Liberal Senator and Chair of the Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, Cory Bernardi, is once again seeking to divide the community with his intolerant and ill-timed comments.

As remarked by many, the ignorant opportunism from the likes of Cory Bernardi only works to strengthen the resolve of extremists and inflames tensions.

It is also a complete failure of leadership on his part.

Politicians, like faith leaders, are community leaders.  We live in a tolerant and pluralistic country.  Our words and actions should be uniting influences to bring our diverse community together, never to pit different communities against one other.

Unfortunately in the past few weeks, we have seen some politicians from around Australia intent on exploiting fear and division to pursue their own political agendas.  This is despite the strong sentiment in Question Time in the House of Representatives today that we should show leadership with understanding and tolerance at this time.

I would urge all the leaders in this building to be a uniting force and stop seeking to divide the community with inflammatory and ignorant remarks.

This has come only a few weeks after Fairfax Media reported Senator Bernardi voicing his disdain for multiculturalism saying, “we are now seeing the negative consequences of this social experiment.”

Tony Abbott’s number one Senator for South Australia, Cory Bernardi, continues to make these ill-informed comments.  It’s time for Tony Abbott to tell him to shut up.

WEDNESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2014