Liberal Senators Eric Abetz and Concetta Fierravanti-Wells are unrepentant after imposing Chinese-Australians to McCarthy-like demands to condemn China
16 October 2020 | Marcus Reubenstein
Conservative Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz is refusing to apologise for his conduct during a Senate hearing where he demanded three Chinese-Australian witnesses renounce any support of China.
There were ten witnesses, presumably all Australian citizens, the other seven were not made to denounce nations from which they drew their ancestry.
Absurdly, they appeared voluntarily and the purpose of the inquiry was to examine ways for better engagement across diaspora communities in Australia.
Abetz issued a media statement defending his actions—his defence was that he had never demanded “proof” from the witnesses that they were loyal to Australia.
He failed to quote the pertinent comments to the outrage which was a question he began with:
Can I ask each of the three witnesses to very briefly tell me whether they are willing to unconditionally condemn the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship? It’s not a difficult question.
Liberal Senator, Eric Abetz
It is a difficult question because it smacks of racism. Of all the bleating this year from far-right conservatives and overambitious LNP backbenchers, Abetz’s is the most outrageous.
Former prime minister Kevin Rudd simply summed it up as “repugnant.”
A dirty little secret
In what sadly risks becoming Australia’s failure to build a truly multi-cultural society one of the great unspoken shames of this country is how deeply racist a significant slice of the European diaspora is.
That racism is harboured by first generation migrants from the post-war years and has, mostly, been washed out by subsequent generations.
It is not violent racism, nor does it manifest itself through inflammatory conduct, it is a quiet racism— snide comments across the dinner table, at family gatherings, casual remarks amongst friends.
Cultural prejudice only goes part of the way to explaining that.
What holds up this racism is a simple notion that a generation of post-war Europeans fled a continent on its knees, came to Australia with nothing, were generally helped by nobody other than their own ethnic communities, made a good life for themselves and, almost without exception, a better life for their children.
For years many have begrudged future migrant generations because they perceive them as coming to an Australia where they don’t have to work as hard and, if these new arrivals are lazy, they will inevitably be taken care of by the welfare state.
I share their experience, not their views
Through their career-long public rhetoric, it is obvious to me that German-born Eric Abetz and fellow committee member, Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (the daughter of Italian migrants) have willingly embraced that unspoken racism.
As the son of a Dutch migrant father and a Hungarian refugee mother, I am not simply a witness to the European-Australian experience of Abetz and Fierravanti-Wells—I too am a product of it.
Fierravanti-Wells rates mention because she sat in the same committee hearing and the first words out of her mouth were, “That’s right!”
It was an interjection from the Italian-Australian as her German-Australian cohort snapped at a witness “I am astounded that you would ask that question!”
Fierravanti-Wells then took centre stage, advising the witnesses, “Can I give you some pretty basic advice: go and read the Constitution. That’s the first thing I would say to you!
“I think the problem here is that certain communities just don’t want to participate. I have to tell you that there is an overwhelming under-desire among people from the Chinese Australian community to participate in politics.”
Quite frankly I find it astounding that, in a building which harbours people with her views, Fierravanti-Wells would question why Chinese-Australians would not want to participate in that system.
Where is the outrage?
Whilst the disgrace of Abetz and Fierravanti-Wells generated mainstream media coverage it was muted.
It is important to note that none of the witnesses are supporters of the Chinese Communist Party and had made that point quite clear in their submissions to the Senate. All three have authored research and articles relevant to the Australian Chinese community, without suggestion that they support the government in Beijing.
SBS and The Guardian called out Abetz as did the ABC. However, the national broadcaster has serious questions to answer over its enabling of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Sinophobia.
The Sydney Morning Herald gave it no news coverage, though it published an opinion piece from Australian-born Osmond Chiu—one of the three witnesses under Abetz’s spotlight. The headline summed it up: I was born in Australia. Why do I need to renounce the Chinese Communist Party?
Hong-Kong born Wesa Chau came to Australia with her family when she was seven years old. A Labor Party candidate in the upcoming City of Melbourne elections, the transcript shows that Abetz and Fierravanti Wells “lectured” Chau for a considerably greater length of time than she was afforded to provide answers.
Of her experience she says, “Like any Australian, I fulfilled my democratic rights and obligations by volunteering and participating in a Senate inquiry into issues facing diaspora communities in Australia.
“I had every intention of presenting my experience, expertise and insights into these important issues during the public hearing. Instead, I had my loyalty, allegiance and commitment to Australia repeatedly challenged and questioned by Senator Eric Abetz.”
Wesa Chau, Labour Candidate for Melbourne Council
Yun Jiang is Australian National University academic who has worked in significant roles for the Australian government, she came to Australia from China when she was 11 years old. In her written submission to the inquiry she supported Australian government policies pushing back against Chinese government attempts to infiltrate the diaspora.
Of her inquisition she says, “To me it felt less like a public inquiry and more like a public witch-hunt. And the target is Chinese-Australians who are deemed not sufficiently critical enough of the Chinese Government.”
Renounce a political system. I will stand up.
Like Abetz and Fierravanti-Wells my European experience directed me towards the conservative side of politics.
With my mother’s homeland still under the iron first of Soviet Communism, I joined the Young Liberals became secretary and briefly president of the Vaucluse branch in Sydney and served for one semester as the President of the UNSW Liberals.
After graduation I spent two years working on the staff of a prominent Liberal senator. Though I remained broadly supportive of its policies, the Liberal Party was not a broad enough a church for a confirmed atheist like myself to remain.
The two senators justified their calls for condemnation of the CCP based on their willingness to condemn the Nazi Party and the Italian mafia. That defence is an insult.
Reading their maiden parliamentary speeches would be an utter waste of time but it’s safe to assume nobody asked them to denounce Adolf Hitler and Anthony “Fat Tony” Salerno before they were sworn in.
As I sat down to read the transcript of this “McCarthy era inquisition” I fully expected to be outraged. I wasn’t.
I was quite literally sick to my stomach at the bile pouring out of the mouths of Abetz and Fierravanti-Wells. They had not the slightest interest in the terms of reference of their inquiry, they used the parliament of a liberal democracy as bully pulpit for racism and intolerance.
I will accept Abetz’s challenge. I condemn him and the party which gave him his seat in the federal parliament.
That condemnation is unequivocal.
Author’s Note: This article makes reference to mainstream media outlets not covering this story, however, after APAC News’s publication The Australian published a comprehensive report authored by China correspondent Will Glasgow.
