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  4. 5 June 2002

Charles Sturt University

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SpeakersTsang The Hon Henry
BusinessAdjournment


    CHARLES STURT UNIVERSITY

Page: 2582

    The Hon. HENRY TSANG [10.20 p.m.]: Tonight I pay tribute to Charles Sturt University, which was named after a great nineteenth century explorer who was among the first Europeans to cross the lands of this region. Sturt's expeditions took him along the Macquarie River, through the Macquarie Marshes to the Darling River by way of the Bogan and Castlereagh rivers. That pioneering spirit resulted in the mapping of the Murray River above its junction with the Murrumbidgee River. The university could not have been better named. Since its inception Charles Sturt University has displayed a pioneering spirit in providing academic excellence in tertiary education, research and community service throughout rural New South Wales and, importantly, throughout the Asian region.

    Charles Sturt University has been a great ambassador for Australian education and know-how throughout the Asia-Pacific region. To that end it has excelled, and it has done so in a creative and dynamic manner. It was, therefore, a great honour for me to be conferred with the degree of doctor of the university on 18 May 2002. I thank the university for recognising my achievements as a refugee and, later, as a migrant. I thank Chancellor David Asimus and Vice-Chancellor Ian Goulter. My thanks go also to the Australian people for giving me a fair go. I was sent to Australia not just to acquire an education.

    As a teenager I was told to seek a home for my family away from Hong Kong, which is where we fled from China as refugees at the time of the revolution. That is how I became one of the lucky ones to land on a friendly shore. That is how Australia became my home. But it was not an easy path. I suppose my story is similar to the stories of thousands of proud new Australians. I first travelled to Australia with a certificate of identity because I was a stateless person and a refugee. Upon my graduation in the 1960s I could not stay in Australia because of the white Australia policy. Reluctantly I migrated to America before again trying my luck in Australia. I now pride myself on being a good citizen of a young and dynamic country—Australia. I have never taken that for granted. I see it as a great privilege and not as a God-given right.

    As a norm Australian people have shown great tolerance. Australia has become renowned for its generosity of spirit and openness. But government policy has not always reflected that generosity of spirit. It has often made it difficult for migrants and for refugees, in particular. Recently we seem to have forgotten that refugees do not choose to be refugees; often they are victims of cruel circumstances. They are people who have been driven from, and who are fleeing from, their homelands, often alone. At times the only alternative for asylum seekers is to pay the ultimate price with their lives. Last year our political landscape was characterised by abuse, which reflected some of the weaknesses inherent in the underprivileged for crass political gain. An election was fought and won on a great work of fiction about the most desperate people—refugees—all manufactured by a Federal Government that we now know knew much more than it cared to admit.

    I raise this issue tonight because the losers in this process are not only those vulnerable people. We, the Australian public, were lied to and diminished as a nation. We must recognise that there are broader consequences to the attitudes that we adopt. They are not limited to the refugee issue. We are judged in this region and everywhere else by our actions. I doubt whether history will record this era as our finest moment. Being on the edge of the Asian region we must engage with this region. We have no choice in that matter. For Australia to prosper in the future, our economic integration with Asia is critical. With rapid changes occurring in global economic structures Asia presents the prospect of scale, markets and capital to sustain Australia and Australian-based companies. A failure to gain a foothold in an expanding Asian market will only result in global irrelevance. Fortunately for Charles Sturt University, it started early and it has established partnerships with several institutions in the Asia-Pacific region—with campuses in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Taiwan and other places. I thank Australia for giving me a chance as a refugee. My plea now is that others who are less fortunate than us are also given a chance. I have no doubt that they will achieve more than I ever did.

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