Vietnamese Settlement in Australia

The Hon. T.T. NGO (17:19): I apologise: my speech goes for about 23 or so minutes. It is longer than usual, but it is important that I get some of these facts on Hansard. I move:

That this council—

1. Recognises that:

(a) this year, 2025, marks the 50^th anniversary of successful Vietnamese settlement in Australia; and

(b) this 50^th anniversary also marks the significant contributions Vietnamese Australians have made to modern Australian multicultural society, especially the introduction of Vietnamese culture such as food, art, music and the sharing of traditional celebrations.

2. Acknowledges that 2025 also marks the 50^th anniversary of the communist North Vietnam invasion of South Vietnam.

3. Acknowledges the economic disparities that persist in Vietnam, with a significant portion of the population still living in poverty despite economic growth.

4. Encourages the Vietnamese government to uphold international human rights standards, and work towards greater freedom of religion, speech and political freedom.

5. Calls on the Vietnamese government to continue to address the issues of corruption, injustice, and economic reforms to improve the lives of its citizens.

Members would be aware of the important anniversary we mark this year. Fifty years ago, on 30 April 1975, the city of Saigon fell when the North Vietnamese army invaded the city and captured the presidential palace. In the months and years that followed, it is difficult to describe in simple terms the perilous conditions that South Vietnamese people endured.

People's lives were turned completely upside down. Tens of thousands of professionals, government officials and army officers were sent to re-education camps, where they endured horrific conditions and were often tortured. Many of them never returned home. Homes were confiscated and families displaced. Students were thrown out of colleges. Businesses were closed down. Many people living in cities were forced to relocate to remote rural areas, where there was no way for them to support themselves and their families.

Young men were being conscripted into the army, and it was this that drove my parents to make a very hard decision. Like so many South Vietnamese families, the kindest and most loving choice they could make for their children was to find a way to help us leave. Sometimes, as was the case for my family, this meant that we could not stay together. So many families just like ours had the same story.

The first group of Vietnamese refugees to Australia arrived in Brisbane on 9 August 1975, just over 50 years ago. Over the next 20 years, more than 90,000 Vietnamese people were resettled in Australia. Many people have stood in this chamber and in the other place to speak about the experiences, both during the war and in the years after it ended, of Australian people as well as Vietnamese people who found a future here and became Vietnamese Australians. I am glad they have done so, because it is important to reflect upon those experiences and the ways in which they changed our nation, our ideas and our culture.

It is a very important story to tell, and for so many people it is also a very deeply personal story. The truth is that I strongly prefer not to look to the past. I prefer to focus on the future, but today, out of respect for this important motion and everything it represents, I am choosing to make an exception to speak a little bit about my own personal experience. I do this because it is the human stories that truly breathe life into the narrative of history.

Each person's story is their own, and no two stories are the same, but there are so many Vietnamese Australians whose experiences and journeys were very similar to mine. My own experiences weave into the broader story of how Vietnamese settlement in Australia changed the nation and its people, and how it has gone on to influence the Australian identity and culture that we now share in this modern nation that we have built together.

Vietnamese people were the first non-European wave of migrants to arrive after the White Australia policy was ended by the Whitlam government in 1973. It was the first test of how European-descended Australians would receive new migrants from other regions of the world. I feel confident to speak for my fellow Vietnamese Australian migrants when I say that settling here, where we could be safe and have a future, meant everything to us, but I cannot say that it was easy.

When I arrived in Adelaide with my sister and her family in the early eighties, the Vietnamese community in South Australia was still very small. It was uncomfortable to be so different, so we typically stayed amongst ourselves and we did not go out and about very much. As best as I can recall in my own experience, we kept largely to ourselves for about 10 years.

This first test of multicultural Australia was a learning experience for both sides. Systems for supporting new arrivals and new communities were not set up like they are today. These days, while our system still may not be perfect, I am confident that new migrants have a different experience than we had, which is a great thing. Looking back, I can say that this initial isolation had a significant impact, especially on young people like myself. In particular, it impacted our language learning and our opportunities to be socially included.

We faced a lot of racism at school. I personally endured a lot of name-calling, harassment and racial abuse. While I cannot excuse such behaviour, I can imagine that for the European Australian students it must have been like seeing an alien. This was another factor in my early experience that led me to be isolated and impacted on my ability to grow into a member of the broader South Australian community.

In my earliest days in Adelaide, although I spoke no English, I quickly became very independent. I was catching two buses on my own at age 10, getting around the city like an adult, and I saw many young Vietnamese kids having similar experiences. There were a lot of kids just like me who got out of the country without their family and arrived on their own or with their siblings. Being separated from your family was not at all unusual. It was very hard, but I believe it helped us build resilience.

Initially, we were accommodated in Nissen huts at Pennington, and if Australians found Vietnamese food challenging at first I can tell you it definitely went the other way too. At Pennington, they were feeding us Australian food from a mess-style kitchen—it was nothing like the Blue Room here—which was probably not the best introduction to local cuisine, but for most of us it was our first encounter with Western food. While we were grateful to be fed, it was quite strange for us, especially as young kids, but this, too, contributed to our resilience.

Resilience is an essential part of the Vietnamese culture. This meant that we were determined not just to survive in Australia but to succeed, and no matter what we faced in our nation we knew that we were very lucky to be here. We were lucky to be safe and lucky to have a future. We were grateful that Australia was willing to let us in and, despite many challenges, that sense of gratitude was always our main focus.

That positive mindset helped me and I know it helped all Vietnamese Australians to get through those difficult early years. Our positive attitude and our resilience not only helped us find our way in our new country, I believe it also helped the nation adjust to a new multicultural reality. Without that mindset amongst early Vietnamese migrants, I am confident that multiculturalism in Australia would not have developed as successfully as it has.

After about two decades of the Vietnamese community continuing to grow in South Australia, I think it happened almost by accident when in the late nineties South Australians of European heritage really began to appreciate and enjoy Vietnamese cultural offerings, especially Vietnamese food but also our arts, our music and our cultural traditions. This led to a deepening of the friendship between South Australians and Vietnamese South Australians. It also led to an explosion of Vietnamese culture blossoming across South Australia.

Of course, with this deepening cross-cultural acceptance, social inclusion for Vietnamese people also grew. We began to feel that we were truly part of this community, retaining a strong Vietnamese identity but also gaining a sense of identity as true Australians. That is the beauty of coming from a migrant background in a multicultural nation: you can have the freedom and the opportunity to feel comfortable walking in two worlds and you can feel truly proud of both identities.

I think most Vietnamese Australians, especially those like me who were born in Vietnam, think a lot about the place that we left behind. We reflect upon everything that has happened over the past 50 years since the Communist Party of Vietnam seized control over the entire country. For me, I think especially about the value of freedom, the freedom that we are so fortunate to have here in Australia, while people living in Vietnam are denied many essential freedoms.

In Vietnam today, freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are severely restricted. Citizens who criticise the government or who speak out about topics that are considered unacceptable by the government are often subjected to police intimidation, harassment, restricted movement, arbitrary arrest and detention and even imprisonment after unfair trials. In Vietnam, elections are held but they are not genuine.

Economic opportunity and economic mobility have improved relative to past decades but are still limited for many people. If you do not like the way things are, as a citizen you have no freedom to speak out and advocate for change. The opportunity to live in a democracy where your voice can be heard and your vote has the potential to influence the future is very precious. Nobody who has experienced oppression or suppression can possibly take these freedoms for granted.

I want those freedoms and those opportunities to be possible for the people of Vietnam not only because it is right and just for individuals to have freedom and access to opportunity; I want these things for Vietnam because I know that countries where people are allowed to have the opportunity to express opinions and to have their say in free elections are the countries that thrive in the long term. Democracy and all of the rights and freedoms that come along with it are not just important for citizens, they are healthy for nations.

The free practice of religion is another essential freedom we enjoy in Australia that I can never take for granted, a freedom that is denied to people living in Vietnam. Faith of every kind offers the opportunity to believe in something larger than yourself. It helps people overcome many kinds of personal hardships. It also provides a valuable sense of structure and purpose in life as well as values to guide your decisions and your choices.

Freedom of religion, for these reasons, is especially important in places where faith has the potential to play such a strong role in helping people to survive and thrive. When you live in poverty, for example, or in a place where your opportunities in life are limited, it can be very difficult to live well. The opportunity to ask God for strength and guidance on your own terms, in the way that you choose, provides a tremendous amount of support for people who face difficulty in life. I know from a variety of personal experiences that when you are down, you have to find a way to focus on tomorrow. Faith can offer a guiding light through even the darkest moments.

The opportunity for each person to choose the path in life that is the best one for them is fundamental to the human experience. Faith not only supports the individual, it also helps to build communities and to hold communities together. Religion should not be used as a tool to curb dissent: it should be celebrated as a way for each person to find the truth that speaks most clearly to their hearts. For the people of Vietnam, I wish for the opportunity to find the faith that best helps them navigate life's challenges.

Another opportunity that I want for the people of Vietnam is the opportunity to feel trust in public institutions. In Australia, it is a foregone conclusion that government should be undertaken in the public interest, to serve the public good. A government that is not affected by corruption changes the entire experience of being a member of a society.

From this perspective, the experience of living in Australia is enormously different from living in Vietnam. This is yet another freedom that we enjoy in Australia that I and others will never take for granted. I am grateful for the integrity of our institutions and the strengths of our democracy, and grateful just for the opportunity to stand in this place and express these ideas freely and without fear.

I call on the Vietnamese government to work towards positive change for Vietnam and its people, to embrace freedom and the opportunities that freedom can bring, to uphold and promote human rights for all, to permit and support freedom in political thoughts, in speeches and in practice of religion, to stamp out corruption, to address injustice and to work to expand economic opportunities for all Vietnamese people.

The nation is ready for change; I know it is possible. I want to feel proud of the freedom of my home country of Australia and also to feel hopeful about a future of freedom for my former country of Vietnam. I want both of our societies to have the greatest possible opportunity to prosper and thrive.

The last 50 years have seen great change in both nations. In that time, more than 330,000 Australians of Vietnamese heritage have settled or been born here in this nation that welcomed them and gradually embraced their culture. Our shared story, Vietnam and Australia, has grown to be so much more than a painful history of war and human suffering; it has become a beautiful example of the power of multiculturalism, to open hearts and minds and to change the future.

I thank the people of Australia for the opportunities that we have had to build this modern nation together. I thank my fellow Vietnamese Australians for joining me on this journey, and for your endless determination to build successful lives and bright futures here. As one person who holds two nations and two identities in his heart, it is so meaningful to stand in this place, to mark this important milestone anniversary, and to have the opportunity to speak about both of my cultures with pride, love and gratitude, and to look back with joy at how far we have come together. I am proud to commend this motion to the chamber and I hope all members will support it.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. D.G.E. Hood.