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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-04-12 Daily Xml
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Racism

The Hon. J.M. GAZZOLA (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Can the minister update the chamber on the work that AFL clubs are doing to combat racism?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:40): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest and commitment in the area of reconciliation. Our national game, Aussie rules, seems to bring out the very best, but also, sadly, sometimes, the very worst in people. Passion for the sport and for your team is absolutely a prerequisite in watching a game of AFL, whether it is screaming your lungs out at the TV at home or cheering your heart out at a game. I know I have done plenty of screaming at the TV as the Richmond Tigers coast into ninth, season after season.

I rise today, once again, as the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, to put on the record my dismay and disappointment at recent racially motivated behaviour at a sporting event. I am truly baffled. This is not the first, the second, or even the third time since I have held the portfolio area of Aboriginal affairs and reconciliation that there has been behaviour at a sporting event that has resulted in fans racially vilifying the players that many have come to support.

The hurtful, demonising, demoralising and destructive words and phrases uttered at last weekend's Showdown do not just hurt those that they were directed at, but they take away from our game, the whole code, and all of us in society generally. A game when our city and statewide rivalry reaches a tipping point, a moment where the rest of the country gets to peek into an experience that only comes twice a year, is truly unique. Yet, despite the prowess of the two competing teams dominating the AFL at this time of the year, and the magnificence of Adelaide Oval, it is the cheap, soulless, racist remarks of a small few that will be remembered long after the game is finished.

Eddie Betts and Paddy Ryder deserve better, their families deserve better and society should demand better. I am not going to repeat the things that were said and written about these two superstars. I simply fail to understand why they were said in the first place. People who say these sorts of things surely wouldn't go into their own workplace and behave in the same way. Just because someone has paid for a ticket and just because someone is wearing a sporting outfit does not justify or give authority to spectators to behave in the way that we have recently seen. As uncle Archie Roach sings, 'It's the colour of your jumper, not the colour of your skin.'

I want to pay tribute to both the Port Adelaide and Adelaide football clubs, who handle these situations in the appropriate way and very swiftly, revoking memberships, banning people from games and having a permanent invitation for people to enrol in racial education programs. These footy clubs don't just turn their mind to supporting Aboriginal people during times of crisis, the welcoming and inclusive culture shows in every part of their organisations.

Port Adelaide currently has the equal highest number of Aboriginal players in the competition, something that I, and they, couldn't be more proud of. Port Adelaide is also leading the nation in Aboriginal community programs, and through the Aboriginal Power Cup, which is celebrating 10 years of success, as well as their WillPOWER program, Aboriginal kids' lives are being turned around. The AFL as an organisation has been an absolute leader in the journey towards reconciliation and can't be faulted in their approach and tough stance against racism. We know, from famous incidents involving superstars like Nicky Winmar and Adam Goodes, that on-field racism from spectators to an athlete can have long-lasting and profound consequences.

But the problem is not unique to our city or our sport or just at the elite level, with Aboriginal athletes from all codes and sports still, today, vilified for their race. I have had a number of conversations about this in the last few days with people that I know quite well and I want to put some of that on the record today.

Kevin Kropinyeri is a proud Ngarrindjeri man who grew up around Murray Bridge and Tailem Bend. He is now a very successful comedian and one of the most confident people I know. He played, as a junior, basketball at an elite state level and he played country footy. At country footy games Kevin Kropinyeri had to endure a large number of supporters making monkey noises whenever he went near the ball, every single time.

A person I have got to know a bit recently, who works in Aboriginal affairs policy in Victoria, is an ex St Kilda player, Allan Murray. He reiterated that racism not only affects the individual, but also affects their immediate family, their extended family, their friends and their team mates. He was racially vilified even at suburban footy level and describes it as a massive kick in the guts—especially given all the education he had personally been involved in around racism in sport—to be called a black this and black that whenever he was on the field.

Allan remembers the physical and mental toll it took. He couldn't eat for days and was lethargic and emotionally drained. Then, the club at the time struggled to know how to handle it because they had never had to experience anything quite like it. Today, I spoke to Paul Vandenbergh, the Port Adelaide Aboriginal programs manager, who is one of the most dedicated people I know striving to have a positive impact on the lives of young Aboriginal people. He vividly recalls his experiences when he moved to Adelaide.

Paul was called all sorts of names—that I am not going to repeat here today—many times as a junior basketballer. He had never been called those names growing up back home in Ceduna. He knew it was wrong. It hurt, and all he wanted to do was pack up and go home to feel safe again. Paul forged ahead, played basketball at an elite NBL level, and his lived experience of racism is why he is such a strong person today. These are the kinds of qualities that Paul has instilled in hundreds of Aboriginal kids across South Australia in the past decade at the Port Adelaide Football Club. I pay tribute to him and I am grateful, personally, that he has persevered.

However, these are not the kinds of conversations Paul thought he would be having with his peers in 2017, nor did he think in 2016 that he would have to provide cultural awareness training to a young person who lobbed a banana at Eddie Betts while performing his job on the footy field. When Adam Goodes finally, after years and years of racial taunts, stood up for himself, his culture and every other Aboriginal person and pointed out the person who was abusing him, many vilified him for just that action of pointing out who was abusing him.

We cannot accept racial vilification as a status quo at a family event. I have been fortunate to get to know Adam quite well over the last couple of years. I talked to him earlier today and he reiterated that it is not just when it happened to him that it hurt him, it is also when it happens to every other person that it hurts him. When Adam Goodes stood up and celebrated his Aboriginality after kicking a goal, he was targeted again. Australia has the oldest living culture in the world. For 40,000 years, Aboriginal people have had their culture on display here. As a nation, we should be extraordinarily proud. We should support our sporting heroes, taking pride in their culture as well.

I have had people working in my office who are Aboriginal people playing sport who have experienced exactly the same thing. The time of passing unfair judgement because of how someone looks has well and truly passed. It is up to all of us to call out racism whenever we encounter it at the footy, in the front bar and even in our own homes. It is pleasing to see that that is happening to a greater and greater extent at things like football matches. Aboriginal athletes, both men and women, are giants of Australian sport. Judge them on their athleticism, their commitment, their drive, their energy and their passion; judge them on their premiership trophies, their Brownlow medals, Commonwealth Games and Olympic gold medals and their world records, but, more importantly, judge them as a person.

What happens in sport on and off the field can set the tone for what we generally accept in society. It is very, very easy to think that these Aboriginal sporting stars are big enough and have had enough and that they should be able to take it. That is just not the case. It hurts. It hurts very, very, very deeply. It demeans them, it demeans all Aboriginal people and it demeans us when it happens.

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