Senator Andrew Bartlett
Friday, April 29, 2005
 
Multiculturalism
I attended the funeral of Al Grassby in Canberra today. I only dimly recall him from his time as a Government Minister, being just 9 years old when he lost his seat in the 1974 election. However, in recent years I shared a platform with him at a number of forums and conferences on issues relating to multiculturalism and immigration.

I don't think all of Al Grassby's policy ideas were workable, but I believe his tireless promotion of multiculturalism needs to be acknowledged. This is different from and more important than promoting a fairer immigration system or higher migration – it involves actively promoting the extra value that each person's culture and heritage brings to our country.

Other people from a range of political persuasions played a part in opening up Australia's migration system and getting rid of the White Australia Policy, but few so strongly and consistently promoted multiculturalism.

Since Grassby's death was announced last weekend, more than one person from a migrant family has said to me how he was the first person who made them and their nationality feel welcomed and positively valued for what they were, rather than just as people who were meant to just get on with 'fitting in' and 'making a go of it' in Australia. This aspect of multiculturalism has sometimes been misrepresented as encouraging migrants to stay in so-called 'ethnic ghettos' and not become part of Australia - a total misunderstanding and indeed the exact opposite of what multiculturalism is about.

The full potential and value of multiculturalism comes from the 'value-add' Australia gets by fully connecting with all the positives that comes with a person's cultural and social heritage. Of course, the heritage of many people contains negatives, particularly when they come from a country riven by war or ethnic and religious hatreds. This is where the value comes from connecting with that part of Australia's culture which clearly shows that people can live peacefully and work together in a society despite their political, ethnic or religious differences.

This is also why Australia will never reach its full potential as a society (or as an economy) until we resolve the biggest divide that does infect our country, which is the one between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. Despite the very significant achievements and advances which multiculturalism continues to bring to Australia, which I believe our country should be very proud of, our failure to make much significant progress on reconciliation with indigenous Australians will always hold us back.

It is unfortunate that in the last decade or so, multiculturalism has become a partisan term which has become partly caught up in the so-called 'culture wars'. I believe this has led to an aversion amongst the major political parties to really strongly promote multiculturalism. Rather than tackle head-on the distorted and negative Hanson-style portrayal of multiculturalism, there has just been a gentle multiculturalism-life style promotion of it from some Government agencies and by other political parties.

I believe the inherent value of multiculturalism should be promoted strongly and consistently at every opportunity. It is a continual part of Australia, but it doesn't happen by accident and is far more than just having a bunch of people living in the same country who happen to have a lot of different ethnic backgrounds. It has to be promoted and encouraged strongly and consistently. Al Grassby did that, which is why he has left such a strong and positive legacy.

No doubt it is also why the funeral was so well-attended and Grassby received a round of applause as his coffin was carried out of the church. Other federal MPs there included Jenny Macklin and local ACT MPs Bob McMullan, Kate Lundy and Annette Ellis, along with local Liberal Senator Gary Humphries and Queenslander George Brandis. Queenslander Labor Senator Joe Ludwig was there too. He is the party's shadow Minister on multiculturalism and his article on the topic (and Grassby's key role) from the Age is worth reading.

The Grassbys live in Canberra, so there were many identities from the Canberra community as well, including the Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and other local MLAs and many local diplomats. I don't know many of the faces from the Whitlam era, so I'm not sure how many of them were there, although Gough himself gave an apology due to his health.

It was a full requiem mass with about 6 priests officiating. The eulogies were quite good, and I discovered that Grassby was born in New Farm in Brisbane, had lived in the UK during the war and had worked at the Examiner newspaper in Launceston. In an indication of the limited appreciation Australians had of these matters in the 1950s, when he moved to Griffith in NSW with its large community of Italian farmers, Grassby was sent to Italy to examine agricultural issues because he was fluent in Spanish! He was also one of the first to use bi-lingual communications and pioneered radio broadcasts in non-English languages.

It is a while since I had been to a full-length mass, although the script remains well entrenched in my memory. A few bits of the service stood out for me – a well crafted eulogy by Cameron Murphy, the singing of the hymn Panus Angelicus, which my parents used at their wedding over 50 years ago, and the Bible reading done by Dianna Rahman from the Canberra Islamic community. This was a piece from Corinthians 1 which is normally used at weddings, but actually works quite well for politics too:

If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy, understanding of all the mysteries there are ….. but without love, then I am nothing at all. … Love takes no pleasure in other peoples sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope and to endure whatever comes.


PS: Given the theme of this post, I thought I would recommend a new blog I have discovered called "Beyond the Anglosphere" which seeks to explore and draw attention to areas of life that are not lived in English. I’ve found it quite interesting. Despite all the talk of multiculturalism from people like me, it is still very easy to forget that there is so much going on around us in our own country in other languages and other spheres. It’s a new blog, starting appropriately enough with a post on Al Grassby's death, and has already had a number of short but thought provoking posts.

Mike Steketee has also done a good solid piece in The Australian on the undeniable positives of multiculturalism and the domination of the angloshpere in the portrayal of Australian life.


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