Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I speak to recognise the 60th anniversary of the Ukrainian Youth Association of Australia and to praise the work that they have done. To read anything of the brutal history of the 20th century leads to an understanding of the gallantry and heroism of the Ukrainian people, who have suffered as much as any of the earth’s tribes in the last 100 years.

The seven million Ukrainian war dead, compared to 600,000 people from France, 350,000 British and 2½ million Japanese, is devastating. To think of the human tragedies that make up that sum, and the grief that followed each death, it is almost too large to grasp that scale of loss. We do not know what our country and the western world owe to Ukrainian people whose suffering, bravery and brilliance defended our civilisation in the worst of wars. They suffered the loss of identity under communism and the forced forgetting of language and culture—and then they were hit by Chernobyl, the industrial scar which cast a cloud over the world. Ukrainian people have a history that must be commemorated, must not be forgotten and must be passed to each new generation of descendents, no matter where they live.

But with this century of suffering comes much beauty: the superb seaside towns of Odessa and Yalta; the granaries and orchards of the hinterland that once fed half of the Soviet Union; the glorious Parisian architecture of Kiev, rebuilt sandstone by sandstone from old photographs out of rubble until it was as it had been before the war; the circuses, operas and choirs as evidence of how a culture can somehow survive all war and pestilence. Many Ukrainians left following World War II, not from choice but from a DNA-hardwired urge to provide a better life for their children and grandchildren. Wherever they landed, they prospered, and Melbourne is no exception. Like many other groups fleeing an uncertain future in a Europe torn by war and politics and the capricious forces of history, they found fertile soil here. Ukrainians have worked as labourers, in factories, in hospitals and in the Snowy Mountains scheme, providing the muscle, grit and compassion that grew this country in the 1950s and 60s. Ukrainian Australians found a place where their strength could be added to ours and they could freely pursue their version of the good life, culture and religion.

But this did not mean they forgot their past. Becoming an Australian was not a subtraction or diminution of identity; it was an addition which has enriched our nation. To see the work of the Ukrainian Youth Association, its role in celebrating a culture and a history, is to be reminded of the importance of cherishing the threads that link and bind the generations. It is a truism that if we do not know where we have come from then we cannot know where we are going. For those who have worked to keep Ukrainian culture and memory alive, it is a gift to future generations. Australians of Ukrainian descent are an adornment to Australia. They are an unmixed blessing to our nation. They and their history constitute for all of us a matchless example and an unrepayable debt. I salute Ukrainian Australians.