Lucy Wicks (Robertson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House recognises:

(1) the importance of the events that took place on 3 December 1854 on Eureka Hill at Ballarat;

(2) the significance of these events in Australia's history;

(3) the impact of Eureka on our discussions surrounding free market, individual enterprise and representative democracy; and

(4) that Australians have interpreted the events in numerous ways that impact and inspire our economic and social frameworks.

I do thank you for being in the House today, Mr Speaker, for a very important motion. I rise to speak on the importance of the Eureka Stockade—a significant moment in time that unfolded in the space of just 15 minutes in the early morning of 3 December 1854 on Eureka hill at Ballarat. It was 15 minutes that became legendary in Australian history. In those 15 minutes, what unfolded was a grassroots community revolt—a protest—against government policies that were holding back the development of the free market, individual enterprise and representative democracy. These principles that I, as a Liberal, hold dear are ones that it is clear the events of 161 years ago sought to establish.

Democracy, by its very nature, is not something that can be owned by either the Left or the Right. It is owned by the people of a nation. Yet, unfortunately, there have been attempts by various political and ideological movements over the past 161 years to redefine and mythologise this significant historical event. There have been efforts to force it to align to various political agendas, tying it to the same proverbial tree that the Victorian police chained those diggers who were found to be without a mining licence in those months leading up to the Eureka Stockade—so much so, that today the Eureka legend has largely been captured by those on the Left of politics, who seem to be very good at mythology but not so good at celebrating reforms of free market enterprise, small government and capitalism. These are very principles fought for by the diggers and on which the success of Australia is based today.

I am pleased to be able to present an alternative view—one born from our great former Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, who said, in 1946, that if the Eureka Stockade meant anything at all it indicated a 'fierce desire to achieve true parliamentary government' and, through it, 'true popular control of the public finances.' So, far from being some sort of triumph of the collective over the establishment, the story of Eureka is a story of a revolt against excessive taxation and overregulation. It was an uprising against an aggressive mining levy by hardworking entrepreneurs and individuals in search of financial opportunity to create a better tomorrow for themselves and their families than what they enjoyed at that time. For, as history tells us, many diggers would take the money they made from the goldfields to start a farm, a new business or, perhaps, to purchase a home for themselves and their family. Their stand on Eureka hill was a fight for opportunity and a better standard of living.

The gold rush, while creating opportunities, also created a headache for Australia's squatters and businessmen, who found themselves short of labourers and workers. This was why the hefty mining licence fee, and the excessive regulatory burden of compliance that went with it, was such a clear example of a government more interested in framing policies to engineer a social and economic outcome than enabling enterprise and free market to continue to shape Australia. Some of the historical accounts I have read—stories of twice-weekly paper checks with fines, if the paper on which the miner's licence was printed was found to be damaged in any sort of way—simply smack of overregulation. These were excessive burdens which our Eureka men so rightly opposed.

But it was the impact of Eureka that ultimately frames this issue and outlines why today's conservative political parties can rightly claim the Eureka Stockade as much their own as those on the Left do so willingly and so well. As a result of Eureka, we saw taxation reform, less regulation, greater democratic participation and the election of the leader of the Eureka Stockade, Peter Lalor, to the Victorian parliament just a year later. He was later to become Speaker. As the ultimate sign of the impact of the Eureka Stockade in Australia's economic and social history, there remains a thriving tourism industry in that place.

This event became etched in the psyche of Australia, capturing in a few short moments our history, our values our identity and helping frame our future too. They were 15 minutes which ultimately defined a generation and captured our nation's imagination and identity. Eureka belongs to all of us. We cannot change history but we can and must, at least for the sake of the men and women of Eureka, change the interpretation of the Eureka flag as a symbol of representative democracy. Perhaps today we should have a discussion about whether, come the next major event here in Canberra, the Eureka flag should be flown in an appropriate way.

I commend the motion to the House.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a pleasure to speak on this motion focusing on a pivotal and significant moment of our history, the Eureka Stockade. What we see demonstrated in this debate, which we have around this time every year, is how Eureka continues to be a subject for political debate and discourse. I am delighted that the member for Robertson has again brought this on for debate in this chamber.

The third of December is certainly a date we should know much better in this country. Eureka is a moment of history very close to my own heart and very close to home. It occurred within my electorate of Ballarat in Victoria. The site of the stockade itself is just a few kilometres from my electorate office. The troopers were stationed a mere block away, in Camp Street. The Southern Cross still flies proudly on buildings in the town. What remains of the original flag rests behind glass at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka. And I note that the Prime Minister's wife, Lucy Turnbull, is a patron of that centre.

The Ballarat Reform League fought for equality, honest representation and a fair go. It was a remarkable body pulled together from the will of 10,000 diggers across the Ballarat goldfields. The charter, a copy of which rests in my office, called for equal rights. League members swore to stand truly by each other to defend their rights and liberties. The member for Robertson raised the issue of taxation; but, in fact, the diggers fought first and foremost for the right for representation—which they were denied, even under a system of oppressive taxation. So 'no taxation without representation' was really one of the themes. They were scathing of the unelected paid officials who made laws that suited their selfish ends and narrow minded views. It is clear that the Ballarat Reform League was incensed by inequality. Of course, the league came very much out of the Chartist movement in the UK and other such movements internationally. They saw the abolition of the diggers and storekeepers licence tax—which had an immense impact on those who worked on the goldfields and very little on those outside it—as a matter of great importance. Even they could see that the Goldfields Commission and the Legislative Council held no concern for the poor, those who worked on the diggings or the large number of people who had come to Ballarat in search of a better life.

Between 1851 and 1860 some 500,000 people migrated to the Australian colonies. Sixty per cent of those went straight to Victoria to join the gold rush. The diggers came from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. They came from Germany, Italy, North America and China. They came from New Zealand and a number of the South Pacific nations. Ten thousand diggers of more than 20 nationalities took an oath under the Southern Cross to fight for their representation and a fair go. Their fight, both at the stockade and, afterwards, through the courts, grew into a wider struggle that formed the freedoms that all Australians now hold dear—personal liberty, a national identity built around mateship and a great ideal of community. They understood that political action leads to universal empowerment and a more equal society for all.

They understood that the press was a vital part of that process and that parliament needed to be structured as an accessible body. They knew that a body representing the full political rights of the people needed a solid and open platform as a base and fashioned the diggers charter with that in mind. The significance of their efforts cannot be overstated. This charter represents an incredible first step towards a democratic Australia—a measured, thought-out building block of a more equal future, the solid expression of an idea that would see each and every Australian empowered to take control of their future and through that shape the future of our nation.

While the situation is not purely black and white, and even today there are very different interpretations and perspectives that can educate us and help us understand such an integral part of our history, and while the charge on the stockade itself may have only lasted some 15 minutes, the 27 dead from both sides have left a legacy that has carried down 161 years since.

In my hometown of Ballarat there are a number of groups dedicated to the remembrance of the Eureka Stockade. I encourage everybody to attend the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, which is a fantastic way of seeing all of the democratic expressions from Eureka to modern day, including things like a display about the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Eureka is a proud part of our history and I am proud to join this motion commemorating it here in this chamber today.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to second the member for Robertson's motion on the importance of the Eureka Stockade in Australian history. As we have heard in this debate this morning, there is no doubt that the Eureka rebellion played a very significant role in one of the underpinnings of Australian democracy. As a Victorian, and coming from Corangamite, the seat adjoining the seat of Ballarat, I am very proud that we are having this debate this morning. This Thursday, 3 December, is 161 years since the uprising.

On that fateful day, 33 miners and five soldiers were killed. It was, as we heard so eloquently put by the member for Robertson, a battle against oppression, a battle against authority, a battle like no other that we have seen in our community. It was a battle over goldmining licences. The miners, led by Peter Lalor, believed that the licences were being imposed unfairly by Governor Charles Hotham. Lalor led hundreds of miners who formed the Eureka Stockade. This followed a rally of some 10,000 five days earlier. Following the Eureka Stockade, a group of 13 diggers were charged with treason and, very symbolically, they were found to be not guilty.

I want to reflect on the career of Peter Lalor, who, as we have heard, was elected to the Victorian legislative council in 1855. He went on to serve in the legislative assembly as the member for North Grenville, now known as Ballarat. He was a member of the Victorian parliament for over 20 years and he also served as Speaker for a period of seven years. According to Lalor, and I know you would be personally very interested in this, Mr Deputy Speaker:

The first duty of a Speaker … is to be a tyrant. Remove him if you like, but while he is in the chair obey him.

Mr Lalor was considered to be a wonderful local member. The Argus at the time described him as 'a bluff, straightforward gentleman who blurts out plain truths in a homely, matter-of-fact style'.

As we have heard from the member for Ballarat, the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka was opened in 2013, supported by the then Victorian government and the federal government. There was also a significant contribution from the City of Ballarat to establish this important museum. It displays the Eureka flag on a rotating basis with the Art Gallery of Ballarat. I want to fully commend and support the suggestion by the member for Robertson that the Eureka flag be brought at the appropriate moment to this chamber, because it is a very important symbol of our democracy. It is a very important symbol of so much that was achieved and of so much that changed in the way that people sought to be governed at that time.

It may not in fact be known that when writer Mark Twain visited Australia he actually spoke about Eureka. He said:

It was a revolution - small in size; but great politically; it was a strike for liberty, a struggle for a principle, a stand against injustice and oppression. It was the Barons and John, over again; it was Hampden and Ship-Money; it was Concord and Lexington; small beginnings, all of them, but all of them great in political results, all of them epoch-making. It is another instance of a victory won by a lost battle.

I also want to reflect on the comments made back in July 1946 by Robert Menzies. Robert Menzies said:

Arms were used by working men in the most important historical struggle that this country has known—the struggle at Eureka Stockade—and arms will probably be used by the workers in this country again.

The attempt to connect the Eureka Stockade incident with communism is ridiculous, he said:

Insofar as the Eureka revolt indicated any general movement at all, it [was] a fierce desire to achieve true Parliamentary government, and … true popular control of public finances.

Peter Lalor, the leader of the revolt, went into the Victorian parliament and became its speaker. The communists are antiparliament, antirepresentative government, and for all their own brand of dictatorship. (Time expired)

Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today as the member for Lalor, named after Peter Lalor, the leader of the Eureka Stockade. I welcome the opportunity to join what I note to be four female members speaking today in this debate. I would of course put on record that I forgive the member for Robertson not knowing how to pronounce Peter Lalor's name, as many in this place need a reminder. It is one of the reasons I am here today—to say it as many times as I can in this important debate.

My electorate of Lalor was named after Peter Lalor, the leader of the Eureka Stockade rebellion that called for democratic representation in the colony of Victoria. We have heard from other speakers that beyond the Eureka rebellion Lalor was then elected to the Victorian Legislative Council and into the Assembly, and he for some time acted as speaker. More importantly, for me as the member for Lalor and as I have reflected in this place before, the Eureka rebellion is noted not just as the birth of democracy of Australia but also as the birth of multiculturalism. It was our only armed struggle for change in Victoria.

The spirit of the oaths taken under the Southern Cross still lives in the seat of Lalor today. I would link that to the multicultural nature of my electorate that reflects again the diaspora that was there in Ballarat on the goldfields. Twenty nationalities were represented by or involved in the Eureka Stockade rebellion. I think that is an important point we should all understand—it was not an Anglo revolt. There were 20 nationalities. Of course, we should note that many of those rebels were Chinese. We should also note that many of the members of the Ballarat Reform League were Chartists wanting workers' rights acknowledged in their new country. The member for Ballarat has very eloquently outlined the Ballarat Reform League's charter.

What is not so well known about Eureka is the women who were involved in this rebellion. The names that are not as well-known as Peter Lalor's are those of the women who stood together with the men to fight to defend their rights and liberties. Women played a critical role in the Eureka Stockade, yet the story has always been told as if half of the participants were not there. In 2013 I was pleased to attend the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka to witness the launch of Clare Wright's book, The Forgotten Rebels of Eureka, a groundbreaking book that documents the role of women within the Eureka Stockade and the remarkably unbiddable women of Ballarat.

Wright spent the last decade researching the thousands of women who were in Ballarat in 1854; identifying and documenting the remarkable women who were leaders in the people's movement against government corruption and taxation without representation. It is also worth noting contributions of the women who were on the goldfields that day. One was Ellen Young, the self-proclaimed 'Ballarat poetess', who gave voice to the collective grievance of her community by publishing politically charged poetry and fiery letters to the editor in The Ballarat Times. Another was Clara Seekamp, an Irish single mother of three who became the de facto wife of Henry Seekamp, editor of The Ballarat Times. Clara, with her husband, ran a profitable printing and publishing business until Henry was jailed for sedition after the stockade, making Clara Australia's first female newspaper editor. She continued to fire off blistering editorials, prompting one startled Melbourne journalist to fret over 'the dangerous influence of a free petticoat government'.

I am proud to be the member for Lalor, to carry the traditions of the Eureka Stockade in this place and every day to ensure that I am the voice for the people of my electorate. And to ensure that women are never forgotten again in this country's history, to ensure that the fact that the four female members who spoke in this debate today are acknowledged. I recommend to everyone in this chamber a trip to Melbourne, a trip to Ballarat. Standing in the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka, below that Southern Cross flag, is an incredibly moving thing to do—to stand on that spot and remember that multiculturalism and democracy were born that day.

Debate adjourned.