A new poll has found that nearly half of all Australians
want a ban on Muslim immigration.
Which is, you know, shocking,
But what if we also told you that more than a third of Greens voters support that ban too?
Greens. Why you be like that?
To find out why, I decided to hit the streets
to ask the people,
and also to see if I could find one of these elusive anti-Muslim Greens.
Would you support a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia?
No.
Definitely not.
(laughs) No.
But who are these people?
And why are they so anti-ban?
I voted for the Labor Party.
I voted Labor.
I voted for the Liberals.
I think that this is a big country,
there's plenty of room for everybody.
We can all live in peace and harmony.
And what do you think about Senator Pauline Hanson's role in all of this?
Sorry, I can only laugh when someone mentions her name.
We still hadn't found anyone pro-ban,
and we were getting a little desperate.
Do you have a second to answer questions for SBS?
Do you support a ban on Muslim immigration?
(fast forward)
home, to everyone...
I think that's a no...
Okay, I think we're done.
And then, we found one.
Would I support a ban? Yeah.
I probably would, yeah.
Why would you?
Because of all the terrorism and stuff that goes on.
Innocent people dying, I suppose.
And they shouldn't be dying, you know.
Do you know any Muslims yourself?
No, not really, no, not many.
But where are the elusive pro-ban Greens voters?
We decided to have a look in a left-leaning neighbourhood.
Would you support a ban on Muslim immigration to Australia?
A ban? No!
(laughs)
I wouldn't.
Ah, no.
No.
Definitely yes, on some conditions.
But is he Green?
I didn't vote.
I think the last couple of times I've actually just copped the fine.
Dammit. No luck.
Back to the studio.
And our next guest is Mariam Veiszadeh, she is a diversity advocate and recovering lawyer.
-Welcome Mariam. -Hello
Were you shocked that apparently 49% of Australians
want to ban you for being able to come to this country?
Yeah, maybe it's just my sense of humour.
Look, firstly, I do question the legitimacy of the poll results,
given that what I'm hearing is that they were quite limited and it was done online,
but putting that aside,
having run the Islamophobia Register for the past year and a bit,
I have seen a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric,
and I must say that the political climate
I feel is actually fuelling that.
It's no coincidence that it's happened a week after
Pauline Hanson's infamous maiden speech.
That's an interesting point, because Tanya Plibersek today said that
our politicians haven't done enough to foster cohesion,
is it politicians who you level this at? Is this the reason why we are having thing problem right now?
I think that definitely they play a role,
I would say that you can't just lay the blame there,
but if you look back in history you had John Howard's rhetoric
you had Tony Abbott's rhetoric,
and his long list of things that we won't go through,
under Malcolm Turnbull, the rhetoric has changed, I must say,
but we haven't seen any sort of strong opposition
to Pauline Hanson.
They talk about the standard you walk past being the standard you accept...
Plenty of people did come out and condemn her when she did her speech,
They did, but let's focus on the major parties.
A lot of people did just walk past and accept it.
And some even gave her a hug, maybe high-fived her
- I'm probably exaggerating now a bit -
but you get the drift.
We'll go back and look at Hansard, and who is down as giving a high five.
Speaking of The Greens, it's been a shock result of the poll
is that more than a third of Greens voters actually support the ban,
and they're usually very pro-immigration,
what does that actually say to you?
I'm struggling to understand that,
and again I'd go back to the legitimacy of the results
and whether that part in particular is...
They did do the poll twice though.
Surely there's got to be some truth to it.
Like I said, it goes back to the political climate as well.
And what our leadership, and the role that they've played
in fostering an environment that allows groups like One Nation rise in the way they have.
I guess the other interesting thing here is that
we've seen this before - there was anti Vietnamese immigrant... sorry, I'll just start that again
I guess the interesting thing about this is, we've sort of seen this before.
In the history of Australia.
Every major wave of immigration - Greeks, Italians, Vietnamese -
there was some sort of reaction to it.
Is it just a thing that will pass in time as it happens, as it did with those other groups?
I sure hope so.
And how long as you holding your breath for that moment?
Exactly. This concept of integration with previous minority groups has come up,
and the thing is, every time I hear this thing about,
well, integration, you need to integrate better, I think,
what do I need to do? I've contemplated changing my name to Sheila.
Do you think that would work?
Can you have a Southern Cross tattoo... no?
Well Ican see if we can get a hijab design.
I did try the Aussie flag hijbab, but that didn't seem to go down to well either.
The idea around some of these things that we're being asked to challenge all the time,
and condemming terrorism, and the thing is -
we have been. For decades.Saying the same thing.
At some point the public needs to think about the fact that
the onus shouldn't be on people like me to constantly say, this isn't us.
That they don't represent us.
They should know better.
Thank you so much for joining us, Mariam.
It's a pleasure.