Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Consumer Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The genesis of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution was, as some members noted earlier, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party speech by Khruschev. Unfortunately, some Hungarians are under the impression that his denunciation of Stalin’s methods actually meant that the Soviet Union would tolerate national independence. In fact, with that suppression it became very clear, if it was not already clear, that the Soviet Union utilised the international communist movement to basically conduct Soviet foreign policy. The brutal suppression drove home to many in the West the realities of the Cominform and Soviet policies.

In 1989 a major gesture by the Hungarian people was to rebury Nagy, who, as an earlier speaker indicated, was jailed and killed two years after being given safe passage. In 1989 his skeleton, with bound feet and hands, was reburied at Uj Koztemeto, a cemetery in Budapest. His situation in life was indicative of the suppression of thousands of others.

This motion has many other ingredients. It talks about the Hungarian contribution to this country. The quarter of a million people who fled suppression found homes in many countries, and one of them was Australia. Today, in the area of 150,000 to 200,000 Australians are of Hungarian extraction. Some of the realities of this community should be driven home. With regard to their English ability, the situation is that 85½ per cent who are Hungarian born say that they speak English well. The rate of citizenship at the last census was 97 per cent—unparalleled by many communities in this country.

Whilst 52½ per cent of Australians are in skilled trades, in the Hungarian community it is 61½ per cent. A total of 46.2 per cent of Australians say that they have educational or occupational qualifications, while in the Hungarian population it is nearly 60 per cent. The median age, of course, is radically different from the Australian population and that reflects the fact that migration to this country was very much suppressed during the Soviet period. The median age for Australians today is 46 years and for Hungarians it is 62.2 years. Similarly, we have a situation where 42½ per cent of Hungarian-born people in this country are over the age of 65. This is a matter that affects many eastern European communities. In the past I have argued that this country should be more lenient with regard to family migration for members of the eastern European community, many of whose siblings—brothers and sisters—died in the intervening period. We should look to nieces and nephews to support older eastern Europeans in this country.

As we know, there is a significant number of Australians of Hungarian extraction who have made major contributions in this country. In New South Wales politics, of course, there is Nick Greiner, who I was privileged to be with in the state parliament. I heard Les Murray on national radio during the World Cup talk about his biography and the realities of growing up in Wollongong as a young Hungarian. In the business sector, there was Peter Abeles and others.

The other aspect of this motion is the entry of Hungary into NATO in 1999 and into the European Union in 2004. It is worth noting that many of the problems that we have spoken about concerning Bulgaria and Romania and the degree to which they can be accommodated in Europe were not present with Hungary. It had already advanced in human rights and there were no significant questions about its appropriateness in entering Europe. That is also an important point to drive home.

In speaking to this motion, I think about my experience in Prague a few years ago on a study tour when I had the privilege of seeing the Samizdat exhibition at the national museum. I also saw the horrific scenes of Slansky’s show trial and watched the prosecutor demanding the death penalty for him and the other tortured defendants. It was a show trial that had basically been contrived around anti-Semitism and to reinforce the power of Klement Gottwald. In Hungary five years later, of course, we had Rakosi and the same kind of measures to suppress the rights of the people.

In conclusion, I congratulate the member for Fairfax for driving home the realities of the contribution to Australia of those Hungarian people who fled and what they have done in this country, and for recognising the change in Hungary towards a Western liberal democracy after the defeat of communism.

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