One Nation MP brought to tears in speech addressing sexuality
A One Nation MP has addressed his sexuality in his first speech to parliament after an election win that saw his past campaign alliances brought to the surface. Another openly gay MP has spoken about his experience as a survivor of child sexual abuse.
One Nation MP Jason Virgo, who was voted in for the South East seat of MacKillop, said he has “been openly gay throughout my entire adult life” in his first speech to SA parliament, which saw him tear up in the chamber.
It comes one day after Labor MP David Wilkins made an emotional first speech where he also addressed his sexuality, becoming the first openly gay lower house MPs.
Virgo’s speech follows reports after the March election, detailing that he campaigned for same sex marriage and previously ran for the Australian Sex Party at the 2010 and 2013 federal elections.
“Some 17 years ago, when I was a teenager, I began organising rallies for marriage equality. I know that when the awards were getting handed out for that campaign, I most certainly didn’t receive one. However, now that I’ve become a One Nation MP, suddenly all that hard work seems to have been rediscovered,” Virgo said in his speech.
“I do not wave the flag in the air as I walk down the street.
“I would rather my community hear it from me than from a potential political opponent or whispers and if someone does seek to weaponise who I am, that says more about them than it does about me.”
Virgo thanked his partner, “the love of my life”, who he said was “born in Indonesia, a Muslim and is now a proud Australian” and his friendship circle was largely made of Chinese immigrants.
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He spoke about immigration policy, saying “I love migrants” but that migration levels were too high and “two things can be true at once”. His speech also detailed his time working on Christmas Island.
“We would see people arriving wearing spray overalls because their boats had sunk and they had even lost the shirts on their backs. There were drownings, there were deaths. I asked many, would they ever take that journey again, and every single one said no,” he said.
He ended his speech with a commitment to his electorate, which he said was “bigger than Belgium”. He said he would be the “loudest voice” in the chamber defending regional industries, farmers, fishers and families in the South East.
‘Slowly I stopped fighting it’
Virgo’s speech came a day after Labor MP David Wilkins, who also addressed his sexuality and being a victim-survivor of child sexual abuse.
Wilkins, who was voted in for the metropolitan seat of Lee, told parliament his “voice was not heard” when delivering his maiden speech.
“At the time I knew something was not right, but like many young people in that position, I did not speak up. The abuse only came to light as a result of mandatory reporting laws passed by this parliament,” Wilkins said.
“In the years since, I have found myself returning to that experience more often than I would like to admit, grappling with the concept that a jury determined the evidence of my experience was not sufficient to meet the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt.
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“Like many who go through such processes, I was left feeling that neither my voice nor the impact of my experience was fully heard.”
Wilkins also detailed sharing his experiences grappling with his sexuality in his youth, saying he “tried desperately to do anything I could to convince others and myself that I wasn’t gay”.
“But no matter how hard I tried to control it or suppress it, it never really went away. Instead, what should have been a natural process of self-discovery became something far more complicated, far more confusing and far more damaging,” he said.
“Slowly I stopped fighting it, not in a single moment of clarity, but in a gradual acceptance that this was part of who I am. Despite this, a sense of ease has never fully arrived because I have not managed to fully shake the lingering fear of judgement and shame.
“To be elected to this place as an openly gay man is significant, not because of who I am but because of what it says about who we are.
“It also reminds us that visibility alone is not enough because there are still young people sitting where I once sat trying to make sense of who they are while quietly carrying fear, shame or uncertainty.”
He finished his speech by committing to his electorate that he would “make sure their voices are heard”. Wilkins succeeds former trearurer Stephen Mullighan in the seaside seat.
One Nation SA President Carlos Quaremba also gave his first address today to the upper house, where he reflected on his upbringing as an Argentinian migrant and his time as a Victor Harbor Councillor, a move he said Pauline Hanson herself encouraged.
Quaremba said he believed “local government is rotten to the core”.
“I support the concept of local government. We don’t want to abolish it at One Nation, we just want to fix it. It shouldn’t be too hard,” he said.
One Nation member David Paton is also expected to give his first speech later today.
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