Matters of Interest

Court, Ms M.

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:21): To receive an award in the Order of Australia is one of the highest honours that can be bestowed on a citizen in our country. The highest honour of these is the rank of Companion of the Order of Australia. To be awarded an AC is to be recognised alongside famed South Australians such as physicist Mark Oliphant, medical researcher Basil Hetzel and Aboriginal leader Lowitja O'Donoghue. These AC postnominals denote great Australians who have earned respect for their lives, their careers and their actions, and their definition is provided in the Constitution of the Order of Australia:

Appointments as Companions or Honorary Companions in the General Division shall be made for eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large.

That is a high threshold to meet indeed, and I suggest there are some things that would disqualify one from that level of eminent achievement and merit. Things like giving a sermon in your church and saying, 'You know, even that LGBT in the schools, it's the devil, it's not of God.' Things like going on radio and, while discussing transgender children, declaring that:

You can think 'I'm a boy' and it'll affect your emotions and feelings and everything else, so that's all the devil. That's what Hitler did and that's what communism did—got in the mind of the children—and that's the whole plot in our nation and in the nations of the world to get in the minds of the children.

Things like declaring, with respect to marriage equality, 'Everyone knows that it is wrong, but they're after our young ones, that's what they are after.' Things like saying on radio:

We know that homosexuality is a lust of the flesh, so is adultery, fornication, all those things…they too know this, this is why they want marriage, because it's self-satisfying.

Things like declaring that tennis is full of lesbians and that 'we're there to help them overcome'. These are not quotes from half a century ago, they are all from within the last four years, and they are all quotes from the newly minted Margaret Court AC.

I was one of the many Australians who were shocked and appalled to hear last month that Ms Court has been awarded a Companion of the Order of Australia. Ms Court has been described as the greatest female tennis player of all time, and perhaps that is true, but for all those achievements she has been showered in praise and prize money. She is in halls of fame, she has an arena named after her and she is already an AO, an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Yet, Margaret Court used this enormous platform she was given, built upon all these honours, to vilify gay, lesbian and transgender people, to divide our country and to incite hatred. That was her further contribution to our nation and that is why she was rewarded.

She is no Lowitja O'Donoghue, she is no Basil Hetzel, she is no Mark Oliphant. She is a bigot who has used her achievements and the platform created by her sporting field achievements to attack LGBTIQ people in Australia, including children. By her inclusion in the honours list, all other deserving recipients are diminished and the entire Australian honour system is tarnished.

Lest anyone feel that Margaret Court deserves this further award, let me share with you a word-for-word extract (as best as I can decipher it, anyway) from one of her church services, easily found online—do a search. The New York Times has given you a handy hint how to find it, as it reported on Ms Court's practice of speaking in tongues. This is what Ms Court has to say to her congregation (I apologise to Hansard in advance; I will give you a copy):

Harra-deb-or-see

Aya ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba

Haya-barra-de-barra-bala-bor-see-ah

Ah-boy-eh-ha-ha-ha-ha

Ho-ye-he-he-ha

Ho-alla-bolla-meh

Haya-ba-haya-ba-ba

Now, do you all in this chamber feel that she is one of the best representatives of our nation to the world, deserving of our highest honour? She is a bigot, she is a con artist and the honours awards committee thrust her upon us as a shining example of the best of Australia. We have all been conned and we have all been diminished by the award of this honour to Margaret Court.