I seek a nation that is truly one nation.

Penny Wong's Inaugural Speech

Labor Senator for South Australia
Shadow Minister for Employment and Workforce Participation,
Corporate Governance and Responsibility

Penny Wong is an ex-Malaysian who has made it good in Australia and making her inaugural fiery speech on the State of the Nation! It's a speech worth listening to!

Abstract of the Speech:

It is an extraordinary privilege and honour to stand here today in this place, and to have the opportunity to speak in this chamber. To be a member of the parliament of this country is almost beyond my comprehension.

I start by acknowledging the indigenous peoples of Australia. That we stand on their land.

What lies at the heart of any truly civilised society? Surely it must be compassion. Surely compassion must be that underlying principle, the core value at the heart of our collective consciousness.

If not compassion, then what? Economic efficiency? Or the imposition of some subjective moral code, defined by some and imposed on the many.

To call for compassion is not a plea for some bleeding-heart view of the world, or a retreat to weak or populist government. Nor is it to shirk the responsibility of leadership to make hard decisions when these are called for.

But is it to assert that those with power should act with compassion for those who have less.

And that the experience of those who are marginalised cannot be bypassed or ignored or minimised as it so often is.

Compassion is what underscores our relationships with one another. And it is compassion which enables us to come to a place of community even in our diversity.

Yet this country in recent times has been sadly lacking in compassion.

Let us reclaim the phrase one nation.

I seek a nation that is truly one nation.

One in which all Australians can share.

Regardless of race or gender, or other attribute.

Regardless of where they live.

Where difference is not a basis for exclusion.

We do not live in such a country.

We are not yet truly one nation.

But it is the task of political leaders to build one.

We are a nation in which where you live determines your likelihood of success. Where disadvantage has become more entrenched. Where the poor are getting poorer. And where this government fails to act to bring real opportunities to those who have few.

The shared dream of an egalitarian Australia is increasingly becoming a myth. Income distribution over the last decade is characterised by a disappearing middle, but increasing numbers of low and high income earners.

There is a widening gap between poor and rich Australians. Over the last decade the top 10% of income earners in this country enjoyed an increase of around 5.6% of their total income share, the bottom 10% suffered a reduction of 3.1% (Harding and Greenwell, June 2002)

There are many reasons for this phenomenon. One driving force is the increasing openness of our economy to the world.

Much has been written and said about globalisation. We are part of a globalised economy, for better or worse, and that will not change. It presents us with both enormous opportunities and enormous challenges.

The shape of our country in the decades to come will be largely determined by how we deal with the changes brought by globalisation. We must ensure that the benefits are shared. We must equip Australians better for this new world. Allowing the market place to determine the outcome will simply entrench disadvantage and exacerbate existing inequalities. This will undermine the social fabric of the Australian community.

One thing my father always told me was this: “they can take everything away from you, but they can’t take your education”. For him, the opportunity for study he was given, particularly the Colombo Plan scholarship to Australia, defined his life. It gave him opportunities he would never otherwise have had, and enabled him to climb out of the poverty he experienced as a child in Malaysia. It is one large part of how I come to be here today.

We know that when a child is born in our country, that child’s access to learning opportunities, and how much schooling the parents have are factors that will have an enormous impact on his or her future.

Why then do we find it acceptable as a community to remove resources from our public schools and give them to wealthier private schools?

Another dimension to the increasing inequality in this country is a spatial one. Inequality can increasingly be described on a regional basis. And by regions I do not only mean rural areas, I am also referring to metropolitan regions – those areas in our cities and outer metropolitan areas which are vulnerable and disadvantaged. One commentator has described these areas as “islands largely outside the main traffic routes of economic growth”.

I say government has to redirect the traffic.

I say there is. It is the responsibility of the national government to truly govern for all Australians regardless of where they live.

Our cities are not homogenous nor is there equality of opportunity as between different metropolitan areas. You cannot govern with a one size fits all approach. Bringing a more regionally focused dimension to economic policy is fundamentally an issue of equity. It is a Labor agenda.

I seek a nation that is truly one nation. One in which all Australians can share, regardless of race.

Instead, I believe we are in danger of being swamped by prejudice.

Let us speak openly and honestly about race in this country. About what last year’s election signified. And where we are now.

Let us speak openly about the damage that has been done. And let us do it without being subject to the dismissive and disrespectful taunts about political correctness.

In recent years there has been much preaching from this Prime Minister about political correctness. That we had too much of it.

Instead now we have a climate in which someone who speaks out about injustice or prejudice or discrimination is dismissed as simply being politically correct. Compassion has been delegitimised – instead it is seen as elitism.

It is as if we have developed a new orthodoxy. One in which it is correct to defend racism, but incorrect to defend tolerance. We have a new political correctness.

When I and many others speak of the way this government engenders division, not unity we do not do so because it is politically correct. We do so because we believe it. Because we see it. And because it saddens us.

We say that it is wrong, what has been done and said. Not because we ascribe to some obscure elitist moral code, but because we believe it is harmful to our community.

Prejudice and distrust cannot build a community, but they can tear one apart.

Australia is a country of vast distances and open spaces and many different environments. It is no less diverse in its peoples than in its landscape. This diversity can be an aspect of our shared identity, or it can be the fault line around which our community fractures.

I remember returning from Malaysia after visiting my family there during this time. And when the aircraft wheels hit the tarmac, I recall feeling like this was really my country. Not just in my heart, but that I was included, that our national identity was for me as well. Nationhood is so much about a shared history and a belief in a shared future.

When asked to comment on whether Aboriginal and Asian Australians should be protected from people like Pauline Hanson, the Prime Minister said “Well, are you saying that somebody shouldn’t be allowed to say what she said? I would say in a country such as Australia people should be allowed to say that”.

What sort of message does this send to our community? That it is acceptable to rail against people who look different? That these sort of comments are no different from any other sort of political commentary?

Leadership was called for. Not to deny freedom of speech, but to assert the harm in what she said. Leadership was called for, but was not provided.

Who can forget that most enduring image of last year’s election campaign, that photograph of the Prime Minister, in sober black and white, attempting to look statesmanlike, with the slogan ”we will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances in which they come”.

This is the statement which epitomises Prime Minister Howard’s vision for this country. This is the core of what he offered us at the last election. It is a statement of self evident fact. It is not a policy statement. Of course we decide who comes to this country.

So why say it?

The only reason that you would is because you wanted to strike a chord of discord. Because you wanted to foster division.

What motivates a government to do such a thing?

What underlies this litany of divisive politicking is a lack of compassion. A lack of compassion for the other, for those who might be adversely affected.

There may be some who will say I am being too critical. I ask them this. When has your Prime Minister done or said something that made you feel proud to be Australian?

When can you point to a time when he exercised his leadership to bring Australians together?

I believe the vast majority of Australians are good-hearted people. We have a sense of fairness, and a commonsense approach to the world. It keeps us grounded.

I also believe the factors which most weigh on social cohesion are economic hardship, and political leadership.

People don’t share if they don’t have their fair share. Nor do they listen if they are not listened to. So we must work to create a nation where there is a fair share for all.

And we must listen and discuss, not lecture. But we must never again go down that path that was shown to us last year, where the fault lines within our community were opened up for base political purposes.

Let us hold onto that shared belief, that common purpose that arises at certain moments in our history. Let us truly be one nation.

I Ponder! I ponder and ponder and ponder! Wasn't this written for Malaysia and Malaysians?

Wasn't she referring to Malaysia and Malaysians?

Maybe not, for we are Ethnocentric.