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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-12-05 Daily Xml
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Italian Community

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (12:51): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that the Italian people across the world celebrate their national holiday on 2 June each year to mark the passing of the referendum that created the modern republic, which came into effect on 1 January 1948;

(b) acknowledges the important contribution that migrants from Italy have made to the economic, social and cultural development of the state of South Australia; and

(c) thanks all those volunteers who work tirelessly in not-for-profit organisations across the state to support the community and, in particular, those with an Italian cultural heritage.

I would like to speak briefly to this motion. It is probably the last motion we will deal with this year in terms of private members' business.

Mr Picton: We will be here next week, hopefully.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: We are not here next week. The leader has already told us that.

Mr Picton: Doesn't the government have anything to do?

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Mr Deputy Speaker, I think I need your protection from my side as well.

Mr Pederick: I thought you spoke as one.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: We do.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Time is running short, member for Light. Continue.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: In moving this motion, I would like to bring to the house's attention that this is a very important year in the history of the Italian people: it is the 70th anniversary of the modern Italian Republic and the modern constitution of Italy. The modern constitution was passed by the Constituent Assembly of the Italian parliament on 22 December 1947, with 453 voting in favour of the constitution and 62 voting against it. It came out of a dark time in history not only in Italy but also across Europe. From the ashes of fascism came the modern Italian Republic.

The modern constitution came into effect on 1 January 1948, so this year there have been a number of celebrations, across both Italy and places where Italian people have migrated and now live, to celebrate the modern Italian Republic. We have to remember that the Italian economy is the sixth biggest in the Western world. It plays an important role not only in Europe but across the world. In a moment, I will touch upon the influence of Italy in this country. The Constituent Assembly was elected at a ballot held on 2 June 1946 under universal suffrage. All citizens above the age of 18 were entitled to vote at that ballot to elect the Constituent Assembly, which would then form the constitution.

Importantly, on that same day, a referendum was held to abolish the monarchy. The monarchy at that time were sent packing in part because they had failed to protect the Italian people from the rise of fascism. The monarchy, like a lot of European monarchies to that date, were more concerned about their self-importance and role rather than the welfare of the people of their nation. As a result of the referendum and the ballot that elected the Constituent Assembly, Italy now declares 2 June as its national day. There are celebrations not only in Italy but right across the world where Italian people live.

In South Australia, there are 100,000 people who were either born in Italy, like me, or who have Italian ancestry, so we are an important part of this community. There have been waves of migration to this country and into this state, obviously after major events like the First World War and the Second World War. Probably the biggest influx of migrants to Australia, particularly South Australia, came after the Second World War when Australia was very keen on getting migrants into this country to help build the nation, and the Italian people arrived.

However, it is interesting to note that in the early days, when Australia had the White Australia policy, they let northern Italians come first. Northern Italians had lighter skin than southern Italians, were a bit taller and were probably more blue-eyed; therefore, they were deemed to be more acceptable than southern Italians. We had different waves of migration because the northern Italians were invited to come to this country in between the first and second world wars, while the second wave, post World War II, was mainly people from southern Italy, from the Campania and Calabria regions. These are probably the two major communities, and I belong to the community from the Campania region.

As a quick aside, I would like to note the way in which people often end up in Australia or other countries. Our family migrated to Australia in March 1963; we came 10 years after my uncle and aunty had migrated. My uncle was actually a POW in Australia, and he worked on the farms at Gumeracha. He was sent down to Loveday once Italy surrendered and then sent back to Italy after the end of the war. The farm where he worked sponsored him and his family to come and live in Australia. As a result of my uncle's family coming to Australia, my family, including me, came to Australia 10 years later. My parents certainly never regretted the decision to migrate to Australia.

I think the Italian community, like all migrants, have made an enormous contribution to the development of this nation, not only economically but also socially and culturally. The great nation we are today is a result of all those migrants coming to this nation. When you think about it, we are a migrant nation. Apart from the Australian Aboriginal people, we are a migrant nation.

In terms of constitution, there is often ill thought-out comment made about the Italian constitution and how often they have regular changes of government in Italy. However, we also have them now, federally. In our federal parliament, we have had quite a few changes in government too, even in between elections. The Constituent Assembly, which was made up of liberals, Christian democrats and people on the left of politics, were determined to have a constitution that was anti-authoritarian.

They had come from the ashes of the fascist period in Italy, and they were determined to make sure that no individual or group in Italian society would again obtain the sort of power to literally bring a nation to its knees. So the Italian constitution has some very distinct rights and liberties, but it also has responsibilities. It makes it very clear that there are certain inalienable rights of individuals, and it talks about the responsibilities individuals have to the wellbeing of the nation and to protect the constitution.

Speaking to the second part of the motion, the Italian people in this state have made an enormous contribution to a whole range of industry areas, including building and construction, the food industry, hospitality, medicine and law. There are very few areas of society today that people with an Italian background are not involved in, including farming and agriculture, particularly around the Riverland areas, Mount Gambier and Virginia. They have also made an enormous contribution to fishing in Port Pirie.

There have been a couple of blights on the history of Italian people in this country. Once, Italians were interned during World War II—quite unfairly, I think, but we have integrated well. Sometimes we have some commentary about the latest wave of migrants from other countries, and my message is that the same commentary we hear today is one we also heard 30, 40 and 50 years ago. That commentary was wrong then and it is wrong today. The new migrants to this country will, over time, integrate well into our society and enrich our nation.

In closing, the only comment I would like to make is that Australia and Italy enjoy a very good relationship, although a recent blip occurred when the Australian federal government decided to award the submarine contract to the French, rather than the Italians. Now we are starting to hear stories that perhaps that decision was not the right one. With those comments, I support the motion.

Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Luethen.

Sitting suspended from 13:00 to 14:00.

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