Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to acknowledge the thousands of Australians who were detained in internment camps during World War II or were subject to other forms of discrimination and deprivation on the basis of their migrant heritage. I have brought this motion to express heartfelt regret that in those circumstances we misjudged and mistreated a minority of our fellow citizens while in the thrall of fear and prejudice and, in so doing, subjected many good people to suffering. More than that, I want to recognise and pay tribute to the fact that those people who were interned, including more than 1,000 Italian internees in Western Australia, put aside the suffering inflicted on them and, in the return to peace, renewed their profound contribution to the rich and diverse multicultural Australia that we now all share.

I cannot think of a better example of this than Tom D'Orsogna, a resident of Fremantle, who at 21 years of age was interned in Fremantle Prison. The food was poor and strictly rationed, and the general conditions of internment affected the health of many internees. But, upon his release, Tom D'Orsogna simply got on with his life. He opened a small butcher's shop on Stone Street in Fremantle, and today his smallgoods business employs 450 workers and has an Australia-wide presence and reputation for excellence.

Before I go further, I want to thank all the members who are contributing to this debate this evening, and I want to particularly acknowledge the advocacy and leadership of Peter Tagliaferri, the former Mayor of Fremantle, a longstanding and active member of the Western Australian Italian community and my good friend. Peter's grandfather and father were interned during the Second World War, and he grew up in a community dealing with the effects of that policy and with the prejudice that underwrote it.

The situation at the outset of World War II was so starkly different from today as to be virtually impossible to hold in one's imagination. There was a sense that the most basic order of things was being torn apart and that destruction, chaos and tyranny were spreading inexorably across the world's map. Whole nations had been invaded, defeated and annexed, and the idea that Australia too might experience invasion and subjugation, as Poland, France and China had done, was very real. It was in those circumstances that Australia put in place security measures under the provisions of the National Security Act 1939-1940. Internment of people designated as 'enemy aliens' or 'naturalised persons of enemy origin' was a key part of that policy.

While I am not here to say that the people who believed those measures necessary were bad people, I am here to say that the measures themselves were wrong. Thousands of migrant Australians whose lives were enmeshed in the social and economic fabric of their communities had their houses ransacked and their menfolk seized and put in prison out of fear that they might collaborate with our enemies. Between 1940 and 1943 nearly 9,000 people of Italian, German and Japanese descent were interned. That included more than 20 per cent of Australia's Italian population and an astounding 97 per cent of all people originating from Japan, including women and children.

Internees were stripped of their rights, their dignity, their liberty and their family. Those not interned were subject to restrictions on movement and property. Of course, the families who lost their fathers, sons and brothers also lost their livelihood and personal security. At the same time as we acknowledge the wrong that was done through internment, we should recognise and celebrate the remarkable fortitude shown by women and families within migrant communities who kept their households and children afloat in a time of terrible uncertainty, hardship and loneliness.

I bring this motion for debate because the internment policy should be better remembered as part of Australia's World War II history but also because I represent an electorate whose Italian community was one of the worst affected. It is a community that continues to be such a deeply intrinsic part of Fremantle's character, its flavour and diversity, and its distinctive joie de vivre—or should I say its sense of la bella vita?

I want to thank Tony Piccolo, the member for Light in South Australia, for raising this matter in the South Australian parliament last year. Mr Piccolo highlighted the practice of housing prisoners of war together with internees. This caused the death of one internee who was killed in a fight for expressing his support of Australia's cause. He died in defending his country even while his country had turned its heart against him.

One of the terrible things about war is the way it pushes a tide of fear and intolerance through any civil society, freshening prejudice and turning what might be a latent discrimination into measures that can amount to real cruelty. This certainly occurred in Australia in the early 1940s through the harsh and summary internment of migrant Australians. It was a self-inflicted wound. It caused suffering to our fellow Australians and to the communities from which they were torn. I believe it is right that we express our regret for those policies and our admiration for the people who endured them and, through their courage and forbearance, transcended them.

Teresa Gambaro (Brisbane, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Settlement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with much pleasure that I rise to support the motion moved by the member for Fremantle. I congratulate the member for Fremantle for moving this motion and bringing it before the chamber but also for bringing before the chamber a very sad part of our history that unfortunately gets forgotten. It is left out of the history books quite a lot. The motion sincerely acknowledges the experience of enemy aliens who were interned in Australia during World War II and the severe and detrimental impacts that that policy had on the families and communities involved. I speak to this motion as a proud daughter of Italian migrants with a degree of personal experience, as my grandfather was interned at the Loveday Camp, near Barmera, in South Australia. I will relay some of that experience later on.

In both world wars Australia interned not only civilians from a number of enemy countries but also civilians brought to the country from elsewhere, including British and Dutch possessions in the Asia-Pacific region, as well as seamen and passengers from any merchant ships impounded in port or intercepted at sea. This was common international practice, with internment of enemy civilians occurring in most countries that were engaged in both world wars. The rationale behind that was that their presence, supposedly, posed some sort of threat and security risk to our great nation. History will show that that particular theory was deeply flawed. It was discriminatory, ethically wrong and logically unsound. Indeed, as the motion notes, many of the persons interned were born in Australia, Australian residents or British subjects. These people in turn became known as 'enemy aliens'. According to the research that I have gleaned from the Parliamentary Library, during the high point of internment in Australia, in September 1942, some 6,780 persons were held in custody, including 1,029 Germans, 3,651 Italians and 1,036 Japanese civilians.

I think it is fair to say that the group that was severely impacted by the policy was the largest group, the Italian-Australian community. During the period of the policy nearly 17,000 people were interned. Nearly 5,000 of them were Italo-Australians and over 2,000 of them were from Queensland. It is a very sad part of our history and a very sad part of history for many Italo-Australians.

The process of internment, as the member for Fremantle spoke about, was very harsh. It was disrespectful and undignified. Many families were separated and divided. They had to endure the spectacle of being dragged from their homes, in front of their neighbours and families. They were interned not by individual assessment of the supposed risk they imposed but because they had a certain cultural and heritage background. Quite often their homes would be ransacked and destroyed, leaving emotional and traumatic scars. We should acknowledge not just those who were interned but also the women and children, as the member for Fremantle spoke about, who were left to fend for themselves after their husbands or their fathers had been taken.

Last week I went to a Co.As.It. International Women's Day lunch where Anna Barbi spoke of the experiences of her and her husband being taken away from their property in Far North Queensland. She was forced to go back and live with her family. There was no way that she could continue the family farm. The banks foreclosed because the farm was no longer productive.

I also had a grandfather interned in South Australia. I want to pay tribute to him. In the whole time I knew him when he was alive he never spoke of the camps, but he was interned for about three years. Again, he was working in Far North Queensland when he was taken. He did become the camp cook, which later led to him opening a restaurant. It was a very sad period for many Italo-Australians in this country.

In conclusion, it is absolutely right that the Commonwealth parliament acknowledges what the enemy aliens went through and expresses its regret at the suffering and the damage that was caused. I am very proud to support the motion that has been put forward today by the member for Fremantle.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I congratulate the member for Fremantle on moving this motion not only to outline the specifics of the Second World War incarceration but because it represents a broader international problem. After the Second World War, Stalin deported hundreds of thousands of Chechens, Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars. In Czechoslovakia the government expelled hundreds of thousands of Sudeten Germans. This is symptomatic of societies that distrust their citizens in times of conflict. I do not want to cover extensively the Second World War situation—other members have—but there are some very worrying historical patterns in this country. In the First World War, because we had doubts that King Constantine would stay onside with the allies, every Greek family in this country was investigated by the precursor of ASIO, who went to their neighbours and asked them about their loyalty. In the Riverina, particularly, in both world wars the large number of German settlers were very heavily persecuted and the names of towns were changed. I had the opportunity in my political career to discuss this with Tim Fischer, a previous National Party member from the Riverina, whose own family endured these kinds of circumstances. It was not here of course. In the United States, although they only incarcerated one per cent of Hawaii's huge Japanese population, 100,000 Japanese in the United States were incarcerated. It was only Reagan's apology in 1998 that put some end to that.

Similar events occurred in this country. Sir Henry Bolte was probably one of the toughest politicians this country has ever produced and was famous for hanging Ronald Ryan. If you go to this country's National Archives and listen to his oral history, he said that throughout his political career he always dreaded that the Australian people would find that he was of German extraction. In the Riverina, in Mildura, and in the Albury area we incarcerated two Lutheran ministers because they might have been pro Nazi. One of them, unfortunately, was a Lutheran convert from Judaism. A person active in Sydney's Jewish community, Josie Lacey, tells the story that, when she arrived here as a Jewish refugee, she and her family were so distrusted that they were not allowed to live on the coastline near Bondi or Vaucluse. They were moved out to Wentworthville because they might otherwise communicate with German submarines.

My local Guilford chemist is of Italian extraction and told the story that throughout the Second World War his father was forced to work for the Catholic Church from Monday to Friday, basically for nothing, and only come home on weekends. We have a situation in this country where, in times of conflict, minorities are doubted and there is no respect for their citizenship of this country. Amongst the 7,000 incarcerated during the Second World War, 1,500 were nationals and were actually British citizens.

There are other things I had not heard about. One thing I came across when reading about this resolution was an incident that I was previously unaware of. At Cape Bedford in Northern Queensland, because the local Lutheran pastor was a German, they moved 250 Aboriginal Australians to Cooktown and Cairns because we could not trust them because they had a Lutheran pastor. Of those people, 28 died in the first month because of the change of temperature and climate and, eventually by March 1943, 60 of them had perished. We pride ourselves on multiculturalism and, of course, we are a world leader. But these are things we should be very careful of. As I say, in times of frantic nationalism and patriotism, these kinds of mentalities and situations arise.

Another incident in this country happened in Broken Hill, where rioters burned down the German club and a large number of other properties connected with Germans. It is a situation that is very damning. The major writer in this area is Klaus Newmann author of In the Interest of National Securityand another article on Wolf Klaphake entitled, A Doubtful Character. Another incident is that a person, who was an inventor, was victimised by the German Nazis and managed to get to this country. However, he fled and got to this country to be liberated and then we incarcerated him because he might have been a Nazi sympathiser.

The dimensions of this are that people were ostracised by their neighbours, by the people that they went to school with and by their friends, they were marginalised in society and not trusted, their lives were basically torn asunder and careers that they might have aspired to were destroyed. All of these are things that are very integral to the resolution that the member for Fremantle has moved. I recommend it very strongly to the House and congratulate her endeavour in an important issue.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to acknowledge the many people who were interned in Australia during World War II. Many of those interned were dinky-di Aussies who had contributed greatly to Australia. Last month the South Australian parliament unanimously accepted a bipartisan motion, moved by Labor member for Light, Tony Piccolo, to acknowledge the internment of Italian civilians living in Australia during the Second World War. I acknowledge the member for Fremantle's motion and accept that, in many cases in many ways, it was wrongful internment. As the Australian government established a war economy it also began to take steps to neutralise what was considered the potential threat posed by resident aliens. The Australian War Memorial noted that, at the time:

Australians were gripped by an irrational panic about the potential for the tens of thousands of foreign nationals resident in Australia to become saboteurs or spies.

The decision was made to introduce severe restrictions on the aliens and, in some cases, to imprison them in internment camps. The internment of aliens was considered to be a last resort, and women and children were not allowed to be interned. The process of arrest and internment was usually peaceful but, as the member for Brisbane pointed out, it was unfortunately often not the case. Authorities sought internment only if there was a reasonable case and evidence against an individual enemy alien, such as evidence which linked them to participation in or membership of the Nazi or fascist movement. People tied to the movements responsible for the war in Europe made Australians feel understandably apprehensive. They believed that by interning them they were reducing the potential threat they posed to the protection of Australia, our internal security and peace of mind for the wider population.

I acknowledge the disruption these migrants faced and stress which it placed upon their families. To many, it seemed unfair, and it was unfair that they were being persecuted for their beliefs, often on evidence they felt was incorrect. Others could not understand why they were being segregated because of who they were and their place of origin—their heritage. However, we must acknowledge that a decision was made to protect the wider community based on the information at hand. In my electorate of Riverina, Griffith has a strong Italian community, with about 60 per cent of the city claiming an Italian background. Many Italians moved to Griffith post-World War II to join family who were already resident there or because they were aware of the Italian community that was already established. The Italian influence in Griffith expanded the fruit and vegetable range and also significantly increased the number of wineries and the range of wines produced, with nationally and internationally recognised wineries including De Bortoli and Casella wines.

It is important that we acknowledge parts of our history which are not necessarily elements which we find acceptable or palatable today. Many would deem the internment of people as xenophobic and based on irrational panic. However, we must also look back through the eyes of the people of the time to ensure that we do not unfairly judge them for actions they felt were being undertaken to protect Australian citizens and to help prevent war arriving in Australia, possibly from within. I accept the member for Werriwa's mention of the change of name of Holbrook, from Germanton, to avoid the obvious connotations and connectivity.

Lobbyist Steve Carney was in the House this afternoon and spoke of the two Italian prisoners of war who worked on the Purlewaugh property of his father Arthur during the Second World War. 'Hard workers, good people' was how he described these men. Indeed, many Italian migrants and POWs and people of Italian heritage contributed mightily to this country during these difficult, torrid and worrying times. They were also desperate years, and those in authority did what they felt was necessary to safeguard our people and our security. That is, after all, the key role of government. It was then and it remains more so than ever today. However, I do commend the member for Fremantle for her motion and I commend it to the House.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise in support of the member for Fremantle's motion, which, according to the motion itself, is drawn from a motion moved in the South Australian parliament by the member for Light, Tony Piccolo. There were 18 internment camps during World War II, including Yanco, Hay and Cowra in New South Wales; Nangwarry and Loveday near Barmera in my own home state of South Australia; Gaythorne in Queensland; Dhurringile, Murchison and Tatura in Victoria; and Harvey and Northam in Western Australia. People suspected of being of German, Italian or Japanese background were targeted and persecuted by ordinary members of Australian society. There were stories of vandalism, sackings and personal assault. It would have been a terrible time for many people of German, Italian or Japanese background—many of whom had been here, in some cases, for a couple of generations or more. The government did not intern all people of German, Italian or Japanese background. Curtin acknowledged that this would not increase our security. Of those in Australia during that period, 33 per cent of German background, 15 per cent of Italian background and 97 per cent—almost every single person—of Japanese background were interned through the war, irrespective of the level of threat they represented. Internees were grouped in camps along cultural or national lines. People of German descent were interned together irrespective of their political views and we would have had many Germans who were anti-Nazi at the time and, in fact, were advocating in Australia against Hitler. Likewise those of Italian background. I suppose they were grouping communists, anarchists, fascists and the apolitical all into one.

We know there were many people of Italian and German backgrounds who were against the fascist movement in Europe, but this would not have made any difference. Mistakes and errors in judgment were made in my own electorate where I have many Italians and many people of Greek background who held Italian passports because, as a result of their islands—mainly the islands of Rhodes and Kos—being made up as a protectorate of Italy after the breakup of the Ottoman empire in 1921, were interned even though Greece was an ally. Even though they were clearly Greek, they held Italian passports and it took months of negotiations to release them.

Recently I launched a book in South Australia, The story of a community: a short pictorial history of the Greek Orthodox community in South Australia. The Greek community at the time of the war decided to make special badges saying 'We are Allies' and they would wear them in the city so that they would not be abused by people who thought that they were the enemy. The internment in November 1942 of a known antifascist campaigner, Francesco Fantin, with fascists at the Loveday site in South Australia's Riverland epitomised the injustice and absurdity of the practice of internment. He was a long-standing and active opponent of Italy's fascist regime. Fantin was put in a camp with supporters of Mussolini's fascist state and it led to him being killed. Born in 1901, Francesco Giovanni Fantin left Italy as an antifascist immigrant in 1924. In 1927 he established the antifascist Matteotti Club in Melbourne and the Mourilyan Italian Progressive Club in Queensland. He was overlooked in the first round of internments in 1940 but was arrested in 1942 as an enemy alien. In the internment camp at Loveday in South Australia's Riverland, Fantin continued his political activity and was organising with other antifascists sample donations of sheepskins which they sent to Russia, which at the time was a key ally against Hitler and Mussolini. The fundraising in the Loveday camp proved provocative to the interned fascists who targeted and murdered him on 16 November 1942.

The internment regulations were considered by civil libertarians to be draconian. The onus of proof against internment was placed on individuals to show that they were not enemy aliens and should not be interned. In the years of internment, 7,000 Australian residents were interned and a further 5,000 civilians interned from overseas. These included people from mainland Europe, including people of Jewish background, and people from the United Kingdom, Dutch, British and French colonies in the Pacific and South-East Asia. Prisoners of war were also imprisoned with these interns. There were a number of constituents in my electorate who were interned in World War II but as far as I know they all have passed away. (Time expired)

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the member for Fremantle and to thank her very much for her motion, which is detailed, personal and entirely appropriate. History records that in the interests of national security the Australian government interned thousands of men and women during World War I and World War II. It is fair to say that they thought they were doing that with the best of policy intentions, but it is also fair to say that there were many, many voices that spoke against it at the time—voices of reason, voices of compassion.

History has shown that the policy was wrong. Those present, at the time, should have told them the policy was wrong. Most of those who were interned were classed as 'enemy aliens'—that is, they were nationals of countries at war with Australia. The reasons for establishing these camps and interning foreign nationals were apparently threefold: first, to prevent residents from assisting Australia's enemies; second, to appease public opinion; and, third, to house overseas internees sent to Australia for the duration of the war.

Somehow we as a nation at the time lost sight of the fact that when Australians sailed off to war in November 1914 from Albany four ships sailed: two cruisers and one other ship escorted by a Japanese warship crewed by Japanese sailors. Somehow we forgot that Australians of Chinese descent have served Australians in every war from the Sudan in 1885 through to Iraq in 2005. In fact, the earliest Chinese-Australian serviceman is Sergeant John Joseph Shying who served with the New South Wales contingent in the Anglo-Egyptian War in the Sudan in 1885. Shying's grandfather Mak Sai Pang came to Sydney in 1818. He married Sarah Ferguson in 1823. Sarah was a free settler who had come to Australia with her convict mother. Christopher Shying, another family member, served in the 1st AIF.

Many Chinese men and citizens of other nations stormed the beaches of Gallipoli. It is one of the great enduring factors of us as a nation that we are one of the great multicultural nations on earth. In April 1915, with the Federation just 15 years young, the great thing about Australia's ill-fated assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula is that it was done by Australians, many of whom were not born here. They were Geordies, Italians, Chinese and Japanese—the force that assaulted the peninsular was made up of men from all different nations. That is why it is disappointing that ostensibly through the First and Second World Wars the government of the day, albeit with the best of intentions, fell back on a sense of unease and established a range of internment camps.

These camps were established across the country, from Cowra in New South Wales to Enoggera in Queensland, Harvey in Western Australia, Hay in New South Wales, Holsworthy and Liverpool in New South Wales, Loveday in South Australia, Rottnest Island in Western Australia, and Tatura and Rushworth in Victoria. In World War II, internees were often held in smaller camps before being transferred to larger ones—Bathurst in New South Wales in 1939, Long Bay from 1939 to 1941, Orange in New South Wales in 1940-41, Parkeston in Western Australia and Dhurringile near Murchison in Victoria.

The aim of internment was to identify and intern those who posed a particular threat to the safety or defence of the country, notwithstanding that many of their own countrymen were fighting beside Australians from other lands who had come to call our country home. As the war progressed the policy changed and Japanese residents were interned en masse, again forgetting our history as our soldiers sailed from Albany en route to World War I. Most internees during the First and Second World Wars were nationals of Australia's main enemy during respective conflicts. Their only crime was to have been born in or associated with the country with which we found ourselves in conflict. In the latter years of World War II Germans and Italians were interned on the basis of nationality alone, rather than any particular threat that authorities may have believed had been posed. Over 20 per cent of all Italians residing in Australia during World War II were interned.

That is why I think it is important that the member for Fremantle brings the motion for debate and discussion within the halls of parliament today. It is an important motion. We should not run from our history or hide from it. We should not try to reinvent it or re-interpret it. We should accept it and understand it. If we are wrong we should apologise for it. As a nation we should embrace and move forward together with a shared view of our future.

Debate adjourned.