Des Houghton: Why Tony Abbott is on the mark about Australia’s history
Aussies are used to seeing on the horrible side of our nation’s history but there is much to celebrate, argues Des Houghton.
Tony Abbott wants Australians to feel good about themselves. The future is a lot brighter than people think, and the past is not so gloomy.
This was the theme of two recent speeches our 28th prime minister gave in Brisbane.
On both occasions, he received a standing ovation.
He spoke this week to a packed ballroom at the Tattersalls Club at an event staged by the Australian Institute for Progress for the launch of his book, Australia: A History.
Abbott was compelling.
“The great Australian mainstream instinctively knows that we are a wonderful people with a lot to be proud of,” he said.
Abbott said Australians had been turned off by the historiography of the past 30 years or so “which has all been about shame, embarrassment, invasion, persecution, racism and even genocide”.
He added: “I don’t say that there are no bad parts of our history. Not for a second do I say that there aren’t things we did poorly and should learn from and maybe atone for.
“However, on balance ours is a great story.”
Abbott is right. We should not wallow in the mistakes of the past that are impossible to correct.
He said Australia had emerged as a great democratic pioneer and had the highest standard of living of any country just 100 years after 1500 bedraggled souls from England stepped ashore to the great unknown.
“We had universal male suffrage in South Australia by the 1860s, and by the 1890s both sexes and all races could vote, and, in theory, they could run for public office.’’
It hasn’t all been good, but if you go back to the beginning with Captain Arthur Phillip, you can also find some positive stories, he said.
Phillip was the governor of the penal colony when he was speared in 1790.
The long spear struck the him on his right shoulder above the collarbone. The tip came out his back.
“Normally, there would have been a volley of muskets and dead bodies everywhere,” Abbott said.
But Phillip was a “magnanimous and decent man”.
“He took this as a misunderstanding, and there was no retribution whatsoever.”
Abbott said there were many stories of friendships and partnerships with Indigenous Australians, just as there were also stories of conflict and bloodshed.
Justice was eventually served after a jury freed a party of stockmen who massacred 28 unarmed Aboriginal men, women and children at Myall Creek near Bingara, NSW, in 1938.
One of the jurors admitted in the pub after the trial that the men “were as guilty as hell” but went free because the victims “were only blacks”.
“John Plunkett, an Irish Catholic who was NSW attorney-general, was determined this crime would not go unpunished,” Abbott said.
He ordered a fresh investigation, and a second jury found seven whites guilty and they hanged.
“Was there any other settler colony in the world at that time where this would have happened?” Abbott said.
“So, yes, there is a certain amount of sackcloth and ashes to be worn, but it is not the whole story.”
To the nation’s credit, the Federation of Australia came together as a commonwealth under the crown not by war, not by insurrection, not by revolution
but by a process of negotiation, compromise and, ultimately, by a popular vote.
Abbott said we endured world wars and the Great Depression and had a renaissance with the great waves
of European migrants who arrived after 1945.
“It’s a wonderful story. People from all over the world have come to this country, and they have become first- class Australians.
“There is so much we should feel proud of.
“There are still millions of people from around the world who would gladly come to this country if they could.’’
Australia has the world’s most welcoming culture, and we should cherish the fact that we are fundamentally of the Judeo-Christian ethos, Abbott said.
He looks to the Hawke-Howard era as our golden age – a relaxed and comfortable time.
“I do think we have drifted back
a little since then. But there is also
no reason why we can’t once more
hit our straps and enjoy another golden age,” he said.
Abbott warned political leaders that Australians “have an in-built humbug detector that could identify BS when they saw it”.
And just what did Abbott achieve when he was PM?
He stopped the boats, he scrapped the carbon tax and the mining tax, he launched the biggest federally funded infrastructure build in Australia’s history and he negotiated some huge
trade deals.
Originally published as Des Houghton: Why Tony Abbott is on the mark about Australia’s history
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