MEMORIAL SERVICE, MINISTERIAL ATTENDANCE

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Multicultural Affairs. Why did the minister show support for a banned terrorist organisation—the group, PKK—by attending a memorial service for its members?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (14:49): Can I start by saying any assertion that I have ever supported terrorism or showed sympathies towards organisations that inflict terror or harm on people is offensive and absurd. I attended a memorial service that was organised by the Adelaide Kurdish Youth Society.

I was phoned while I was on leave, on holiday in Vietnam, asking whether I would go to this function, which occurred on the same day that I arrived back in Australia. That is the day I received a speech and a brief. When I read the brief, I had some concerns about what was contained in the speech, and my speech was edited.

I went along to honour a commitment that I had given to a Kurdish community group here in South Australia to express condolences on the murder of three women in Paris, and I was not alone in expressing those condolences, sir. I can tell you that the Turkish government spokesperson, who I understand is also the Deputy Prime Minister, actually said that he condemned the 'savage killing' of the women, and said it was 'utterly wrong'.

On the Telegraph UK website, he was quoted as saying, 'This is utterly wrong, and I express my condolences.' The Prime Minister of Turkey said it could be a 'provocation', coming at a time when peace talks between the state and the PKK's gaoled leader, Abdullah Ocalan, were underway.

The French Interior Minister, who visited the pro-Kurdish centre in Paris where the bodies were found—three women who were murdered—said the deaths were, without doubt, an execution, and he called it a 'totally intolerable act'. Sir, I have had no advice, nor would I expect to receive any advice, that there is anything untoward in relation to the Adelaide Kurdish Youth Society.