Chris Ellison (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight I just want to place on record a matter of history in relation to the Armenian genocide. A number of senators and members would no doubt have met representatives from the community who visited the parliament this week. As a former shadow minister for immigration and citizenship, I met with this group and was very impressed by their story of how Armenians had migrated to Australia and made a great life for themselves and a great contribution to Australia. But, importantly, the issue of the Armenian genocide in 1915 is a matter which weighs heavily with them.

You might ask, in this regard: what do Bob Carr and Joe Hockey have in common? Both of them have spoken in their respective houses in relation to this. To quote Bob Carr:

Adolf Hitler is on record as justifying the Nazi genocide of European jewry. He said he could get away with it because, after all, who in the 1940s recollects what happened to the Armenians.

I think there is a very salutary lesson in that. Joe Hockey, more recently, said:

The intention of the Ottomans was the complete obliteration of not only the Armenian nation but any memory of the Armenian people as well.

And it is important to remember that around 1½ million Armenians met their deaths during the Armenian genocide out of an estimated total population of around 2½ million people.

I see that Senator Sterle is here tonight. I think Senator Sterle is now the chairman of that parliamentary group, and that is very good to see. In fact, as a fellow Western Australian, I think it is fair to say we do not have quite the community of Armenians in Western Australia that there are in other parts of Australia. Nonetheless, this is a very important issue and one which needs to be recognised by Australia. In the United States, both sides of politics have recognised the Armenian genocide as a matter of history. In fact, the President-elect stated:

I also share with Armenian Americans—so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors—a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide.

A similar position was adopted by the current President, George W. Bush, in relation to his view of history in relation to Armenia.

Of course, what is important is Australia’s role, and in fact there was a thing called the Armenian Relief Fund of Australia, which operated from 1915 to 1929. This relief fund of Australia provided humanitarian assistance to victims of the Armenian genocide. These relief efforts became known as the first major international humanitarian project provided by Australia and set a precedent for continued support for areas and people in need throughout the world, and that is quite extraordinary when one looks at the history—and there is not the time tonight.

Briefly, the work done by a variety of volunteers from Australia in relation to helping the survivors of this genocide included setting up orphanages. In fact, one young Australian of Armenian descent told me this week that his grandfather had been in one of these orphanages run by Australians. There was the establishment of the Victorian Friends of Armenia in Melbourne in 1917. The work of these people was just outstanding. In particular, a Reverend Cresswell of South Australia travelled to the Near East to deliver aid to suffering Armenians. He witnessed over 6,000 Armenian refugees living in caves in Aleppo in Syria. That is just one account of what Australians did in those days, but it is significant because this is the first example of Australia embarking on such an expansive overseas aid program in relation to a human catastrophe.

I think it is important that we acknowledge this as a matter of history. As people say, bad things happen when good men and women do nothing. It is a matter of history that this occurred, and the denial of it or the failure to recognise it will only result in what Bob Carr referred to in his speech to the New South Wales parliament. When an appropriate motion is put forward, which may be in my absence, I urge the Senate to support it.