Thread by @MehreenFaruqi

"Good Evening. Assalamoalikum.

We are gathered today on stolen land."

My first speech to @AuSenate:

There is still a reluctance among many to acknowledge that we are a settler colonial society. It is a simple fact. Australia is a nation built on the invasion and colonisation of sovereign nations. It saddens me that that this reality is still denied, often vehemently.

Our past directly informs our future. Without truth, reconciliation and sovereignty for First Nations people, our past remains a gaping wound.

I know that many are watching from all corners of Australia and Pakistan as I make my first speech in the Senate. Your friendship and love is the reason I am here.

In 2003, millions watched as Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle confronted George Bush in this very building as he spun his lies about the war on Iraq.

That courage is the reason I joined the Greens.

I come into the Senate with big shoes to fill. Senator Rhiannon has been a leading light of our party. Her work to defend public services, to combat the corrosive effect of corporate donations, to protect animals and end live exports will number among her many lasting legacies

This is not a job I ever expected to have when I arrived as a migrant in Sydney over twenty-six years ago!

Mehreen of 1992 started studying for a Masters in Engineering with big hoops and big hair and could never have imagined that one day she would be a Senator for NSW.

I worked in regional NSW and in Sydney, in the public and private sectors as an engineer, consultant, teacher and academic. From Mosman Council and the classrooms of UNSW to Port Macquarie on the New South Wales north coast, I’ve rolled up my sleeves.

I bring to this chamber my track record in shaking things up  and shifting the agenda on issues as diverse as decriminalising abortion, drug law reform, LGBTQI rights, the right to die with dignity and protecting our environment

The existence of racism, sexism and other discrimination is not new. But what has changed is its legitimisation, normalisation and encouragement in the media and politics.

Political leaders, in addition to their old habit of racist dog-whistling, are now comfortable outright fanning the flames of racial conflict.

It’s all well and good for politicians to condemn the most blatant racism, but we cannot allow them to use these public displays of solidarity as cover for their own role in creating and fanning racial divisions.

The reality is that my presence in the Senate is an affront for some. They are offended that people of colour, and Muslims, have the audacity to not only exist, but to open our mouths and join the public debate.

Some politicians call us cockroaches.

Some, if they had their way, would ban us from making Australia our home.

So it is with great pride I stand here before you unapologetically a brown, Muslim, migrant, feminist woman.

Our country cannot be the place most of us want it to be while the threat of abuse continues to discourage people from participating in politics.

To those who want me to F off back to where I came from, I say:

Mazarrat chahiti hoon, magar afsoas nahin. Yeh maira ghar hai aur mein kaheen naheen jaon gee.

Sorry, not sorry. This is my home and I’m not going anywhere.

We face wicked problems that demand radical solutions.

We must reject simplistic solutions and tackle the root causes.

We cannot resolve income inequality without addressing the excesses of capitalism and neoliberalism.

Children are dying in offshore camps, young people are juggling multiple jobs just to survive, and our environment remains on the brink of irreversible damage.

We can make sure wealth isn’t concentrated in the deep pockets of the rich.

We can give each child and young person the promise of free education.

We can make sure that the sick and elderly get the care they deserve.

Let’s enshrine the rights of nature in law to protect Australia’s natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef, the Great Artesian Basin and the Murray-Darling river system from greedy exploitation.

I know that creating change is risky business. But the risk of challenging entrenched norms and values is well worth the reward - a more caring, kind and compassionate world.

It is people, not parliaments, who will lead the way in sparking our political imagination and creating radical change.

It is activists who work tirelessly for their causes. It is community members, neighbours, teachers, workers, and students who inspire me every day.

I see an Australia that looks beyond its borders, not as a nation hungry for resources and cheap goods, not as a nation suspicious or fearful of others, not as an ally of a war machine, but as a friend of people who are fighting oppression, marginalization and injustices.

We look beyond our borders as a proponent of democracy and human rights everywhere, not just where it is politically expedient. We look to international peace, to justice in Palestine, to welcoming refugees.

I see an unashamedly feminist country where the patriarchy is dismantled, where access to abortion is unambiguously legal, where the safety of women is of the utmost importance and violence against women is confronted as the crisis it is

I have the privilege of being the hundredth woman to sit in the senate. I’m thankful for the ninety-nine others who forged this path.

But I would not be standing here in front of you were it not for the exceptional women in my life.

I see a place where climate change is more than a political football, where the economy is working for the people and the environment. Where the environment is not seen as diametrically opposed to the economy, but inextricably linked with it

I see a society which cares for animals, where greyhounds like my beautiful Cosmo are safe and happy in homes instead of being pushed to their limits and killed on racetracks for gambling, where we would never tolerate the inhumanity of live exports or factory farming

The Greens see an Australia embracing new ideas knowing full well that old approaches have failed us.

I learned very early in life to fight hard to change what I knew to be unfair, from tussles with my mother to be allowed to do the same things as my brothers, to studying civil engineering in a man’s world

We cannot fiddle around the edges and somehow hope the tide will turn. We can build a future for each and every one of us. No matter where we come from. No matter the colour of our skin, our religion, our gender or sexuality, our bank balance or postcode.

I hope I make you proud