Page 5001 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 28 November 2018
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MR PARTON: Yes, of course it would. I think we all read the amazing opinion piece in the Australian from the Mocker that pertained to this motion, but just in case there is anyone here that did not see it, I must pluck a few things from it. Please understand that the Mocker piece referred to the original public offering from Ms Cody on this motion, back in the days when she intended to call for a complete review of every place name in the ACT. Nevertheless I think most things in the Mocker piece retain relevance.
The Mocker came up with some wonderful reasons why we must change the names of the suburbs of Watson and Fisher. Both Labor prime ministers made some quite objectionable racist remarks. They are considered to be quite racist now, but truth be known they were not considered racist at the time, because it was a different time. Labor Prime Minister James Scullin publicly announced that the first plank of Labor’s fighting platform was to be “the maintenance of a white Australia”. So Scullin must go. Calwell has to go. I think we are all aware of the “two Wongs don’t make a white” comment. So how can we possibly have a suburb called Calwell?
As was pointed out by the Mocker, we need to get in quickly and change the name of Whitlam. How could we possibly name a suburb after a former Prime Minister whose inhumane response to the fall of Saigon in 1975 was—and I will not give the full quote—“I’m not having these effing Vietnamese Balts coming into the country with their religious and political prejudices against us.” That was from Gough Whitlam. When urged by his foreign minister, Don Willessee, to grant South Vietnamese refugees asylum, he said, “Vietnamese sob stories don’t wring my withers.” So we must strike out Whitlam.
Of course, Ms Cody cannot dismiss those claims of racism as being unimportant, because this is the same Ms Cody who was outraged by the Indigenous tiles in the bathroom at the Sussex Inlet RSL. We all remember that outrage. We all remember that Ms Cody stormed into this chamber with smoke coming out of her ears to declare that the Sussex Inlet RSL was a national disgrace because of these tiles which had been installed 40 years ago and had pretty much gone unnoticed by everyone since. The claims that men were urinating on the tiles were weirdly incorrect. What I am saying is that Ms Cody has no tolerance whatsoever for any suggestion of racism, so she would have to favour the wiping out of Watson, Calwell, Scullin, Whitlam and a stack of others. Very clearly, none of those suburb names should be changed. They should not be changed.
Ms Cody: Why?
MR PARTON: Are you seriously suggesting that we should strike them out, Ms Cody? Seriously? The Place Names Committee in its various forms went through a process to determine the name which took many things into account. It is not for us to airbrush history into something which is more palatable to us. Of course, it all depends on who is doing the airbrushing, doesn’t it?
The Place Names Committee, when I brought a motion to this place calling for a change of name for the Tharwa Bridge, pointed out to me and to all sorts of people
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