The New South Wales Labor has accused the Liberals of not supporting their call for a withdrawal of an ad promoting meat that shows Hindu deity Ganesha. The Liberal Party has refuted the claim saying one of their members will introduce a motion against the ad when the parliament sits next.
Daniel Mookhey, a Member of the NSW Legislative Council said the Liberal Party Members in the house twice refused to support his motion calling on the MLA to withdraw the advertisement.
“You can love Aussie lamb, like I do, and still call out Meat and Livestock Australia for gross their insensitivity they showed the Australian Hindu community,” Mr Mookhey said.
“So I was disappointed to watch the NSW Liberal Party block a sensible request for the MLA to stop showing their ad, and learn more about Lord Ganesha.”
He said senior members of the government did not want to offend “the powerful MLA lobby group”.
NSW Minister for Multiculturalism, Ray Williams said Liberal member David Clarke, MLC would move a motion on the issue before the Legislative Council in the next sitting period.
“In response to Mr Mookhey’s comments, as Minister, I have written to the MLA and the Federal Minister for Multiculturalism,” he told SBS Punjabi. “Along with the Chair of Multicultural NSW, Dr Hari Harinath OAM, I recently met and consulted with over 20 Australian Indian community leaders to discuss this issue.”
Mr Williams wrote to Senator Zed Seselja, Assistant Minister For Multicultural Affairs, conveying to him the demands by the Hindu community calling for a withdrawal of the advertisement and strengthening of advertising standards around cultural and religious sensitivities.
“As Minister for Multiculturalism, my role is to help build and maintain a cohesive and harmonious multicultural society that enriches the lives of all people in our state,” Mr Williams said.
Mr Mookhey says he will move the motion once again when the Parliament resumes in two weeks.
Earlier this week, Liberal MP Julian Leeser called upon Meat and Livestock Australia to take down the controversial ad and apologies to the Indian community.
The controversial ad of Meat & Livestock Australia sparked an outrage among the Indian community in Australia and overseas, which shows Lord Ganesha sitting around a lunch table among gods and goddesses of different faiths eating meat and sipping wine.
Several followers of the Hindu faith, complained to Australia’s advertising watchdog, Advertising Standards Bureau, calling for banning the ad. However, the ASB held that the ad did not discriminate or vilified the Hindu community and dismissed the complaints against the ad. The board of ASB held that the overall tone of the advertisement was light-hearted and humorous. It said the intent of the ad is “inclusive in a manner which promotes a harmonious and multi-faith environment”.
