Waxing and waning over the years, the friendships of our youth can re-emerge at the most unexpected of times. Attending a funeral this week, I reconnected with several friends of days now long in my past, recalling a community that wrapped its arms wide around immigrants and Australian-born alike. It had me thinking about “Australian values”, about the woman whose funeral I was attending and the legacy that family has lived, continues to build and their impact on this country as “new Australians”.
Rosa was born in Albania, her family driven out by Tito’s Yugoslav regime during World War II due to her father, Luke’s peaceful activism. The family initially escaped to Austria and then Italy where they remained for several years, before coming to Australia in 1950. Rosa’s family embedded themselves in the community and along with the many other survivors of the war, brought with them some of their culture – the smallgoods, preserves, music, dance, but more than anything else a fierce gratitude for finding a safe haven, a place to call home. Luke gave back to this country. He raised his children and spurned a line of descendants who have become teachers, health care workers, small businessmen and women, to mention a few. Luke embraced this country, inviting the Australians into his home as much as the immigrants to celebrate birthdays and the turning of the year, playing his balalaika and feeding everyone. When Luke was murdered whilst working in 1980 in the Supreme Court of Victoria along with two others, his family prayed for the murderer rather seeking vengeance, a behaviour he publicly counselled against. A man who fled conflict only to be taken by another’s narrow mind, was the impetus for extraordinary change that keeps many people safe today. I remember that day, the stunned silence of my parents. Another mourner at Rosa’s wake recounted seeing the news report on the television and his mother recognising the shoes. Funerals are rarely any larger and in death, legacies rarely more deservedly earned.
Rosa’s family is like so many others. Ben came to work on the Snowy Mountains project. With the physique of tank, Ben was a Lithuanian man who built his own home in Melbourne and later a second in rural Victoria. He overcame a brutal upbringing of poverty and abuse, having been sold at the age of five. When the war was over, he wanted to get as far away from Europe as possible and Australia was further than the United States. Ben made his rural property available to the Scouts for Jamboree, provided a home to other immigrants and refugees, taught music to anyone who wanted to learn, including my brother, and upon his death, donated his rural property to the state. He too, was grateful for the peace and opportunity he found after the horrors he had left behind.
The Department of Home Affairs defines our values as:
- ?respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual
- freedom of religion (including the freedom not to follow a particular religion), freedom of speech, and freedom of association
- commitment to the rule of law, which means that all people are subject to the law and should obey it
- parliamentary democracy whereby our laws are determined by parliaments elected by the people, those laws being paramount and overriding any other inconsistent religious or secular “laws”
- equality of opportunity for all people, regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, race, or national or ethnic origin
- a ‘fair go’ for all that embraces:
- ?mutual respect
- tolerance
- compassion for those in need
- equality of opportunity for all
- recognising the English language as the national language, and as an important unifying element of Australian society.
Australian values promoted by Crimestoppers notes that the “fair go”, highlighting that achievements should be earned on merit rather than the product of cronyism or nepotism, aims to avoid classism.
I draw attention in particular to parliamentary democracy. Pauline Hanson, intent upon winning leadership at any cost, breaches this value repeatedly when she mocks Muslims, most especially when she does so wearing a burqa in the senate. Thumbing her own nose at the values she so stridently seeks to enforce, she demonstrates her own hypocrisy.
Luke and Ben and their family built this country, as did so many others like them. From the Snowy Scheme to the postal workers, the cleaners, the brickies and the restaurant owners, much of what we cherish now would simply not exist had they never come to this country.
What did Pauline or her family build? A fish and chip shop for a few years. What does she leave in her wake? Division, backbiting. As a parliamentarian of years standing, it would be reasonable to expect that Hanson would have realised something more than her frequently espoused malcontent. What private members bills has she sponsored? What productive legislative advice has she put forward? In short, what positive actions has she instigated to the benefit of the broader community? She sides with the Coalition to attack the incumbent Labor Government about cost of living relief, but undermines the measures proposed to ease pressures. She votes against measures that support housing affordability, including public housing. Conversely, she believes that the tax free threshold for retirees should be raised so that they can earn more without penalty – a fine means to avoid raising the aged pension. She supports nuclear energy, which some argue is a solution to climate change, but consistently votes against other measures such as renewable energy.
Hanson promotes free speech, but ostracises some media outlets who ask her uncomfortable questions. She throws a major hissy-fit at reporters with the temerity to ask about how she spends donor funds or why she isn’t using the plane Gina gifted her party to travel around the country. Most concerningly, she claims to be a survivor of domestic abuse, but repeatedly argues that women bring it on themselves and should simply leave, demonstrating a complete lack of comprehension of the complexities of domestic violence that should come with lived experience.
Pauline Hanson finds it far easier to divide that to the unite. She is the crowbar separating the people from Australian values, not the galvanising support of the structure. Born with a chip on her shoulder for a perceived slight, she is a wrecker who will marginalise many with her “gutful” of hypocrisy. If Hanson was to sit the citizenship test, she would fail the values component. That should tell you all you need to know about her litany of whinges.
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© Watershedd, August 2026
