Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Good evening or good day, perhaps, and ‘dobro den’ in the Macedonian language. Tonight I rise to speak of the main interest of the people of Macedonian heritage who live in my electorate of Cowan. This is even more important because of my role as the deputy chair of the Australia-Macedonia parliamentary friendship group. Of course, this group is not called quite that. I believe it is officially called the Australia-Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia parliamentary friendship group. Those who originally come from the Republic of Macedonia, while they consider themselves Macedonians, in this country are officially referred to as Slav Macedonians. I can assure you that Macedonians have a great deal of trouble accepting ‘FYROM’ and ‘Slav Macedonians’ as descriptors of their homelands and themselves. In my involvement with the Macedonian community in Cowan and in the northern suburbs of Perth they regard these terms as offensive and insulting.

Being born in Australia, with several generations between me and family links to England and Ireland, I cannot truly appreciate their feelings on these points. Perhaps I can spend a short time bringing these terms that apply to Macedonians into something the rest of us can truly appreciate. To begin, I and no doubt everyone else in this place takes great pride in being Australian, as do my Macedonian friends. This is the Commonwealth of Australia and we can also take pride in that name. Australia is not called the ‘Former British Colony of Australia’ or the ‘Former British Colonies Constituting the Federation of Australia’. Why is this so? It is because the founding fathers of this nation enshrined the name Australia and the Commonwealth of Australia as the name of our country. As was their right, Australians made that decision—no-one else.

We stand up for our right to make this most fundamental of decisions, and we expect the rest of the world to call this country Australia. I know that I would be insulted and outraged if we were called the ‘Former British Colony of Australia’ or the ‘Former British Colonies Constituting the Federation of Australia’. Perhaps then we can begin to understand that somehow the use of FYROM is insulting and that Macedonians have a very big problem with it. But I will come back to that before the end of my speech.

The other point I wish to raise on this occasion is the description of Australians who originated, or whose family originated, in Macedonia. Australia officially refers to those who come from the territory of the Republic of Macedonia as Slav Macedonians. I struggle to think of another ethnic group in Australia where we define them by race. I know that no-one officially calls me an Anglo-Saxon Australian or an Australian of Anglo-Saxon British heritage. In a recent gathering of Macedonians in my office, I was speaking to Mr Slobodan Binevski, an artist and historian, who not only reiterated the point about the insulting term Slav Macedonian but also made it clear to me that Macedonians are not Slavic but are literally Macedonians and are descendants of the same race and people that have been resident in that area of the Balkan peninsula for more than 2,500 years. I will make Slobodan’s point here—that while there were city states further south of Macedonia, it was in fact a nation of size and significance some 300 to 400 years before Christ. Yet we know that Alexander the Great was Macedonian and that he was from this part of the Balkans. The point I make is that they are the descendants of ancient Macedonians and they are not just descendants of later movements of Slavic people through the Balkans. Therefore not only is a racial descriptor of them insulting on racist grounds, it is not even an accurate racial description.

So, in these points I have made today, it is important that we as Australians of many heritages consider this issue and how we would feel if the same terminology and race description were used on us all. I know that I would not like it at all. I know that I would be insulted and outraged, and that is indeed their feeling on the matter. These are the points of view of well-regarded members of the Perth Macedonian community: Mr Zoran Coseski, the honorary consul; Mr Robert Miloseski, President of the Macedonian Business Association; Mr Vic Radas, the former president of the community; and Mr Jim Bivoltsis, current president of the community. The time has come for Australia to show respect to the Macedonians in this country and to the Republic of Macedonia. I myself call upon the government to follow the lead of other countries in bilateral relations and refer to Macedonia as the Republic of Macedonia. I also call upon the government to take steps to remove all official references in the future to Slav Macedonians and simply call them Macedonians, as they wish to be called.