MTR 1377, Mornings with Steve Vizard
Friday, 27 January 2012
Subjects: Canberra protest; Aboriginal Tent Embassy; Australia Day
E&OE…
STEVE VIZARD Julie, great to talk to you.JULIE BISHOP Good morning Steve.
STEVE VIZARD Disgraceful scenes yesterday weren’t they?
JULIE BISHOP The irony is that on Australia Day we are reminded of the rights and freedoms that we all inherit including the freedom to protest peacefully. But yesterday’s ugly incident of physical intimidation and the threat of violence was utterly unacceptable. It did nothing to advance the cause of the protesters.
STEVE VIZARD I was just discussing that very issue with Mick Gooda, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, and I was pressing him on the point of when is a tool broken, when is a tool unacceptable, when has a tool reached its used by date given particularly all the advances that have been made in indigenous recognition using other tools, sensible tools, over the past two decades. What is your view about the continued operation, continued use of that tool, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy?
JULIE BISHOP Well look I really wonder whether the majority of Aboriginal people themselves believe that the Tent Embassy is relevant today or making a constructive contribution to alleviating the social and economic challenges facing Aboriginal people. I mean some might believe that if it does no harm then leave it there, I think that was Mick Gooda’s attitude in the interview just before I came on. But yesterday’s incident will only harm their cause, it is certainly not going to help those who argue that the tent should remain.
We know that Aboriginal people in many parts of the country do face many great challenges but there is a huge focus on those challenges at a Federal and a State Government level, there are resources not only of government but charities and individuals directed towards meeting these issues. And the Tent Embassy, I question what constructive contribution it is making…
STEVE VIZARD Did Tony, I beg your pardon.
JULIE BISHOP …but further if it is going to spark the violent protests that we saw yesterday, well that certainly doesn’t provide any solution to the challenges facing Aboriginal people.
STEVE VIZARD Julie, did Tony Abbott in anyway trigger those remarks? Were the sorts of protests that we saw yesterday in any way properly attributable to the remarks that he made?
JULIE BISHOP Well it is interesting that former ALP President Warren Mundine thinks that the Tent Embassy is outdated, he said it was irrelevant to the mainstream of Aboriginal people.
The protesters clearly misused Tony Abbott’s words in an excuse to do what they did. He was asked if the Tent Embassy was still relevant and he said that indigenous people of Australia could be very proud of the respect in which they are held. He said a lot had changed and then he said “I think it is probably time to move on from that” in answer to a question, is the Tent Embassy relevant? Now to misuse those words and turn it into a protest that was ugly, which included physical intimidation and the threat of violence against the Prime Minister and the people who were in that restaurant is simply unacceptable. These actions have been rightly and publicly condemned by a number of Aboriginal leaders and I think that is the way it should be.
Now we should be proud of the fact that our leaders can move about the country meeting with the public and it would be a shame if this had to be restricted because of security concerns arising from the type of threat we saw yesterday.
STEVE VIZARD Did you feel sorry for the Prime Minister yesterday?
JULIE BISHOP I thought it was a really ugly incident. It certainly put her in a very undignified and difficult position, but the fact that she was concerned about Tony Abbott certainly reflected well on the Prime Minister. I think it reflected well on the security and the police detail who acted swiftly and professionally. They weren’t going to take any chances.
STEVE VIZARD Those images of course have gone around the world unfortunately and they also give us pause here in Australia to reflect on Australia Day. We’ve made vast leaps I think. You know when I was growing up, when you were growing up, Australia Day was just a day but little more. We’ve now got fireworks, we have got people better understanding the history of Australia, people coming out to celebrate whatever their origins, huge leaps made forward, and something like this with just a set of photographs, a half hour incident can just set something back so far can’t it?
JULIE BISHOP That’s right. We celebrate Australia Day to remind us of our history, remind us of who we are and where we’ve been and to talk about our future, where we are going. And we celebrate it in Australian style, peacefully, having the freedom to choose how we spend the day. It is our national day. It is a time when we, sure look at the struggles that we’ve been through and the struggles that lie ahead, but it is also a time to think about our achievements as a nation and our achievements speak louder still. We have created an incredible nation in this country and I think the greatest achievement is our capacity to build a cohesive and tolerant society which includes indigenous Australians and the waves of immigrants that have come over generations from every corner of the globe. And that is what Australia Day is meant to be about.
STEVE VIZARD Is it tougher for a woman politician? I know this is a big issue but just those images yesterday, and they were on the front of every paper in Australia and images are flashed around the world, of the Prime Minister being huddled by a security guard under his arm almost [inaudible]. Those images will be interpreted; I know a lot of people already are saying, “I feel sorry for the Prime Minister”. Others are saying it makes the Prime Minister, as a woman, look less powerful, less in control. Is it tougher for a woman? How do you interpret those images or do you say they’d be interpreted in exactly the same way irrespective of gender?
JULIE BISHOP Well she certainly did look very vulnerable but there have been incidents in the past where our Prime Ministers have come under attack. You might recall Gough Whitlam in Forrest Place years and years ago, probably 1975 was it, when Whitlam was actually struck by an object thrown by protesters. John Howard was hassled by protesters, remember? Rocking the car. And you always feel for the person who is caught up in this kind of ugly incident. And as I say, the shame of this incident is that it has done the cause of the protesters no good at all, in fact I think it has harmed their cause.
STEVE VIZARD I spoke yesterday Julie with the former Governor-General Peter Hollingworth who made some unusual remarks but deeply considered remarks about the nature of Australian society, Australia Day in particular, and how it still it is slightly divisive and he is not convinced it absolutely glues us together. We then went onto the question in relation to Australia Day whether Australians are racist. Can I just play you what he said?
PETER HOLLINGWORTH I think the truth of it is we are all racists. Whether we say it or whether we don’t. I mean some people just say it and that is open, overt racism. I think all of us have to kind of check ourselves from time to time and say that sort of attitude isn’t good enough, we need to have equality, we need to have a sense of everybody being of equal worth, we need to value the traditions of different people who have settled here. And it takes discipline to keep our prejudices out. If we celebrate our national day on Australia Day, or any other day, we’ve got to make sure that we focus upon the best in ourselves and we don’t waste it as an occasion for just another booze up. It has got to be a serious and pretty solemn occasion.
STEVE VIZARD Do you accept his remarks?
JULIE BISHOP I don’t accept that Australians are inherently racist. What makes up Australian society today are people from all over the world. Let’s face it, since 1788 everyone who has come here has been an immigrant and so apart from the first indigenous Australians we are all immigrants.
So I think Australia Day is relevant as our national day because it marks the beginning of our journey to nationhood. I mean British settlement began on 26th January 1788 and the First Fleet arrived in this ancient land with its ancient people, and sure over the following 224 years we have had struggles but we have achieved so much as a nation. It is our national day.
Other countries celebrate their national day because it marks their independence from say Britain or the Dutch, it might mark the date of them becoming a republic, it might mark some other historic event. As you can imagine in my capacity as the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs I am often invited to the national days of the countries who have diplomatic missions in Canberra and I always do a little bit of research to find out why do they celebrate their national day on this day. New Zealand, of course the 6th February, theirs was the Treaty of Waitangi when the British and the Maori’s signed that treaty. The 4th July, the US celebrates its independence from Britain, but countries like Spain celebrate Columbus Day in marking the date Christopher Columbus reached America in 1492. And in fact the Japanese celebrate their national day on the, I think it is on the 11th February which marks the crowning of the first emperor of Japan in 660 BC!
STEVE VIZARD Yes so they are going back in time. But Julie I have to leave it there. But really always good to talk to you, grateful for your remarks this morning, and look forward to speaking to you soon.
JULIE BISHOP Thanks Steve.
STEVE VIZARD That is Julie Bishop, Deputy Opposition Leader.
