuring girls wearing hijabs, the Immigration minister says he wasn't offended by it and people shouldn't abandon their beliefs. Courtesy 3AW.
Meanwhile, in another incident likely to offend Muslim Australians, West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said he would encourage Muslims not to wear the burqa face-covering in public, because "it's not part of our culture".
But Mr Dutton, whose previous comments have at times outraged migrant and Muslim communities, defended the billboard and the donning of Islamic dress during an interview on Thursday.
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"I think it's great that we've got young boys, young girls from whatever background who are embracing Australian values, flying the Australian flag, proud to be Australian, proud to be part of our society, want to be part of a peaceful future in this country," Mr Dutton told 3AW radio. "They're all the values that all of us embrace."
Mr Dutton was then asked whether people should be "offended" by the hijab, or headscarf.
"I don't think so. People have different elements to their dress and their culture that they embrace," he said.
"I think what most Australians expect from any of us from a migrant background, and ultimately that's the case for most of us, is that we respect the culture from our country of origin but we embrace Australian values."
The photograph that appeared on the Melbourne billboard was taken at an Australia Day event in the Docklands area last year, and was part of a rotating series of images designed to showcase multicultural Australia.
Victoria's multicultural affairs minister Robin Scott said QMS had removed the billboard temporarily due to a series of "abusive and threatening" complaints.
A GoFundMe campaign by marketing executive Dee Madigan to reinstate a billboard featuring the two girls has since raised $126,000 at the time of writing.
Mr Dutton has himself caused controversy with remarks about multiculturalism. In May, during the election campaign, he accused "illiterate and innumerate" refugees of taking Australian jobs and also languishing on dole queues.
In November, he angered the Lebanese community by suggesting former prime minister Malcolm Fraser had made "mistakes" in bringing in Lebanese migrants in the 1970s, pointing to figures indicating Lebanese Muslims were over-represented among those charged with terrorism offences.