Wong hits wrong note in Britain
Penny Wong undermined her good efforts in international diplomacy by injecting the culture war rhetoric of colonial shame to discussions in Britain regarding their closer engagement in the Indo-Pacific. The Foreign Minister highlighted her family history when she called on Britain to be more open and outspoken about its colonial past. Senator Wong said her travels in the region had rendered crystal clear that one of the most important ways our countries can modernise our relationships is in the story we tell the world about who we are.
Drawing on her ancestral experience, Senator Wong said her father is descended from Hakka and Cantonese Chinese, many of whom laboured for the British North Borneo company in tin mines and plantations for tobacco and timber. Senator Wong said many worked as domestic servants for British colonists, as did her own grandmother.
She said such stories can sometimes feel uncomfortable – for those whose stories they are, and for those who hear them. But understanding the past enables us to better share the present and the future. Senator Wong has a point. But it was unfortunately loaded with miserable intent and more telling for what was left unsaid. Her message was calculated to further cement the Australian identity as belonging in our region and to dilute our historical links to Britain. It continues the shift championed by Paul Keating for Australia to accept the “geophysical” reality of our place in the region. And it fits neatly with a global shift to begrudge and delegitimise actions taken in earlier times.
Senator Wong says today, as a modern, multicultural country, home to people of more than 300 ancestries and the oldest continuing culture on Earth, Australia sees itself as being in the Indo-Pacific, and being of the Indo-Pacific. She says the modern face of Australia – and the modern face of Britain – is readily apparent both among our citizens at large and among our political leaders.
Senator Wong is correct that both Britain and Australia are global examples of how stable government, equality and the rule of law can produce a diverse and representative democracy that is not defined by race. This is the message that should be central to our engagement in the region and with the world. It is telling that in her meetings this week in Paris, Senator Wong was able to speak about the work we are doing together in the Indo-Pacific directed towards a world that is peaceful, stable and respectful of sovereignty. She did not feel it necessary to call on France to publicly unburden itself of its past colonialist ways.
