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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-16 Daily Xml
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INTERNMENT CAMPS

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:46): Earlier this year, my colleague in the other place, the member for Light, Tony Piccolo, brought to the attention of the parliament a motion relating to the internment camps of World War II. Primarily it was for the parliament to acknowledge, some 70 years after the fact, that amongst the enemy aliens interned were people who were either permanent Australian residents, born in Australia or had become British subjects in accordance with the federal immigration and citizenship laws of the day. The overwhelming majority of the people interned at the camps were law-abiding, had made a valuable contribution to Australian society and posed no threat to the security of the nation or its people.

The motion also recorded the belief that most people were primarily interned in the camps on the basis of their cultural heritage in the mistaken belief that it posed an unreasonable risk and not for any demonstrated or validated criminal or security concerns. As noted by the member for Light in the other place, the motion asserted that while the internment policy was implemented in the circumstances of a national emergency it nevertheless acknowledges that the injustice experienced by some Australians was unnecessary and avoidable.

As chair of the Forum of Italo-Australian Members of Parliament, Mr Piccolo has been instrumental in raising this issue at the national as well as state level, and I am pleased to see that the motion was also debated in federal parliament in a bipartisan manner. Whilst we all recognise that it was not just those of Italian heritage who were interned—because amongst others those of German and Japanese background were also interned—like the member for Light in the other place I, too, am familiar or more familiar with the history of those of Italian heritage.

As part of the research on the Italian migration to Australia and particularly South Australia, Professor Desmond O'Connor's book No Need to be Afraid speaks of the experiences of those of Italian heritage who settled in Port Pirie, some of whom were interned at Loveday. Nearly half of the 129 South Australian Italians at Loveday in 1943 were from Port Pirie. Professor O'Connor expanded on this time in history at a seminar given at Flinders University in 1997.

It is widely believed that, given their social and cultural background and isolation, many from Port Pirie's then Italian community, in a bipartisan manner, naïvely saw themselves as joining a social club when they became members of the Port Pirie 'fascio'. Apparently this 'social club' organised social gatherings, formed a women's group, a youth group, an Italian school and even a recreation group. After many years of often being discriminated against they believed they were celebrating their Italianness.

As to be expected, the anguish of internment was felt the strongest by the families left behind. War is always cruel and unjust, and women and children in particular pay a very heavy price. It was not unusual, once the men were rounded up and taken away, that the women and children had to fend for themselves with the added burden of shame—

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins): Order! Just stop the clock, please. The cameraman needs to be made aware that he is not to be taking film of anyone who is not on their feet. You have just been doing that, I think, so can you cease doing it? You only take footage of people who are on their feet. Start the clock again.

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO: —cast upon them. It was not uncommon once the war ended for families to move away to start a new life, sometimes anglicising their names to hide the shame and forget the injustice and poverty that war had brought to them.

There were 18 internment camps during World War II, including Loveday in the Riverland. Of the 16,757 people who were interned in the camps during World War II, by far the largest group were those of Italian heritage. I appreciate that it was common international practice during both the First and Second World Wars to intern men who were thought to be a risk to the security of the nation on the grounds that they were 'enemy civilians' or 'enemy aliens'. I think it would be fair to say that history has proved that particular policy wrong, and I add my support to acknowledge what occurred.

The member for Light in the other place concluded his motion by hoping that, as a maturing nation, we have learnt from the World War II internment experience to ensure that future generations of migrants to this country are treated with justice and equality before the law and not discriminated against on the sole basis of their cultural heritage, as indeed many were at that time.

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