Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senators, it is with deep regret that I inform the Senate of the death on 25 November last year of Tsebin Tchen, a senator for the state of Victoria from 1999 until 2005, and I acknowledge members of his family in the President's Gallery this afternoon. I call the Leader of the Government in the Senate.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Vice-President of the Executive Council) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate records its deep sorrow at the death, on 25 November 2019, of Tsebin Tchen, former senator for Victoria; places on record its gratitude for his service in the parliament and the nation; and extends its profound sympathy to his family in their bereavement.

We were all deeply saddened when we heard the news late last year that our former friend and colleague Tsebin Tchen had passed away. It was sudden and unexpected. Even at the age of 78, Tsebin had so much more still to give. At the time of his passing, Tsebin was as active in the community and as passionate about multiculturalism as ever. Throughout his life he worked tirelessly to bridge cultural divides. Tsebin was devoted to uniting Australia's many communities, because he believed the cultures that make up our country are stronger than one. And he was of course right. We have lost one of the guardian angels of multiculturalism in Australia, as he was specifically affectionately known as.

I didn't personally have the pleasure of knowing Tsebin, but I wish I had. In a touching tribute after his passing, a Chinese-Australian advocate and writer expressed her gratitude to her dear 'Uncle Bin'. She said his mentoring and support of the next generation of leaders will be remembered forever by her and so many others, which speaks volumes about the vast and powerful impact that Tsebin had on Australia's multicultural community, particularly Chinese Australians. We should all strive to be more like Uncle Bin.

Like many of us—in fact, like both the Leader of the Opposition and I—Tsebin was born overseas. He came to Australia in the 1950s on a student visa with no promise of being able to remain here after his studies because of the then White Australia policy. But he saw a future here and he pursued it. Tsebin graduated with a master's degree in town planning at the University of Sydney, and, thanks to the efforts of successive governments to dismantle the White Australia policy, he received Australian citizenship in 1971.

As a son of a Republic of China diplomat, he had an innate interest in politics that led him to join the Liberal Party in 1972. He volunteered on the campaign of then Prime Minister William McMahon. As a town planner, he was deeply passionate about community development and bringing people together, but he knew he could make a more significant difference by putting his energies into politics. In 1999, Tsebin entered the Senate, representing Victoria, and in the process became the first Asian-born migrant elected to our federal parliament. His ascension to this place came in the face of growing hostility from some quarters of politics towards Asian Australians. That did not faze him. He often told those he mentored, 'You have to be in it to change it.' Tsebin's presence here undeniably helped create a parliament that better reflected our diverse community, and it wasn't long before my friend and colleague across the chamber Senator Wong joined him as another Asian Australian in our federal parliament. In his first speech, Tsebin highlighted the 'special significance' of his election. He said it served 'as a reinforcing symbol and a call to those who are Australians by choice that they belong'. He said:

It is also an act of affirmation by the people of Australia that every Australian, regardless of his or her cultural or historic background, stands equal in the eyes of his or her fellow citizens.

Tsebin was a symbol of multicultural success in Australian politics and a figure of hope and aspiration for his beloved Chinese Australian community. He gave people who, like him, have come to Australia confidence that they have a role and place in our democracy—the feeling that they belong.

Tsebin performed diligently during his term in the Senate. He played an influential role in migration policy, sitting on several committees, including chairing the government members policy committee on immigration and multicultural affairs between 2000 and 2004. His presence within the Liberal Party provided unique and valuable insights into Australia's engagement with the region, especially East Asia.

After his retirement from politics, Tsebin continued to promote the value of multiculturalism, amplifying the voices of those who are not readily heard. He became a commissioner of the Victorian Multicultural Commission in 2015 and a member of the Australian Multicultural Council in 2018. Tsebin was also made an adjunct professor at Swinburne University of Technology, pursuing his deep interest in Chinese Australian history, which he believed should be treated as an integral part of Australian history. In his life, Tsebin punctured the bamboo ceiling and, through his efforts, he has left behind a more diverse and inclusive Australia. It is fitting that his family has established a foundation in his honour to continue his work and ensure his legacy lives on. The 'guardian angel of multiculturalism' will always be with us. To Tsebin's wife, Pauline, and children Jacinta and Adrian, on behalf of the government and the Australian Senate and in tribute to a much-loved man, I join with my colleagues in offering my sincerest condolences. May Tsebin rest in peace.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to express our condolences following the passing of former senator Tsebin Tchen at the age of 78. I convey at the outset the opposition's condolences and my personal condolences to his family and friends. In particular, I extend our sympathies to his daughter, Jacinta, and other family members who are with us in the President's gallery today and to members of the community who have joined us. I also want to express my personal gratitude for their gracious invitation to attend his funeral, which I regret I could not take up.

Bin Tchen and I came from very different political traditions, but we shared an affinity that went beyond party membership. We shared the experience of being Asians in Australia at a time when that was much less common than it is today, and we shared the experience of being the first Asian Australians elected to the Australian parliament.

That meant a great deal to both of us. I think we were always deeply conscious of the responsibility of being the first ones representing, of course, all of the community, but with the additional expectation inherent in representing the parts of the community who hadn't seen their like as political representatives before—because representation does matter: to be it, you have to be able to see it. That was something Senator Tchen understood, as do I. So we knew that, for the many Australians who had never before seen themselves represented in this place, having people in public life and having people in the parliament who looked like them or whose experience mirrored their own could have a huge impact. It could not only change people's lives but also, perhaps more importantly, their perceptions of what was possible. This was a privilege and a responsibility that Tsebin Tchen carried with dignity and with grace.

In this Senate he spoke about how important multiculturalism is to our nation. He saw its nation-building power. He built bridges and changed hearts and minds. He confronted those who were sceptical and helped them find a more understanding perspective. This was particularly important at that time in Australian political history, as my colleague and friend, Senator Cormann, has referenced. This was a period of time where Asian Australians were very much a public focus. Tchen said, in his own words: 'My preference is to build rather than to pull down.' We could do with more like him today.

That a humble man like Tsebin Tchen was able to achieve election as a senator speaks in part to the power of education. Born in China in 1941, it was education that brought the son of a diplomatic family to Australia in the late 1950s after living in several different international locations. Like my dad, who had come to Adelaide as a Colombo Plan scholar to study architecture in the 1960s, Tsebin Tchen found a place in the Australian tertiary education system, at the University of Sydney. He remained in Australia and made his first contribution to civic life in our nation as a town planner and policy analyst after graduation. Along the way, he would become an Australian citizen and join the Liberal Party in the early 1970s. I heartily endorse the former, but I am more reserved about his judgement on the latter. However, the decision he made would set him on a path to our national parliament.

Tsebin Tchen was elected to the Senate for Victoria in 1998 and served for one term, retiring with the expiration of his term on 30 June 2005. His election spoke to the power of change in our country over the previous three decades, the change in attitudes and change in laws that would dismantle the White Australia framework, a structure that had served to prevent people like us and our families from full participation in Australian society. Accompanying this was also a change in outlook, as we transformed from a monocultural outpost of the British Empire to a diverse multicultural nation engaged in our region. Tsebin Tchen recognised this in his first speech in the Senate, identifying these changes as pivotal to Australia's growth and prosperity. He also spoke about his support for reconciliation with Indigenous Australians. As a senator he served on a number of Senate committees, including community affairs, environment, communications, IT, and the arts, a committee which he was a member of for five years. He also held positions, appropriately, on the joint standing committees on migration and on treaties. In fact, his membership of the treaties committee spanned the entirety of his term of service in the Senate, and it was a time where that was a very busy committee, given the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement.

After parliament, Tsebin Tchen's unifying work continued, both formally and informally. I particularly make reference to his roles as a member of the Victorian Multicultural Commission and as a member of the ministerially appointed Australian Multicultural Council. Of this latter appointment, his friends and family should be justly proud.

The meeting of 20 November 2019 in Sydney was his last official meeting, just days before his tragic death. Tchen was also consistent in his support and encouragement of Chinese-Australian community groups.

Throughout his career as a senator and in his life, Tchen demonstrated that every Australian, regardless of cultural or ethnic background, stands equal in our society—equal in rights, equal in capability and equal in opportunities to contribute to the growth and development of the nation for prosperity and for harmony. Ensuring that this continues to be the case, now and for those who come to call Australia home in the future, from wherever they come, must be our continuing project. As we honour his legacy, it is a project all of us should recommit to. As we mourn his passing, once again, I extend my deepest sympathies to Tchen's family and friends.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I only met Tsebin Tchen once, but he left a profoundly positive impression upon me. I had remembered the significance of his election at the time, especially at a time when there were people in my home state of Queensland who were putting quite poisonous ideas into the political realm. His election was of great significance.

I had the privilege of spending an afternoon with him, on 30 March 2019, at the commemoration of the memorial to the Amoy shepherds. I draw the Senate's attention to the fact that Mr Graham Perrett, the member for Moreton, also happens to be my local member. We may be in different parties, but, in matters such as this, we're absolutely on the same page. He had brought to people's attention the issue of the Amoy shepherds in St George in the Balonne region of western Queensland. In 1848, when a region in China was suffering from great famine, shepherds were brought out from China as indentured labour on five-year contracts to work in Queensland. Three hundred shepherds came to Queensland and went west to the St George region to act as shepherds for 450,000 head of sheep. In 1906 the records—their names—were destroyed in a fire at a shire council hall. In the early 1970s the cemetery, which was predominantly wooden gravesites, was destroyed by fire. This came to the member for Moreton's attention, and he thought that the issue needed to be rectified. He was right in thinking that. So the St George Chinese Community Memorial Committee was established to establish a memorial to the Amoy shepherds. It was led by some great Queenslanders and was headed up by a good friend of both of ours, Mr Jack Sun. And with the support of David Littleproud, the member for Maranoa, the memorial was built to the Amoy shepherds.

So it came to 30 March 2019 for the commemoration of the memorial. It took 6½ hours for me to drive from Brisbane to St George for the commemoration. The member for Moreton was there as well. Tchen drove 14 hours over night from Melbourne to attend the commemoration—14 hours overnight from Melbourne; that is what the significance of that commemoration meant to him. As is probably the tradition amongst lost travellers, we both found ourselves at the St George service station seeking directions to find the St George cemetery, because we were both a little bit early. We looked at each other and immediately recognised our mutual interests and values and said, 'We must be going to the same place,'—which, in fact, we were. So, before the main group arrived, we attended the cemetery, just the two of us, and discussed the memorial. We had two hours prior to the ceremony where we could sit down together.

Can I tell you, Mr President, as someone who at that stage was seeking election to this place, it was a great and deep honour to have that opportunity to sit down with Tsebin Tchen and to receive his wisdom, his guidance and his thoughts about the significance of the role I was about to undertake.

After that discussion, we returned to the cemetery for the commemoration. I want to read to you the words on that memorial, because I think they are significant, especially considering the background of Tsebin Tchen and how he came to this country from China. The memorial states:

In memoriam

To the young men who, around 1850, left the famine in Amoy to become indentured shepherds and those who, in the 1880s, drifted here in itinerant "coolie" gangs after the Palmer River gold had gone.

These sojourners never earned enough to return to the families left behind in their ancestral villages.

Here now they lie silent witness to the settlement history of this region.

There's also a poem on the memorial, a 1,300-year-old poem, from Li Bai. It says this:

The moonlight shines bright beyond my bed

I wonder if there's frost on the ground outside

I raise my head to see the moon

I lay down my head and yearn for my ancestral village.

After the ceremony, Tsebin had to return to Melbourne. He had a long trip ahead of him. But it was an absolute honour, a privilege, to share that time and those moments with him.

In his maiden speech he said this:

As we enter the 21st century, the world we are in is, in many respects, a place of even greater uncertainty. In this world, Australia, with the advantage of our geography and our history, has the chance to become a source of hope and an example for all to follow. We have a responsibility to make multiculturalism—that means an equal right and opportunity for every citizen to contribute to the growth and development of our common community—work for Australia and contribute to world peace and prosperity.

Those were Tsebin Tchen's values. Those are my values. Those are the member for Moreton's values. And those are the values of both the Leader of the Government in the Senate and, I'm sure, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. His final words in that maiden speech were these—and you can understand the significance of these words in the context of his attending that commemoration and contemplating the plight of the Amoy shepherds, because he himself had come from China. He said in his maiden speech:

I say to my father: when I left home you told me, 'You are going to a new country to live among strangers. Always remember who you are and where you came from; always behave in such a way that those who knew you will not be disgraced because the new people that you live with will judge them by you. You should always realise where you are going and who you can be. Always strive for purpose, so that the expectation of those among whom you will live shall not be disappointed, because they will be judged by your success or not.'

His final words in that maiden speech were:

Father, I hope that I have met your wishes.

I'm sure Tsebin Tchen exceeded the wishes of his father and family. He has done himself, he has done his father, he has done his family, he has done his country and he has done this Senate great honour.

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to make comments and to pay tribute to a gentleman, a real gentlemen. Tsebin Tchen was a wonderful person. When I joined the Senate he was leaving, so there was only ever a very short overlap in our time here together. I know that when Tsebin Tchen left this place, he continued his time of service.

With half of us born oversees or having at least one parent born oversees, Tsebin Tchen reflected very much the face of mainstream Australia today. But, as has been said before, at the time when he came to this place, there weren't many people of diverse background serving in this place. In many ways, he lay the path for people, such as myself, from different backgrounds to come to this place and serve one's country.

When you looked at Tsebin Tchen, you would never have thought he was 78, because he was such an active person. I think that there were many years of service left for him before, sadly, he was taken in an accident. I pay tribute to him and the work that he did before he came to this place—the struggles that he and his family went through and the things that have been acknowledged about his service before. Today, as I said, not only do we remember a senator who contributed to the diversity of this place but we well and truly respect the gentleman that he always was.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, as a Victorian Liberal senator, take the rare opportunity to make a brief observation from the chair. I had the privilege of joining Tsebin Tchen's family and colleagues at the memorial service held at Melbourne Town Hall. His standing in the community was reflected in the number and diversity of those who attended: public figures; politicians, state and federal; former premiers; ministers of the current state Labor government; leaders of communities; multicultural commissioners; and, of course, family and friends.

Senator Cormann reminded us of Tsebin's election in 1999 as the first Asian-born member of federal parliament. It seems like so long ago in this place and it seems unimaginable, yet it is also oddly recent. It took so long to occur. He was always particularly proud of doing this from Victoria and from the Victorian Liberal Party. He did it at a time when, as Senator Wong outlined, Asian migration was the subject of a particularly unpleasant focus in this country. He was always proud of being able to engage with people and do it in a positive way, seeking to persuade rather than being belligerent. He was proud to repel the arguments forcefully but politely. He was proud to work with people like Jeff Kennett, whom I remember was a particularly aggressive opponent of those views at the time, as he went around the country in 1998 and 1999. In this sense, he was always a particularly proud Victorian Liberal and a particularly proud Victorian, knowing that multiculturalism was part of the fabric of his home state. He was always particularly proud to work with those who shared his values across boundaries of communities, across boundaries of politics and across boundaries of states and nations. I associate myself with the comments outlined by Senators Cormann and Wong. He saw that diversity as a particularly strong building block for this country.

The loss of a family member or friend is always sad, but this was particularly tragic in its swiftness and its unexpected nature. Personally, as a Victorian Liberal, I express, as I did on the day, my condolences to his family and to his friends and colleagues.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.