Thank you Mr Speaker, and may I say what a pleasure it is to speak on this motion, focusing on a pivotal and significant moment of our history: the Eureka Stockade.
The third of December is certainly a date we should know better.
Eureka is a moment of history very close to my heart, and very close to home, occurring within my electorate of Ballarat in Victoria.
The site of the stockade is 3 kilometres from my electorate office. The troopers were stationed a mere block away in Camp street. The Southern Cross still flies proudly on buildings in town, and what remains of the original rests behind glass at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Eureka.
The Ballarat Reform League fought for equality, honest representation and a fair go and was a remarkable body, pulled together from the will of 10,000 diggers across the Ballarat goldfields.
Their charter called for equal rights. League members swore to stand ‘truly by each other to defend our rights and liberties’.
The member for Robertson should be cautious when linking Eureka to the abolition of taxes – in fact, the diggers fought first and foremost for representation which they were denied even under a system of oppressive taxes.
They were scathing of the unelected ‘paid officials’ that made laws that “suited their selfish ends and narrow minded views.”
It is clear that Reform League were incensed by inequality. They saw the abolition of the diggers and storekeepers licence tax, which had an immense impact on those who worked the goldfields and very little on those outside it, as a matter of great importance as even they could see the Goldfields Commission and the Legislative Council held no concern for the poor, those who worked the diggings or the large number of people who had come to Ballarat in search of a better life.
Between 1851 and 1860, around 500,000 people migrated to the Australian colonies. Sixty percent of them came straight to Victoria, to join in the gold rush.
The diggers came from England, Ireland, Scotland & Wales. They came from Germany, Italy, North America and China. From New Zealand and a number of South Pacific Nations. Ten thousand diggers of more than twenty nationalities took an oath under the southern cross to fight for their representation and a fair go.
Their fight, both at the stockade and afterward through the courts, grew into a wider struggle that formed the freedoms that all Australians now hold dear. Personal liberty and a national identity built around mateship and a great ideal of community.
They understood that all people as a source of political action led to universal empowerment and a more equal society for all. They understood the press was a vital part of the process, and that parliament needed to be structured as an accessible body. They knew that a body representing the ‘full political rights of the people’ needed a solid and open platform as a base – and fashioned the Digger’s Charter with that in mind.
The significance of their efforts cannot be overstated. This charter represents an incredible first step toward a democratic Australia, a measured, thought out building block of a more equal future. The solid expression of an idea that would see each and every Australian empowered to take control of their future, and through that shape the future of our nation.
While the situation is not purely black and white, and even today there are different interpretations and perspectives that can educate us and help us understand such an integral part of our history. The charge on the stockade itself may have only lasted twenty minutes, but the twenty-seven dead from both sides have left a legacy that has carried down 161 years since.
In my hometown of Ballarat, there are a number of groups dedicated to remembrance of the Eureka Stockade and the passing down of that heritage. The wonderful Museum of Australian Democracy and the Children of Eureka stand alongside the effort of the Ballarat Council, Ballarat Trades Hall, and many other community and heritage groups that will all mark Thursday and Eureka’s 161st anniversary. I give thanks to them for their efforts.
The incredible legacy of those who stood at the stockade lives on in us, as part of our identity, our institutions and the lessons we can pass on to others. We should be justly proud, and we should reflect on the spirit and story of Eureka all the more.
EUREKA 161st ANIVERSARY SPEECH
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2015