Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

I firstly thank my comrade here, the member for Calwell, for her great contribution this morning and for the very erudite way in which she explained the nature of apartheid and its impact upon all of us. I thank her for her contribution, and might I make an observation about the quality of the contributions made by all members who have contributed to this debate.

I regard myself as privileged to be participating and to offer my own words of condolence to commemorate and celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela. I suspect, certainly over the last century, that he was the most formidable and the greatest political and moral leader over that period. There have been many others who have been significant, but I think he stands above them all. That includes such notables as Mahatma Gandhi.

As we can see from the contributions that have been made in this discussion here, he has been admired and eulogised by all sides of politics and by all parts of our community. I suspect I am one of only a few in this place who had the opportunity to meet and have a conversation with him over perhaps half an hour. I will come to that a little later.

I speak also as a child of the sixties and seventies, as an adolescent growing up during those terrible years of violence in South Africa with the anti-apartheid movement gaining such strength here in the late sixties and the seventies; being here at Manuka Oval when the Springboks were playing, with the demonstrations of people opposed to their presence in this country, and then through the Labor movement, particularly with my colleagues in the trade union movement, but also with great workers for the ANC cause from South Africa, including the great Eddie Funde, who traversed the halls of parliament and was known to many—not many who currently serve—of us who served at that time. He was a great man, who actually made a deal of difference to the way in which people appreciated and understood what was happening in South Africa.

We know that Nelson Mandela, who had been working as a policeman in 1941—before anyone in this place was born and I suspect before anyone working in its wider environs was born—dedicated his life to achieving justice and a nonracist South Africa, where the colour of a person's skin or the nature of their beliefs would be irrelevant. We know, too, that Nelson Mandela first joined the African National Congress in 1943. As we also know, he famously burned his passbook in protest of the grotesque restrictions placed on non-whites under apartheid. He opened the first black law practice in South Africa with his colleague, comrade and great freedom fighter, Oliver Tambo, in 1952. In 1956, he was one of 156 activists arrested and charged with high treason—a case which was to last until 1961 before they were found not guilty.

Despite the violence against anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, the grotesque massacre of 69 anti-apartheid protestors at Sharpeville and the passing of laws banning Mandela's political organisation, he and his comrades were not perturbed; they became emboldened in their struggle. After years of peaceful protests, it was only after Sharpeville and the banning of the ANC that Nelson Mandela and his comrades turned to armed conflict. The member for Calwell outlined in precise detail the grotesque nature of apartheid. The decision to arm was a rational decision by a man and others who had an irrepressible drive to free their people. Just as he believed years later when he was released from prison that the only way to unite South Africa after decades of apartheid was to forgive and to heal, Nelson Mandela believed that the freedom of his people from apartheid was worth dying for.

In 1961 the ANC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe—or MK, 'the spear of the nation'—was launched with Walter Sisulo and others, with Nelson Mandela becoming the commander-in-chief. He led underground guerrilla attacks against state institutions as he continued his protests against the tyranny of apartheid and the South African government. He was a freedom fighter who in today's world, along with the ANC, may well have been labelled as a terrorist.

In 1962 he was captured and sentenced to five years in prison for incitement to strike and for leaving the country illegally, having travelled to Ethiopia and Algeria for military training. Two years later, Nelson Mandela was retried along with several of his ANC comrades and convicted of sabotage. He and his associates faced the death penalty. He said in his famous speech from the dock at the time—I know it has been quoted by others but I think it is worth quoting again:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

We know that he was then sentenced to life in jail and was sent to Robben Island, where he was incarcerated for 27 years. He would not be a free man again until February 1990. I have vivid memories of the day—11 February 1990—when he was liberated from that jail. I remember the sensational enthusiasm of South Africans and, indeed, the world community who supported the ANC and the anti-apartheid movement, at seeing this great liberator released from that terrible place, and to recognise later his contribution as he became president of a new nation—with Oliver Tambo, his great sidekick and someone with whom he had fought the struggle for so long, as his vice-president.

In October 1990 Mandela visited Australia. I was a member of parliament and was in Darwin. I understood he was transiting through, so, as I am sure you would expect me to do, I rang the foreign minister and asked who was meeting Nelson Mandela. The answer was no-one, so I said, 'Well, there is now.' I fronted up at the airport and had the great privilege of welcoming Nelson Mandela to Australia. I then had the further honour of spending time with him while he was in transit—sitting down and having a cup of tea and a chat. I do not have precise memories of that discussion but I know I was in awe of the man—I had the privilege of spending time with such a great force for good in what was then a troubled world. I admired him, and of course I did express the support felt by so many Australians for the struggle he was engaged in, for his liberation and for the future of South Africa.

Nelson Mandela understood clearly, as we now know as a result of his discussions further on in the trip, the invaluable contribution made by the Australian labour movement—particularly the trade union movement, as outlined by the member for Calwell, and indeed the Labor Party and the Labor government—towards ending apartheid in South Africa. We say a lot and hear a lot about our trade unions in this place, but they have been such a force for good in this country. We know that they raise awareness. They might be vilified for participating in these activities, but the fact is that they are a very important part of the political dialogue in this country. They are very important in raising the awareness of working people about their rights and about the rights of others—as was the case with apartheid. That remains the case today. I say to all of those who vilify trade unions: understand that they have a number of roles in this country, one of which is to prick our conscience and make us aware. I am grateful that they have done that in the past and continue to do it now.

To me, Mr Mandela was a hero—as he was to all of us. When I met him he was 72 but he had a great vitality. As I have said, he was awe inspiring. How could anyone, from 1941 onwards, continue that struggle, be jailed for 27 years, become President and then, with the greatest of graciousness, want reconciliation—reconciliation after struggle and sacrifice and bloodletting; reconciliation by putting his hand across the table to those who imprisoned him and saying, 'Let's share this together'? He was a great warrior, a great man of vision, but he was a unifying influence, and I say to those who in the past were critical of those of us in this country who supported the struggle of the ANC that you have to be wary of making false judgements. This is proof positive of the need to take people on their merits and to understand the importance of what they are doing in a broader context and not be selfish about the way we look at things.

Australia has had its own heroes who have suffered from discrimination. Vincent Lingiari is one. It was in the 1960s, around the same time that Nelson Mandela was so active, that we saw political awareness being raised about racism in this country. We have a lot to be grateful for, because it was okay to participate in that activity—to make people aware of racism and all the terrible things that are associated with it. Now in this country we know that racism is unacceptable, that discrimination on the grounds of colour is unacceptable and that it will not be tolerated. Discrimination on the basis of your beliefs or discrimination on the basis of the one you love is not to be tolerated. The person who gave us the strength to fight those struggles through what he did and the leadership he showed to the international community was, indeed, Nelson Mandela. May he rest in peace.

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