Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Department of the Legislative Council

Report 2022–23

Evan MULHOLLAND (Northern Metropolitan) (17:32): My statement on reports is on the Legislative Council annual report 2022–23. There are many great features of this place. Having been in this place since November 2022 there are statements on reports, there is question time, there are constituency questions, there are adjournments and there are petitions. But one of the features of this place that I really value is the reading of the Lord’s Prayer every day, and I actually wanted to acknowledge in this place and take the time to speak about a very significant joint letter we all received as members of Parliament from the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne, the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, the Board of Imams Victoria, the Hindu Council of Australia and the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, who actually minister and care for more than 2 million Victorians in their communities.

Since 1857 the Lord’s Prayer has been a longstanding and formal part of both houses of the Victorian Parliament. The recitation of the prayer is a common tradition of the Westminster system and together with the acknowledgement of country every day provides a vital link between two very important facets of our history. The Lord’s Prayer is an action and public acknowledgement of responsible service to the people of Victoria. Multifaith communities play a very important role in our multicultural society. Any move to secularise parliamentary proceedings would send a clear message to the Victorian people from the Parliament that faith has no place in Victoria, and I think it would be a very sad day. I am not opposed to people boycotting the prayer in this place, and often those that do are those who preach about tolerance of others. I do not think you could be any more intolerant of faith communities in Victoria than if you sought to remove faith from this place. This Parliament would be sending a message to faith communities that they have no place in this state.

Leadership starts at the top – at the top and in this place in Parliament as leaders and elected representatives of our community. To send a message that faith has no place would be wrong. We need to send a message that Victoria is a multicultural state and a multifaith state, and there is no turning back from that. Actually, instead of ignoring that or boycotting that or cancelling it or abolishing it, we embrace multifaith communities, we put our arms around multifaith communities and send a message that together, with the acknowledgement of country, we acknowledge and pay respect to great institutions in our society. We believe the reading of the Lord’s Prayer is consistent with Victoria’s diverse community in recognising the roots of our Westminster system and acknowledging this community, and it continues to demonstrate we actually live in a tolerant society.

As a practising Catholic, I acknowledge that the Lord’s Prayer every day is not actually a Catholic one, but I still recognise and partake in it because it is very important to the people of Victoria. Leadership starts with our leaders and leaders in our community. We are elected to serve our communities, particularly faith communities. Replacing it with a secular reflection and secularising the Parliament would send a clear message that faith has no place in our community. Other people in this chamber and political activists would be the first to preach tolerance with our multicultural communities. I ask you to read closely the joint letter from the Board of Imams, from the Hindu Council of Australia, from the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, from the Catholic Diocese of Melbourne, from the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, because it is a really, really important one. It is a simple prayer held across traditions, and it is a call for our community to honour God so as to love and serve others before ourselves. To serve others before ourselves is what we are here to do – it is exactly what we are here to do – and acknowledgement of the prayer each day is a message that we are here to serve others before ourselves. We should retain the Lord’s Prayer, and the Liberals and Nationals will be fighting every day to oppose any attempt to replace the Lord’s Prayer with some sort of secular reflection.