Extract from Hansard [COUNCIL — Wednesday, 23 September 2020
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Extract from Hansard [COUNCIL — Wednesday, 23 September 2020] p6296b-6311a Hon Aaron Stonehouse; Hon Sue Ellery; Hon Michael Mischin; Hon Alison Xamon; Hon Charles Smith; Hon Alannah MacTiernan; Hon Colin Tincknell; Hon Robin Chapple HERITAGE AND CULTURE Motion HON AARON STONEHOUSE (South Metropolitan) [1.13 pm]: I move — That the house — (a) expresses its concern over increasingly radical and divisive attacks upon Western Australia’s heritage and culture, in particular — (i) the City of Perth’s attempted cancellation of the Christmas nativity event; (ii) recent calls to remove statues and monuments; (iii) the vandalisation of statues and monuments; (iv) proposals to rename various locations and structures that bear the names of historical figures; (v) recent and renewed calls to change the date of Australia Day; and (b) rejects policies and proposals that divide Western Australians on the basis of their racial identity or religious beliefs. I have given a few examples in the motion, but I would like to mention a few more in the substantive debate. I think this is an important debate to have because over recent months—it has been a trend over years unfortunately—we have seen an importation of what seems like rather toxic sort of race relations from the United States being applied here in Australia, in Western Australia in particular. It seems rather irrelevant to the unique circumstances of our country and our state. It has seen marches that attract quite a lot of attention and, as I mentioned in the motion, it has seen the vandalisation of statues and monuments. I think it is sad because I think it shows an ignorance of history for a start. It is also driven by what I fear is a Marxist attack on the institutions that uphold our society. I know members will scoff at that, but I will go through this and explain a little bit about critical race theory that underpins a lot of these pushes in policy proposals. Let me give a few examples of what this motion is trying to draw attention to and the concerns expressed in it. For instance, in 2017 there were calls from Karrie-Anne Kearing to change the name of the Peel region because it was supposedly offensive to Indigenous Australians. Thankfully, that call was rejected by the Premier, Mark McGowan, and by the opposition, so I am sure we can expect support from the government on this motion given its own Premier has rejected calls to rename regions. In 2018 the Town of Bassendean attempted to cancel Australia Day and its Australia Day fireworks. Thankfully, that was unsuccessful. Bassendean ratepayers were polled and it was found that 65 per cent of them wanted to celebrate being Australian on 26 January while only 26 per cent wanted a new date. Hon Charles Smith: How much did they pay to do that survey? Hon AARON STONEHOUSE: That is a very good question, honourable member. An attempt was made to rename Stirling Highway. Not too long ago, in August 2019, a so-called anthropologist claimed that Stirling Highway should be renamed and that we should not name our highways after old white guys. Of course, thankfully, this was rejected. This so-called anthropologist compared Governor Stirling, the founder of our state, to Martin Bryant, the lunatic gunman in Tasmania. Then in September 2019, the City of Perth’s cultural development plan saw the scrapping of Christmas celebrations in an attempt to make the Christmas celebrations of the City of Perth more inclusive, which is complete nonsense. As members are aware, almost 60 per cent of Western Australians identify as Christian. Of course Christmas is a Christian celebration and we live in a secular state, so we do not want to put people out. Last time I spoke to any of my Jewish or Muslim friends, they had no problem with Christmas celebrations. They are not offended by it—neither are Christians offended by Eid celebrations or Hanukkah or any other Jewish celebration. In fact, most people seem rather tolerant and are able to get on with their lives without being offended by other religions celebrating their cultural practices. More famously, the woke City of Fremantle cancelled its Australia Day celebrations and its Australia Day fireworks display because it was supposedly culturally insensitive. Not to be outdone by the City of Fremantle, a particular Greens Senator, Mr Jordon Steele-John, called for the destruction of historical statues. I thought it was quite remarkable that someone occupying the office of a Senator would be so ignorant of Western Australia’s history. He called for the destruction of statues here in Western Australia, saying that they were symbols of white supremacy. He said that the names of these men are literally everywhere so it is time to stop celebrating these men and hold them accountable for the roles they played in WA’s history of First Nation genocide. He misspelt genocide when he wrote that. The very learned Senator, that I am sure he is, knows his history! I am looking forward to any calls to rename Yagan Square. Of course, Yagan was a leader among Aboriginal people who fought against the settlers. [1] Extract from Hansard [COUNCIL — Wednesday, 23 September 2020] p6296b-6311a Hon Aaron Stonehouse; Hon Sue Ellery; Hon Michael Mischin; Hon Alison Xamon; Hon Charles Smith; Hon Alannah MacTiernan; Hon Colin Tincknell; Hon Robin Chapple He was a very brave warrior, by all accounts, but he killed several settlers before he was killed in turn by a settler. I suppose we should rename Yagan Square considering he was a man who waged war in his time. More recently, in June this year, the statue of Captain James Stirling was vandalised. One scruffy individual painted the statue of Stirling. In recent weeks, somebody put up a new plaque on the statue of Stirling here in the city. That plaque reads something to the effect of, “On 28 October 1834, Captain Stirling led the Pinjarra massacre that killed up to 80 Noongar men, women and children.” The person responsible for putting that over the original plaque said that it was important that we get the full picture of history. I am paraphrasing somewhat, but the idea is that the statue does not tell the full picture; it tells it from one perspective and he is trying to correct the record by giving people the correct historical context of what happened. I would like to do that now because I think he has not given the correct historical context. Unfortunately, he has given us a very simplified and skewed version of it. From my own research, Captain James Stirling was not a perfect man. Who can be? No-one is perfect. We all fall short of the standards we set for ourselves. But he is certainly a great figure in the context of Western Australian history. He was, of course, the administrator of the Swan River settlement from June 1829, when it was established, until 1832. He then left for England for a short time. He was knighted, came back in 1834 and was the administrator again until 1838. All told, he was not only the founder of the Western Australian colony, but also, for almost a decade, the ruler and patriarch of the colony. I will read from Stirling’s biography from the excellent online resource Australian Dictionary of Biography. This excerpt is written by F.K. Crowley. I encourage members to make use of that website. It is incredibly useful when looking at biographies of historical figures. In this biography it states — In his early administration Stirling took a leading part in exploring the coastal districts near the Swan, Murray, Collie, Preston, Blackwood and Vasse Rivers, and the first settlements were sited there in preference to the areas east of the Darling Range. It was some time before his chief aides, Peter Broun, the colonial secretary and keeper of the accounts, and Lieutenant John Roe, R.N., the surveyor-general, were able to set up proper departments in Perth, and most routine decisions were made by the governor. On legal matters he sought the advice of William Mackie, the advocate-general. Stirling personally welcomed the early settlers, made it easy for any of them to obtain an audience with him and acted as a polite rubbing-post for their multitude of petty grievances. He was also attentive to the complaints of the lower orders. I am not sure when the battle of Pinjarra started being referred to as the Pinjarra massacre—I think that is a rather recent renaming—but it is important to understand the context under which that took place. That is not to say that it is in any way not a tragedy; it absolutely is a tragedy. But it is important to understand that at the time of the early settlement of Western Australia by Europeans, Indigenous Australians, the Whadjuk people, who of course had been here for many thousands of years before Europeans ever set foot in this country, occupied the area around the Swan River, and the Pinjarra people were in the south west around Pinjarra. The Whadjuk people and the Pinjarra people had been at war with each other but around the time of the early European settlement, they had just brokered peace. A leader of the Pinjarra people—Calyute—conducted raids against settlers. He raided a flour mill. He killed a soldier and severely wounded another. An expedition led by Governor Stirling, with a posse of policemen and soldiers, went south into the Peel region to try to arrest Calyute and his followers.