Mr MARTIN FERGUSON (5:30 PM) —I stand in this adjournment debate to express my concern that we are fast losing Australia's proud traditions of a fair-go society, where everybody works hard at living in harmony. The last 28 months of the Howard government have seen our traditions badly sullied. The Prime Minister (Mr Howard) has been prepared to sell out our traditions just to garner a few extra votes which he desperately hopes will keep him living in luxury in Kirri billi. Nothing shows up the Prime Minister's attitude to our tradition more than what has happened to the much promised anti-racism campaign.

Mr Miles interjecting—

Mr MARTIN FERGUSON —I know that the anti-racism campaign does not figure high on the priority list of the member for Braddon. Do honourable members remember the promise to run the anti-racism campaign which was made during the lead-up to the last election? What did they say? It is in their policy documents of the last election. A two-year, $10 million anti-racism campaign was the promise. It was a core promise then but it soon became a non-core promise. All of a sudden, they worked out on election that they no longer needed the ethnic community. There was a new community associated with the One Nation party that they were more concerned to be associated with.

This campaign was promised, I suggest to the House, to bolster our traditions of harmony, mateship and a fair go. In essence, I suppose, it was about that old concept of being good neighbours. But what has happened? Nothing. In fact, within months of coming into power, the promised $10 million was slashed in the first Howard-Costello budget to just $5 million. We have now had three budgets pass by and nothing has happened to the much promised campaign. The only evidence we have had of any activity is an ugly push-polling type phone survey which promoted the basest of ideas and fed the worst and loopiest ideas—ideas which one expects to be promoted by those who now control the One Nation mob, not by people who purport to lead this great nation of ours and who actually occupy the treasury benches of this great nation.

What were some of the questions being promoted by the government's push-polling survey? Let us just have a look:

Aborigines are dirty and lazy. Do you agree or disagree?

Muslims have strange ways and will never be part of Australian society. Do you agree or disagree?

Vietnamese are responsible for crime. Do you agree or disagree?

That is the push-polling that the coalition government was associated with in recent months.

While the federal government over the last 28 months have found many, many excuses not to go ahead with the $10 million anti-racism campaign, they have found plenty of reasons to spend $34 million on a last-minute advertising blitz to try to shore up their rapidly diminishing fortunes. But there has been no anti-racism campaign, the very anti-racism campaign promised—and it was then a core promise—in the lead-up to the March 1996 election. They do not think that is important.

The government regard other things as important. For example, they have got $10 million to spend on a short, sharp, GST campaign. They have got $2.8 million to advertise their common youth allowance. They have got $4.5 million for the Natural Heritage Trust campaign to cover their poor environmental record. Finally, DEETYA is already planning a $4.5 million campaign on youth initiatives. There is plenty of money for them to defend coalition government initiatives but no money to stand up and be counted on One Nation.

While they can spend and spend to try to turn around the diminishing fortunes, they cannot find the money for an anti-racism campaign to maintain our traditions of harmony, mateship and a fair go. Why is this so? The truth is that in 1996 they wanted the support of ethnic communities to get elected. In 1998 the Prime Minister has decided that he does not need the ethnic communities; he needs One Nation's supporters, so he has put the kybosh on the anti-racism campaign. He has got a new flag. He has used the ethnic communities and now he wants to be associated with people like Pauline Hanson. The truth about John Howard is that he craves the attention of Pauline Hanson much more than he craves the support of Australia's multicultural community. That is the nature of the Prime Minister we have got. (Time expired)