Race, Politics and Changing Australia

Warren Mundine AO IS A former ALP president, Abbott Government adviser and author of Warren Mundine in Black and White. Warren Mundine believes that Indigenous potential is real and – as yet – unexplored, that the standards set for the close-the-gap programs are too low and that Indigenous businesses are the way ahead for Indigenous Australians. As Australians once again approached Australia Day amid discussion about its place in the national calendar, Warren Mundine – outsider and insider – addressed The Sydney Institute on Tuesday 23 January 2018, to reflect on his own Australian story.

RACE, POLITICS AND CHANGING AUSTRALIA

WARREN MUNDINE

I’m pleased to be here at The Sydney Institute to talk about my book Warren Mundine – In Black and White.

We’re here tonight on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people, a stone’s throw from where the First Fleet landed almost exactly 230 years ago. I recognise and pay my respect to Gadigal ancestors and elders and my own Bundjalung, Gumbaynggirr, Yuin and Irish ancestors and elders.

The Gadigal clan were one of around 29 clan groups from the Greater Sydney area. They were the first group Captain Arthur Phillip came into contact with when he got on land here in Sydney Cover.

Arthur Phillip is a fascinating man, very enlightened for his time and who made efforts to understand, even protect Aboriginal people and to learn the local languages and customs. Much of this he learned from an Aboriginal man named Bennelong who was captured some months after the First Fleet landed. Bennelong was from another of those 29 clans – the Wangal clan. Bennelong stayed in the colony for about six months, living in Phillip’s home and learning English, before escaping. Months later he returned to the colony voluntarily and was given a house on what is now called Bennelong Point. He even went to England with Phillip and had an audience with King George III.

Bennelong was the first Aboriginal person to straddle two cultures – to live both in the ways of the Wangal people and in the ways of the British. His story includes bravery, exploration, friendship, conflict and sadness.

I’m a great believer in the power of stories to build understanding, make connections and promote ideas. Through the story of Bennelong and Phillip we gain a better understanding of the relationship between Britain and the first nations of the Australian continent. It teaches us about the nuances, difficulties and possibilities.

My own memoir took about five years to get down on paper. In truth, it’s taken six decades. It’s a story about what made me who I am today – the people, the ideas, the experiences that all came together to make me who I am.

But the story goes back even further, to the ancient influences of Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr kinship systems, through to the first contact between my ancestors and the first Europeans to make their way to northern New South Wales, through to my family’s experience during the near century of segregation under the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act, through my early years in country NSW and then Western Sydney and my decades working in community, in business and then in politics, through to today where someone like me – who spent the first thirteen years of my life living under segregation – advises Prime Ministers and represents Australia at the United Nations and OECD.

My Dad was a Mundine and my Mum was a Donovan. The Mundine and Donovan families modelled courage and pride in everything they did. Both my parents and me and all my brothers and sisters were born into segregation. We were second class citizens regulated under the New South Wales Aborigines Protection Act.

Mum and Dad had to fight battles just to do normal things others took for granted. Like sending their kids to school and buying a home. My father needed a Certificate of Exemption from the Aborigines Protection Act to travel home from work after 5pm without being arrested.

This is a photo of that Certificate. We called them dog tags. For nearly a century, all Australian states and territories had Aboriginal protection laws – a system of control of all aspects of life. The system allowed governments to remove Aboriginal children, imposed segregation, banned us having a drink in a pub. The Welfare Board told Aboriginal people on reserves where to work and then could take their wages.

You’ll see the photo on the certificate is damaged. My Mum scratched it out. She hated that Aboriginal people needed a certificate and to carry it around everywhere just to do what other Australians could do.

Despite all of this my parents had the courage to face the reality around them. As it was. Not how they wished it to be. And they had pride in themselves and in their kin to believe they could achieve. They believed Aboriginal people could do anything if given the chance. And their children and grandchildren have proved them right.

The book is also a story of Australia through the perspective of an Aboriginal family.

Many people have contacted me to say how much they learned from my book about Australia, things they never knew about even though they lived through those times.

A lot of what Australians know – or think they know – about Aboriginal people is two-dimensional. When I was at school there was very little written about Aboriginal people in any of the books I read, even in Australian history books. Information about Aboriginal people is now compulsory in school curriculum.

In New South Wales it has to be taught in all subjects – something I’ve been a critic of. However, I don’t believe the narrative has become any more insightful. A lot of what is taught is clichéd and simplistic. Some of it is really making a political point. There is no sense of the nuance or complexity of the history or of our cultures.

My book covers a lot of history. It reflects my understanding, from what I experienced myself, from what my family has talked to me about and from research and study. Some of that research surprised me. I learned a lot about my family history that I didn’t know before, as well as about Australian history and politics. There will be a few surprises in there for the readers. It wouldn’t be my book if I didn’t slay some sacred cows.

This is my memoir – it reflects my perspective and my understanding of the way things have been. And by understanding that, you will come to understand me. And a little bit more about Australia.

I am proud to be a Bundjalung man. I’m proud of my Gumbaynggirr, Yuin – and Irish – heritage. I’m also proud to be Australian. I say that in my book.

Some people will wonder how I can be proud of Australia when my family, my ancestors and I were treated so badly in its history. Now I’m very honest about those bad experiences in the book. I lay it all out there. Ray Hadley read the manuscript and provided a review which is on the back of the book. After he read it he called me and he said he found the first part of the book very hard to read. But he pushed on – and I urge you to as well. It gets better. Otherwise we wouldn’t be standing here today.

What I also say is this. No nation is founded on purity. Even nations that are standard bearers of liberty and justice, models of progressiveness and enlightenment, have bloody and brutal histories. Human history is a record of humans. The brutality of which humans are capable. And the incredible capacity of humans to advance, learn from wrongdoing, build better societies and improve the quality of all life.

I don’t judge a nation by the worst of its history but by how it overcomes that history and its vision for the future. And on that measure I judge Australia well.

It’s an interesting week to be talking about race, politics and changing Australia with Australia Day on Friday and what has become the annual shout-fest on whether Australia Day should continue to be held on 26th January. As our national day, Australia Day should be a day for celebration, patriotism and pride and reflecting on where we’re headed as a country.

But January has again been dominated by debate over what date Australia Day should be celebrated. This year it’s been particularly aggressive. Aboriginal people who’ve publicly supported retaining 26 January have been racially abused, even physically threatened.

The change-the-date campaign is now led by far-left activists (both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal) whose political face is the Greens.

As their campaign intensifies, so does push-back from those opposing change. I’ve said Australia Day should be on the 1st of January, the anniversary of Federation when Australia was created, although I don’t think it’s a priority and I don’t campaign for it.

For me, 26 January signifies conflict and conquest; a date I want to commemorate, but not celebrate. I want the date for our national day moved because I want to celebrate Australia, not because I don’t.

Because I’m proud of Australia.

I’m proud this continent’s first nations are the oldest continuing nations in the world. Australia itself is one of the world’s youngest nations, formed on 1 January 1901.

So, our continent hosts one of the youngest nations of the world and also the oldest nations of the world. We are unique.

In 1901, Indigenous Australians weren’t full citizens and lived under segregation. This changed in 1967. I’m proud of that moment; proud change was achieved with the highest voting result in Australia’s history.

Australia was founded on great principles of Western civilisation – democracy, free markets, rule of law, separation of religion and the state, social pluralism, individual rights. And great British institutions – Westminster government, common law, liberal rights. If you were setting up a new nation and wanted to adopt the best, you couldn’t do much better than those principles and institutions.

I’m proud of Australia as a migrant nation. Some of Australia’s earliest migrants were from China, joining the gold rushes in the 1800s. Afghanis also came in the 1800s as cameleers working in outback transportation. Most Chinese and Afghanis who migrated in those early days of colonisation were single men, and many went on to have families with Aboriginal women.

In the 1900s, Australia continued to receive migrants from all over the world, enriching our society just as it enriched my life and my family’s home in Auburn in the 1960s. This happened despite the White Australia policy, which operated from 1901 and was abolished between 1966 and 1973.

According to the census, Australians are descended from over three hundred ancestries; a tapestry of physical features, languages, religious beliefs, cultural backgrounds, even football codes. We’re probably the world’s most successful multicultural nation where, with few exceptions, people from everywhere have settled cohesively as neighbours, workmates, even family.

All Australians can be proud of this continent’s shared 40,000-year history comprising its ancient past, Western civilisation, British institutions and cultural richness from two centuries of immigration.

I’m proud Australia has achieved things no other nation has.

Australia is independent. But we didn’t fight a bloody revolution against a colonial power. We separated from Britain through legislation passed by democratic parliaments. We’re a peaceful democracy where human rights and freedoms are upheld, even without a bill of rights.

In Australia, Indigenous rights were won through democratic and legal processes, not violent insurgency. At the 2017 United Nations’ Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous People I met delegates from many countries with indigenous populations. Few come close to Australia’s record in protections and respect for indigenous people and cultures. Some are still as bad as Australia ever was.

To those who condemn Australia because of history or claim it’s still a “racist nation”, I say this: name me another country with Australia’s diversity that’s better, more harmonious, more respectful of difference, more embracing of its indigenous heritage than Australia.

Australia is a secular society. All religions can worship but we have no official religion. Australia was founded in the Christian tradition and several national holidays are Christian holy days. Yet no one is obliged to embrace any beliefs.

Australia’s culture is unique. Not British, Aboriginal or migrant.

The Australian way is pragmatic, easy going, direct, laconic. The Australian way is to be comfortable laughing at itself and everything and everyone else. It’s not easily upset. Living on this continent has been far too challenging for that. It’s tough always. And heroic when called upon. It looks out for others when needed but respects people living their lives without external meddling. Live and let live goes both ways.

Australia isn’t divided by class. It was when I was a child and Aboriginal people lived under segregation. But today anyone can achieve anything. Those who think Australia has class division should spend some time in places like Britain or India to see what real class division is.

In recent weeks, I’ve seen social media posts by change-the-date activists talking about the Day of Mourning and Protest in Sydney on 26 January 1938 as evidence of some longstanding grassroots Aboriginal campaign to change the date.

I write about the Day of Mourning and Protest in my book. It was the fourth ever Australia Day and the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet’s landing and all the state premiers had gathered in Sydney. The Australian Aborigines League and the Aborigines Progressive Association used the event to highlight the past and ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous people under British occupation and to campaign for equal rights, including full citizenship.

This protest wasn’t about changing the date of Australia Day. They didn’t even mention it. And it wasn’t about resentment of Australia. Quite the opposite. I quote from the speeches and resolutions in my book. They demanded inclusion – to be treated as Australians with the same opportunities as other Australians, able to fully participate and progress as part of a modern and successful nation. They didn’t hate Australia. They wanted to be part of it. Aboriginal people campaigned tirelessly to be fully part of this nation. And in 1967 when we were – we celebrated.

The truth is the Green-left don’t want to celebrate being Australian on any date. To the far-left mindset patriotism is racism, nationalism is white supremacy.

The Green-left aren’t proud of Australia’s achievements, culture and way of life. They’re embarrassed, even ashamed. They don’t support Australia’s growth and prosperity. The Australia they’d be proud of is some imagined utopia delivered through their socialist, anti-Western agenda

This agenda is fundamentally founded on the idea Australia shouldn’t be touched beyond its current level of development. No extractive industries. No remote or regional development; not even by Aboriginal people on their own lands. Policies that drive electricity prices up and reliability down, industry and jobs offshore. The Green-left agenda would take us to the same sorry place as every other socialist country – broke, corrupt, hungry, and never knowing when the lights will be on.

I don’t expect the Green-left will ever change. But the political centre should know better. Instead it too often appeases the Green-left agenda – privately knowing it’s economic vandalism but publicly too cowardly to tell urban voters that Australia can’t be anti-development, anti-everything as well as prosperous.

I talk about this in my book to. And I quote Colin Powell, the former four star General and Secretary of State of the United States. In his book It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership he wrote:

No good idea succeeds simply because it is a good idea. Good ideas must have champions – people willing to believe in them, push for them, fight for them, gain adherents and other champions, and press until they succeed … Bad ideas don’t die simply because they are intrinsically bad. You need people who will stand up and fight them, put themselves at risk, point out the weaknesses, and drive stakes through their hearts.

To me, these words summarise the problem we have with Australia’s political centre, which I believe is have a crisis of political leadership. Political leaders today don’t have the courage or determination to champion what they know is needed to fix Australia’s problems and secure Australia’s future success.

They aren’t championing good ideas and pressing them until they succeed. And they don’t fight the damaging, and sometimes downright stupid, policies and practices that are beginning to take hold. They are not driving a stake through the heart of bad ideas.

The political centre is paralysed and afraid. Afraid to upset some noisy interest group. Afraid to make some part of the community unhappy. Afraid to take anything away, regardless of whether it’s affordable or actually achieving anything. Afraid to tell Australians the truth about things like the national debt, and welfare reform and the retirement age, electricity policy, mining and industry and corporate tax.

Australia’s political leaders are telling people what they want to hear. Great political leaders tell people what they need to know. They have a clear vision of what they want for their country and where the country fits within the world and champion the reform needed to get there.  They don’t get frightened off or meekly propose a change in the face of heated opposition. They step up their advocacy and communicate why something is important. They craft their own positive stories and narratives. And they tell people, “This is where I’m going to take you and this is how I’m going to take you there.”

The foundations that have made Australia a great nation are also under threat. At their core, the Western principles and free market system that underpin Australia are ideas. Good ideas. And they need champions. They won’t survive simply because they are good. There are many threats to those principles. There are people who want to undermine and displace them. There are competing and inconsistent ideas that cannot be reconciled with Western principles, and at some point we may have to make a choice.

No culture, even one as strong and good as Australia’s, is set in stone. Countries are constantly adapting to a changing world and changing demographics. Adaptation can be positive or destructive.

When I see intellectuals and commentators, educated people, question democracy because they don’t like the candidate who was elected, for example.

Or when I see university students, at institutions I’ve always revered, violently protesting against free speech because they don’t like what someone has to say. Or when I see Christians being fired from their jobs or pushed out of office because they don’t support certain changes to marriage laws. Or when I see people suggest we make blasphemy illegal in Australia. Or that sharia law principles can have a place in our legal system.

These are examples of threats to the principles and institutions that make Australia great. These are examples of bad ideas that won’t die simply because they are intrinsically bad. Just as the principles and institutions on which Australia was founded will not prevail simply because they are good.

We can’t take our way of life for granted. Australians and Australian political leaders must stand up and fight for the principles and institutions that make Australia a great nation. And they must drive a stake through the heart of those threats.

That’s the message of my book. And my message for Australia Day.