Monument to crime
ACT's grotesque decision to honour Al Grassby
5 March 2007
The Australian
editorial
The proposed erection of a monument to the Whitlam government's immigration minister, Al Grassby, borders on the grotesque. Grassby, who died in April 2005, was an associate of the Calabrian mafia and its Australian connections based in Griffith, NSW. He tried to spread the fiction that anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay was not murdered in 1977 by the mafia, alleging that Mackay's wife Barbara had been responsible, an attempted smear that brought charges of criminal defamation. Yet the ACT Government led by Chief Minister Jon Stanhope plans to honour Grassby with a $72,325 bronze statue to adorn the foyer of a multicultural centre in Canberra.
Donald Mackay's family have every right to feet aggrieved at the Stanhope Government's insensitivity. Others might also argue that honouring Grassby as the "father of multiculturalism" is questionable. The Harold Holt Coalition government of the late 1960s had already ditched the White Australia policy - which Labor had supported - and had started the policy changes that Grassby inherited. In the short time Grassby was immigration minister, he certainly changed immigration policy for the better by removing discriminatory provisions in the selection of migrants. In those days, most immigrants came from Europe and Grassby's political contribution was to bring home the Italian and Greek vote for Labor. In that, he was largely successful. But less than 18 months in the portfolio hardly makes him the father of multiculturalism, a label that has been awarded by admirers such as Mr Stanhope and his Multiculturalism Minister; John Hargreaves, who was reported in The Weekend Australian comparing Grassby with US president John F. Kennedy.
Contemporary Australian multiculturalism makes it clear to migrants that citizenship comes with a duty to respect the rights of others and to uphold the rule of taw. This is far removed from the Grassby model. Indeed, Grassby initially preferred to speak about a "family of the nation", an airy concept that was never properly thought through. The intellectual backing for the term multiculturalism did not come from Grassby, although he endorsed it and promoted it during his time as community relations commissioner. Since then, multiculturalism has undergone further revision to the point where the Howard Government now puts the emphasis on citizenship and the embrace of Australian values that include duties and rights. We now recognise that the old model failed because it created demands for group rights that don't fit with principles of individual equality and the common good.
But in the ACT, rusted-on multiculturalists cling to the tattered reputation of Grassby as if he was the saintly embodiment of inclusiveness. The fact that the Stanhope Government has overlooked, or forgiven; his extensive contacts with criminals and his use of political influence to avoid investigation of those links is a cause for great regret.
Source:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21323522-7583,00.html
(2nd section of editorial)
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