Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I just want to congratulate the member for Moreton for his lovely speech. We'll have a lot to say to each other afterwards.

It's been almost 23 years to the day since I rose in this very chamber to make my very first parliamentary speech. In fact, I was sitting on the other side; I was trying to locate where exactly, but I don't remember. In that speech, I recall that I spoke largely about the nature of the community I would represent and serve in this place. In that first speech, I said:

Multiculturalism is one of the modern foundations of our nation. It is one of our proudest achievements. Nowhere is this more evident than in the electorate of Calwell where two-thirds of residents are either first or second generation Australians.

In the last 23 years, there have been many challenges to multiculturalism. It is a fact that external events, international developments, have had a profound impact on Australia's social fabric, testing the resolve of our multiculturalism from both a national security and a social cohesion perspective. And, of course, I'll say a bit more about that after.

But, first, it wasn't always my plan to be a member of parliament, and I certainly never really intended to stay this long, but I'm proud to be the first Greek-born woman to enter Australia's federal parliament. I'm also proud of all that we—my staff, my community, my constituency and my colleagues from all sides in this place—have achieved together.

I had always been interested in politics, but I never aspired to be a politician. I officially joined the Labor Party in 1982, but my very first foray into active politics dates back to 1975, when I was a very enthusiastic year 11 student of politics at Princes Hill high school. With the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, 1975 was a very intense time for Australian politics. In fact, the entire seventies were a time of change and reform. The establishment of multiculturalism as a social policy was by far one of the greatest reforms in modern Australian history. My interest in politics and the drama of 1975 led me to the Victorian Trades Hall Council, and I ended up working with the Migrant Workers Committee that had been established to re-elect the Labor government. The people I met there, people such as George Zangalis, Christos Tsirkas—my friend and mentor—Theo Sidiropoulos, Giovanni Sgro and others, were incredible role models who taught me a great deal about the passion of politics, its capacity for empowerment and change, and the art of campaigning. I also remember meeting prominent feminist Germaine Greer when she came to speak at Trades Hall. I was 16 and absolutely in awe of her.

I went on to study arts and then a diploma of education at the University of Melbourne before I went on to teach at Thornbury High School. I spend two years coordinating the Greek Festival, which was the predecessor of today's Antipodes festival, Melbourne's largest street party, and I'm sure some of you will be attending that in a few weeks time. When I decided to leave teaching in 1987, I applied for two jobs. One was as an electorate officer in the office of the former member for Calwell Andrew Theophanous, and the other was with the Red Cross blood bank. I was offered both jobs, but Andrew offered me the job first, and I accepted. I often wonder what might have happened or what could have been if the Red Cross had got in first.

Labor adopted affirmative action quotas in 1994, and when the opportunity to stand for preselection in a federal seat came up, I was encouraged to throw my hat in the ring, despite some reluctance on my part. At that stage, I had two young children, Stavros and Stella, and the thought of coming to Canberra weighed heavily on me. My husband and family and, indeed, my comrades in the Labor Party, especially my good friend the former senator Kim Carr, urged and encouraged me to run. So despite my reservations, I stepped up.

The 2001 election campaign proved to be a very difficult one. It was the election of the Tampa and the SIEV X, and it was two months after the horror of September 11 and the beginning of the war on terror. I was standing for a seat that had one of Australia's largest concentrations of residents who observe the Muslim faith—in excess of 15 per cent. It was home also to one of the largest concentrations of Turkish-born and Turkish-identifying Australians, who started arriving here in large numbers after the White Australia policy was officially axed in 1967. Today, the number of constituents of the Muslim faith in Calwell stands in excess of 25 per cent. It was also home to many migrants of Lebanese heritage. They were part of a broader community of postwar migrants from Greece, Italy, Scotland, Ireland, Croatia, Serbia and Malta as well as the more recently arrived refugee communities from Iraq and later Syria. Now, there is a growing number of residents from India, Pakistan, Bhutan and Nepal.

The electorate of Calwell is also the home of the original inhabitants of the Wurundjeri and Marinbulluk clans of the Woiwurrung tribe. The matter of ultimate recognition and reconciliation with our Indigenous Australians is still outstanding. Whatever form reconciliation takes the future, it will be the role of this place to decide in consultation and partnership with the Indigenous and broader community to decide what that looks like.

As a migrant myself, I share a common story with my local communities, and this experience has been critical to my ability to represent them in this place. I would often be asked both here and abroad how it is that a person of Greek heritage could be supported by migrants of Turkish heritage. The answer has always been simple—that, as an Australian, I live in a multicultural country where waves of generations of migrants have settled with a common purpose. It is our shared migrant experiences that bind us as Australians and outweigh the polarised divisions emanating from the original homelands.

A successful multicultural society is one that is underpinned by the principles of access and equity for all of its citizens, enabling a shared destiny and a common identity—one capable of accommodating cultural diversity and differing historical, geographical and ideological backgrounds. After all, as I said the chair's foreword in the report of the inquiry we conducted in 2013 called Inquiry into Migration and Multiculturalism inAustralia:

Multiculturism provides the framework through which to plan for successful settlement that promotes integration and leads to fuller participation in the wider community and society. It also recognises that freedom to maintain one's cultural and linguistic inheritance is an important factor in developing a confident sense of self and a sense of belonging.

Historically, post Second World War migration to Australia had a nationbuilding purpose. I want to pay tribute to Arthur Calwell, Australia's first immigration minister, and credit him and the Labor government of the time for seizing the opportunity to lay the foundations for modern Australia. In fact, Calwell—and even though the term was not used at that time—can be considered the father of multicultural Australia.

In 2001, 9/11 and the Tampa incident tested our nation on how we managed our borders and our sovereignty. They also tested multiculturalism in Australia. On 12 September 2001, the day after 9/11, my constituents of Turkish, Lebanese and Arabic heritage suddenly found themselves defined only by their faith as Muslims, and, to many, they were suddenly seen as a threat. In fact, I remember visiting a constituent in Broadmeadows at their home, and, just as I was leaving, with some hesitation they asked me if they should be concerned about their next-door neighbours, whom they had known for 20 years and had always thought of as wonderful people. Their neighbours were Muslim, of Turkish heritage. I reassured them that they would have more chance of being hit by a car walking to Broadmeadows shopping centre than of their neighbours causing them any harm.

This was to be the beginning of dramatic changes in mainstream perceptions of and views about multicultural Australia. At the heart of these changing attitudes was fear and loathing amongst some elements of the Australian community towards fellow Australians of Muslim faith. This affected in particular Muslim women and young people, who had to endure racist taunts, innuendos, attacks and endless allegations and suspicions about their loyalties to Australia and doubts about whether their Muslim faith and their values would allow them to integrate and adapt successfully into the broader community. It was feared by some that Islam was not a religion of peace and that we were facing, in this country, the imposition of Sharia law.

My local council, under the leadership of the late Gary Jungwirth, who was mayor at the time, had already put in place, before 11 September 2001, the Hume City Council's interfaith network. Gary's commitment to social justice and belief in multicultural Australia led him to form a social justice charter, in addition to the interfaith network. He was a visionary councillor and served the Hume City Council with distinction. The interfaith network represented a diversity of religious faiths, with Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and Sikhs participating, and of course I was honoured to be its inaugural chair. We were able to hit the ground running, and our local faith leaders led the way in building bridges and fostering understanding between our local faith communities by encouraging tolerance, urging restraint and calling for dialogue.

In the wake of the highly charged atmosphere of Tampa and September 11, we all understood what lay ahead for our local community of Muslim faith. You see, from this time forward, some in the political class, the media and the national security agencies began to define identity and refer to migrants and refugees in terms of their faith rather than their ethnic or linguistic heritage, and Islam itself was under relentless scrutiny; so were those who identified with Islam. Suddenly, multiculturalism became a matter of national security. We began to police the integration process, because it wasn't about nation-building now; it was about terrorism, hotlines and being on alert for foreign interference and homegrown terrorism.

Now, I don't want to downgrade the concerns or the threats, but I've always rejected the takeover of multiculturalism policy by the security agencies. Sure, they have a job to do: protecting Australians from credible threats from wherever they emanate. But we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. We are better than that. Here the media has a grave responsibility in how it portrays, amplifies and perpetuates a view not based necessarily on facts but on opinion, thus becoming, knowingly or unknowingly, accommodators of prejudice, hate and division.

I want to pay tribute to those faith leaders, such as the late Yasser Solomon, a local constituent and friend, who, at the time, was President of the Islamic Council of Victoria and worked hard to convey the true meaning and practices of Islam. Others included Father Malcolm Holmes from the Uniting Church in Broadmeadows; the then imamof the Broadmeadows Turkish mosque, Imam Younis Jan; and the late Sheik Famini Imam, leader of the Arabic-Muslim community in Victoria.

When I reflect on the last two decades, I realise that a whole new generation of young people have grown up under the shadow of September 11 and the war on terror. I can say that many young people in my community endured challenges to their identity as Australians and as followers of the Muslim faith, and all because of the external events which were very much beyond their control. Despite this, they have risen to the occasion, and they have succeeded.

It was education that transformed and enabled my generation, and it's education that has seen my local young people of Muslim faith excel and contribute in a variety of positive ways. I want to pay homage to a dear friend, the late Ibrahim Dellal, a true teacher and a wise man. He was an Australian of Turkish Cypriot background who led the way in supporting and nurturing young people of Muslim faith by providing educational opportunities, because he knew this was the path, and the only path, to success and contribution. I worked with Ibrahim in my first term as he set up one of the first non-government Muslim schools, known then as ISIK College. Many more have subsequently followed not only in my electorate but in electorates across the country. In my electorate I note the dedication and commitment of the teachers of both Ilim College and Sirius College. I have enjoyed the many visits to these schools and witnessed firsthand their academic excellence and community spirit.

Ironically, I stand here today in the wake of continuing destruction, tensions and conflict following the terrible events of October 7 2023 and the subsequent Israeli assaults on Gaza and Lebanon. Once again we are facing challenges to multiculturalism, concerns about the fraying of social cohesion and a diminished capacity for community dialogue. It is often said that different migrant communities should not bring their troubles and conflicts to Australia. This is a naive view. It is inevitable that communities with histories and families in other parts of the world will feel passionately about conflicts and catastrophes that take place in their original homelands. It is an affinity, a connection, that we should not reject but understand and even utilise.

We Australians in general have an interest in, and opinions about, world affairs. We also have an affinity as a middle moderate power, especially but not exclusively from the Labor tradition, of being peacemakers, problem solvers and conflict resolution internationalists. Resolving conflicts and mitigating differences is never easy. There is never complete clarity about who is right and wrong, especially in contexts where they are sourced overseas and out of reach or our influence is inconsequential.

People shouting at each other in the streets is not what multiculturalism is about. I reject the notion that multiculturalism is a failure and a liability because of some of the ugliness that we have witnessed recently and throughout the post-9/11 period. The important point is that we must work to ensure that such issues and differing opinions are not used as political weapons to further divide people. That is what threatens our social cohesion. Social cohesion is not about everyone agreeing. It is not about wanting everyone to become devoid of opinion, passion or difference. It's about working to build dialogue, civilised debate and a respectful society within which people can express their views and, where possible, work for common, beneficial outcomes.

In the last 23 years, I've represented communities that carry with them historical, ancestral, protracted and ongoing differences. Working with them in a constructive and respectful manner has helped achieve many significant outcomes—outcomes that could only happen in this country and can only happen because of our multicultural ethos and demeanour.

A great example of the sort of mediation and facilitation I'm talking about is on an issue that is very close to my heart—the reunification of Cyprus. I acknowledge the presence of the High Commissioner for Cyprus, Mr Antonis Sammoutis, who is in the gallery. A small intervention of what can be achieved was set by two Australian men, one of Turkish Cypriot background, Yalcın Adal; and the other of Greek Cypriot background, Stavros Protz, who, together, walked across the length of Cyprus for 16 days in 2018—'from east to west', they called it. Theirs was a mission of peace, reconciliation and healing to a still divided island. I pay tribute to my friends Yalcın and Stavros for their courage and humanity. I was honoured to be involved in their campaign when they both came to Canberra to meet with then senator Pat Dodson. They asked him where they could source a native tree to plant at the end of their journey in Cyprus, which they did. I also pay tribute to my constituents and friends Peter Minas and Tumer Mimi, Greek and Turkish Cypriots who have worked with us over the years to promote rapprochement between the two communities both here and in Cyprus. Our rapprochement work saw me become the first Australian MP to cross the border into the north of Cyprus in 2002 to visit my husband's home, Agios Epiktitos, in the northern part of Cyprus, that he fled in 1974, and to visit Greek and Turkish Cypriots who were and still are seeking a way forward to reunite the island.

It was the Rudd-Gillard Labor governments that officially supported the Cyprus Academic Dialogue that sought to give Australia a practical role to play in building capacity for peace and resolution through the network of academics and civil society. I credit my husband, Dr Michalis Michael, for pursuing this important initiative through his work with the then Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University. By partnering with Greek and Turkish Cypriot counterparts, both here and in Cyprus, we were able to establish an ongoing collaboration where civil society took a lead in dealing with the complexity of issues. It's a fine example of Australia's citizen diplomacy.

This was followed more recently with the Famagusta Dialogues that involved the local municipalities. Here our peace-making, middle-power, internationalist disposition, combined with our multicultural ethos and access to diasporas, enabled Australia to mount these second-track peace dialogues. To sustain them, and hopefully others like them, they need support and resources. As with foreign aid, they are but a fraction of what one item of military hardware costs. It's a worthwhile investment in peace.

My advocacy for Palestinian self-determination is well known. It has always been about supporting the right of the Palestinian people to determine their future through their own statehood. I have visited the region on many occasions and I've worked with both Palestinians and Israelis over the years with a shared common purpose. I want to thank the former ambassador for the General Delegation of Palestine, Dr Izzat Abdulhadi, for his friendship and advice over the years. I also want to thank APAN, which I've worked with over the years, and also my very good friend Wendy Turner, who would be known to many of us in this place.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially during the last year, has caused major disruption and angst both here in Australia and elsewhere in the world. It remains an outstanding issue that needs an amicable solution—one that is just and one that brings peace, stability, prosperity and security not only to the region but also, importantly, to Palestinians and Israelis. My support for the Palestinian people and Palestinian statehood does not preclude my support and hope for peace, security and prosperity for Israel. I've been critical of the State of Israel over the years, as anyone and everyone who believes in human rights and international law should be, but I have a great affection for the Jewish people, and the current wave of antisemitism in our country is of great concern to me. The horrors of civilian deaths in Gaza and the destruction of Gaza cannot go unnoticed, and it begs outrage, and rightfully so. But we cannot ignore the extremities that are happening in our own community. These acts are conducted, as usual, by anonymous cowards who harbour dark intentions that have little to do with Palestine. Equally, those who seek to exploit antisemitism for their own interests should exercise restraint, responsibility and civil diligence, for they sow the seeds of hate and division.

When my family came to Australia in 1963, we settled in North Carlton. The inner suburbs of Melbourne were home to newly-arrived migrants—to Calwell's new Australians. Largely because of the textile, clothing, food and car factories, they were located there. The typical migrant story was to go where the work was and where families and communities were settling and forming. Carlton was where the first Jewish Holocaust survivors settled as refugees until they started to move out in the late 1960s and early seventies. It was Arthur Calwell who accepted the first ship of Jewish refugees to Australia when other countries wouldn't.

My parents worked in the local factories. My mother worked at the Ivan Porter shoe factory in Fitzroy, with many other migrants. She befriended a woman named Rosa. Rosa was a Polish Jew who had survived Auschwitz. They worked together in this factory and walked home together. When my mother first invited Rosa to our house, I was eight years old. I remember Rosa vividly to this day. My first impression was of a very highly strung woman. Today we would recognise this as post traumatic stress disorder. My good friend—known to many of you—Paris Aristotle and his organisation, the Victorian Foundation of Survivors of Torture, or Foundation House, would have been able to render assistance. Mum spoke little English, so I had to be an interpreter. Rosa carried with her in her big purse photographs of her family members who had perished in the death camps. She carried 'the mark', as she called it—a numerical tattoo on her forearm—and she cried as she spoke of her dead family members. I had to translate all of this to my mum, but she understood anyway. She understood empathetically what was going on; she and Rosa didn't need to speak to each other in English.

My parents had experienced the German occupation of their village, Ayios Petros, in Lefkada in the Ionian Islands. They were 10 years old when the war started. Agios Petros village sits at the back of the island, and the German command set up their communications stations at the top of the mountain just above the village. What is left of the ruins today are referred to by the locals as the 'German remains', and people don't really want to venture there.

My parents, aunts and uncles often spoke of the brutality and cruelty of the German soldiers. They were terrified of them, and the German command made sure of this. They also spoke about the concentration camps and the gas chambers and the killing of Jews. As children, we would listen to these stories, and these experiences and memories were our family's legacy. It is what they and other post Second World War migrants brought with them to Australia. It is what more recently arrived refugees and migrants bring with them also. They shaped and influenced my generation's thinking and they will do the same for current generations within the context of our multicultural Australia.

In this period of post Second World War migration, it always struck me as incredible that my parents would finally meet the Jewish people they had heard about during the war, that they would live amongst them in Carlton and they would work alongside them. My mother and Rosa shared the pain of lost homelands and loved ones, the experiences and memories of the devastation of the World War II. My formative years were shaped by these stories and these people. I know they shaped and haunted my parents' generation and all those who endured the violence and devastation of World War II. I pay tribute to them all because they were all resilient.

Australia gave them opportunity, safety and a new home. They embraced their life circumstances and became nation builders. We owe them a great debt. We owe them our modern Australia. We have a responsibility to honour and protect their legacy, and to follow their lead. Of course, Rosa has been in my thoughts constantly lately. The 85th anniversary of the Holocaust reminds us that we cannot ignore what is happening in our community at the moment. As parliamentarians, we can't just offload the challenges for others to deal with. We have to work here and within our own communities with genuine intent, and lead initiatives to lead people together.

Talk is cheap. Politicisation of conflict is dangerous. In the 23 years that I have sat in this parliament, the weaponisation of immigration, refugees and multiculturalism has not helped social cohesion; it has threatened it. I want to recognise the member for Monash, who, in recognising these dangers, tag teamed with me to establish the Parliamentary Friends of Multiculturalism in 2015. Our purpose was to reaffirm the importance of multiculturalism and to encourage the restoration of bipartisan support. A SBS news item described us 'the odd couple of federal politics' because we were on opposite sides of the political spectrum—one of Greek heritage; the other of British stock.

Let me give the House an example of what a practical response to encourage social cohesion in our community looks like. I refer to an event I organised in partnership with the now member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, when he was a young staffer in this place. At Josh's initiative we held an event for progressive young Jewish and Arab people to come together as a way of breaking barriers and confronting stereotypes resulting from September 11. In November 2012, quite a while ago, we hosted an intercultural dialogue event at the Banksia Gardens Community Centre in Broadmeadows. We had two inspirational speakers. One was the Hon. Justice Emilios Kyrou AO, the first Greek born judge to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria, who now heads the AAT. Emilios grew up in Broadmeadows and endured, like myself and others of our generation, the rejection and racism of the time. The other speaker was renowned author and activist Arnold Zable, himself a Jewish migrant, who, like me, attended Princes Hill high school; it is a good school, and quite a few notable people have been there. They both recounted their experience growing up as migrants, experiencing racism and being outsiders. Yet despite this they were able to rise beyond it all and become successful members of the Australian community. This event had a major impact on the young people in that room not just because the speakers themselves had walked in their shoes previously but, more importantly, because in that space on that day they were able to sit together—Jewish and Muslim youth in one place at the same time. Their paths would never have crossed otherwise. I thank Josh for this initiative and look forward to Josh being returned as the member for Macnamara in this place, as he has a very important contribution to make.

This event helped convince me that it is our responsibility to lead the way. We have to make dialogue happen in a way that brings people together, especially those who have such entrenched views about each other. We can make a difference; 50-plus years of multicultural policy shows us the way. And now, 13 years later, we find ourselves in yet another crisis where old hatreds resurface and where we risk another generation of young people experiencing these fears and prejudices. We must do better if we are to protect and preserve social cohesion, and we can only do this through initiatives that encourage dialogue—not marketing or advertising it but actually conducting it.

Multiculturalism is about much more than managing intercommunal tensions or focusing exclusively on immigration and refugees; it is a practical policy framework to ensure social inclusion and equal access to services and opportunities. One of the keys to access inclusion is language and communication. A prime example of what this might look like is the initiative during the Rudd Labor government to translate the instructions on the bowel cancer testing kits into multiple community languages. I approached the then health minister, the member for Sydney, to explain that one important reason for the low take-up rates of the free bowel cancer testing kits that we all receive in our letterboxes after turning 50 and thereafter was a lack of understanding, especially amongst communities whose first language was not English. She was very quick to respond by directing her department to rectify this. The information became available in multiple community languages, and for my part I continued to tell my constituents that when they turn 50 and go onwards—as I had at the time—the Australian government sends them a birthday present in the mail, and I advised them to open it and make use of it. I hope they did!

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