Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the member for this motion. In rising to speak, I want to say that it is good to see that we are able to form bipartisan agreement on motions such as this, recognising, of course, the mistakes of the past—indeed, when our various political parties might have supported things like communism, a great evil in the world, or racism, or promoted policies that we now find to be completely abhorrent. Both racism and communism are abhorrent to modern Australians and modern Australians of Vietnamese background. The reason it is can be told in so many of the stories that arise from the migrants who have come here from Vietnam.

In particular, I want to tell the story of a person who I know personally, whose story, I think, is emblematic of what an experience had been in that time. Dai Le was a seven-year-old child when Saigon fell to the invading communist army from North Vietnam. As the tanks rolled into the city, fleeing soldiers called out to Dai's mother, Anh, to grab her three daughters and run towards boats that were putting out to sea without any idea of a destination. Dai and her younger sister were swept up in a solder's arms and carried to the boat. They were told that their father, a Vietnamese lawyer working with the American Embassy, would join them. He did not make it in time to board the boat. It was pushed from its berth and they have never seen him since.

Their boat made it to the Philippines and for the next three years they languished in a refugee camp without somebody to give them a home. Dai's mother then made the courageous decision to escape from the Philippines, went to Hong Kong and then, of course, they were offered a new home in Australia by Prime Minister Fraser. It is unfortunate that we have not acknowledged properly in this motion the role of Prime Minister Fraser, who was primarily responsible for the orderly departure program and the huge increase in migrants from Vietnam to Australia at this time.

In the meantime, Dai's family relocated to Cabramatta where they have lived ever since. Dai has gone on to university, a cadetship with the Fairfield City Champion, the ABC radio network and ABC television. She has been a councillor, she ran for state parliament for the Liberal Party and, of course, she recorded the second biggest swing in the state's history in a very difficult Labor seat. This is emblematic of the story of so many people.

It was, of course, a shameful episode when we consider the context of Whitlam of making the quote, which so many members have repeated here today, about the Vietnamese fleeing Saigon. Of course, his foreign minister, Don Willesee, wanted to bring some of the people to Australia at the fall of Saigon that had helped Australian forces and personnel in Vietnam. This is like us saying to Afghanistani interpreters in the modern day concept who had risked their lives and helped our forces, 'No, we won't take you.' It is like saying to the Iraqi people who had helped our forces, 'No, we won't take you.' Unfortunately, Prime Minister Whitlam had a very cold-hearted view towards these very impressive people who did so much for our forces and diplomats in Vietnam. It is to his great regret and our great regret that that never happened.

Of course, Prime Minister Fraser had a different view and he was right about it. He was well ahead of his time. Fraser embraced the Vietnamese refugees, praising their courage and hard work. Sydney resettled most of the Vietnamese population in Australia and continues to do so in areas like Cabramatta, Canley Vale, Canley Heights, Fairfield, Bankstown and Liverpool. This migration has been one of the most successful waves of migration and is really a flag bearer, a standard bearer, for migration from Asian countries to Australia. The Vietnamese community really led the way in the modern Australian context as pioneering, hardworking, successful, small business owners and strong families in Sydney—people who work for better education for their children, with extremely impressive and above-national-average results in all sectors of education and business ownership, as well as just sheer enterprise and endeavour.

It is a great privilege to rise and praise this community. Now we think of them, just as second nature, as ordinary Australians who have done so well in our biggest city. But it is important to reflect that these views were not common throughout our history and that this was controversial. Today I thank the member for Gellibrand for this motion. I say to those Australians from Vietnamese background: you are welcome, and you have done so much for our country. Thank you. We recognise the persecution that you fled. As a parliament, I think we can all commit to promise to learn from the mistakes of the past, whether that be supporting communist regimes or adopting attitudes of racism which are completely unwelcome in a modern, contemporary Australian society.

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