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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-10-13 Daily Xml
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Motions

South Australian Italian Association

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (18:05): I seek leave to move my motion in an amended form.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: I move:

That this council—

1. Acknowledges the 70th anniversary of the South Australian Italian Association (SAIA);

2. Recognises the contributions made by the SAIA to the advancement of multiculturalism in South Australia through the preservation and promotion of Italian culture, heritage, services and experiences within the Italian community and the wider community of South Australia;

3. Acknowledges the enthusiastic work by the SAIA in fostering strong business and cultural ties between South Australia and Italy;

4. Congratulates Dr Daniela Cosmini and Professor Diana Glenn on the publication of their book La Seconda Casa (The Second Home) marking and documenting the important history of the SAIA;

5. Recognises South Australia's continuing strong business, trading, diplomatic and economic ties with Italy; and

6. Identifies that Italian is the largest non-English language spoken in South Australian homes, and calls on Flinders University to immediately reverse its decision to cut the teaching of Italian.

The motion acknowledges the 70th anniversary of the South Australian Italian Association and the publication of the book on its history, La Seconda Casa (The Second Home), by Dr Daniela Cosmini and Professor Diana Glenn. Diana is the national head of the School of Arts at the Australian Catholic University and was formerly the Dean of the School of Humanities and Creative Arts at Flinders University. Daniela has a PhD from Flinders University, where she is currently senior lecturer in Italian in the College for Humanities, but for how long?

There have been some alarming developments in the College for Humanities, which I will address later. First, I had the pleasure of attending the launch of this impressive piece of South Australian migrant history earlier this year in the company of my colleague the Hon. Tammy Franks and one of their upper house candidates Yesha Joshi, at the spiritual home of all South Australian Italians in Carrington Street.

The Italian Association had its origins in 1949, when it was known as the Catholic Italian welfare centre. It has grown to be successful non-profit and non-partisan organisation that has been supported by an army of selfless volunteers who are united in one cause: the preservation of Italian culture and language. This place is not representative of arrivals to this country from a particular region of Italy, but of all those from every paese, or part of the country, who made sacrificial decisions in undertaking uncertain journeys to create a new life for themselves and generations of descendants. It became the central meeting place for them where they could forge their ideals, share their dreams and help one another adjust in a foreign land with a totally foreign tongue. From here, the first shoots of multiculturalism sprouted.

Italians are extremely resilient people able to adapt very quickly to new surrounds and then contribute to their adopted community with their unique knowledge and skills. The Italian diaspora has spread to every corner of the globe, with large expatriate communities and their descendants evident.

Not surprisingly, Australia has one of the oldest and largest concentrations of Italians and those of Italian descent, making them the fifth most prominent of the non-English-speaking communities after the Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Vietnamese. One million Australians can lay claim to being of Italian ancestry, which is about 4 per cent of the population.

Of course, Australia was not always so welcoming of migrants from Europe. As the book points out, the racist White Australia immigration policy was not only about shutting borders to people of colour. It also excluded the so-called 'less desirables' from southern European countries like Italy, Greece and Malta. By that, we assume that 'peasant, uneducated and non-Anglo-Saxon stock' was not high on the list of Australia's immigration priorities at that time.

Thankfully, that has now changed. That all started to change after World War II when Australia needed to rebuild and boost its population through manufacturing, horticulture and construction, such as the nation-building infrastructure project the Snowy Mountains hydro scheme. With some financial assistance from the commonwealth, these 'undesirables' came to these shores in a large wave. Pockets grew in Adelaide's inner west, to the east and north. They came with skills in horticulture, construction and of course culinary cuisine.

As a child growing up in the western suburbs during the fifties and sixties, you would have been hard-pressed finding an Italian restaurant, pizzeria or even a cafe serving espresso or gelato in the city of Adelaide. The one I do remember vividly is Pagana's in Hindley Street, next to West's Theatre. Gradually, of course, the culture and cuisine brought from the Mediterranean spread to what we now enjoy today, along with so many other ethnic cultures. It was one of the cornerstones of multiculturalism.

By the time the seventies arrived, the South Australian Italian Association had become a favourite meeting place and a popular venue for festive events, dinner dances and celebrations as well as promoting social, cultural and sporting activities and integration within the Australian social fabric. Many met their lifelong partners there. Sunday night was especially popular among young people as a disco venue. After undergoing extensive rebuilding thanks to the generosity of many of the migrants it helped, the Italian Centre, as it was known, was formally opened by the then Premier, Don Dunstan, and the Italian Ambassador, Dtt. Paolo Canali.

Friday lunches at the centre were a must. The main room would be packed to the rafters not only for the fine food that was served there but guest speakers of the calibre of Don Dunstan, Gough Whitlam, Sir Donald Bradman, Malcolm Fraser and John Howard. A pantheon of sporting stars has been there, from soccer greats to Formula One legends. The South Australian Italian Association continues its strong social engagement with the entire community and assists many great causes, including its participation in the annual nine-day Italian Festival.

Flicking through the pages of Daniela Cosmini's and Diana Glenn's fabulous and well-researched history of this place brought memories flooding back for me and the many Italian business and community leaders I met there and who also became good friends of mine. Some of them have since passed but it is good to see their contributions are now formally recognised in print. La Seconda Casa is a noteworthy piece of historical work that summarises an important part of our state's history and social and economic development.

I would have liked to have finished this tribute on an upbeat note. However, recent disappointing announcements at Flinders have caused me to make amendments to my original motion. I must express my consternation at Flinders University's decision to close its Italian teaching department, capably headed by Dr Cosmini. I understand no other language courses are yet affected. Dr Christian Verdicchio, the President of the Committee for Italians Abroad, or Com.It.Es South Australia, wrote to me only last week expressing his own deep concern at the move. He magnifies his call for the decision to be reversed with five key points:

1. The Italian community represents one in 10 South Australians;

2. Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world;

3. Italy is one of Australia's major trading partners, and it is valued at $11.1 billion, with $383 million in South Australia;

4. There has been a wave of investment into South Australia by Italian companies involved in the space sector at Lot Fourteen, like Leonardo, SITAEL and aizoOn; and

5. The strong diplomatic relations with Italy maintaining a consular office in South Australian.

Dr Verdicchio says these facts alone show how important it is to continue to promote and teach Italian in our schools and universities and to continue to strengthen our business and cultural ties with a G7 country and one of the world's biggest economies.

The South Australian government and the Italian government, through its consul, Dr Adriano Stendardo, are about to sign a memorandum of understanding to continue teaching Italian in our schools. If this language course disappears from tertiary studies, how can university students possibly develop and enhance their teaching skills for when they eventually go into schools?

Flinders University has already benefited from significant research grants donated by Italian government institutions and companies, like the giant shipbuilder Fincantieri, which provided more than $310,000 for maritime research projects and overseas study scholarships. It is still unclear why Flinders reached this decision, but I can only assume it is linked with the federal government's ill-conceived plan for tertiary institutions to scale down or move away from humanities studies.

I will be writing to the vice-chancellor and the university's board asking them to reconsider. In the meantime, an online petition organised by Com.It.Es has received overwhelming support, with many thousands of signatures from the wider Italian community and the business sector. I urge members to support this motion.

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

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