FOR MEDIA5 April 1984
The attached letter was delivered 1: o Mr Peacock tonight.
PRIME MINISTER CANBERRA
0 5 APR 198_ 4
The Honourable A. S. Peacock, MP
Leader of the opposition
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Mr Peacock
Thank you for your letter of 5 April 1984 in which you
advised me of the intention of the Opposition to invite
to Australia three South African politicians and requested
the Government to issue visas to them.
I am somewhat surprised at the importance attached to
giving aid and comfort to South Africa in the
Opposition's foreign policy, as evidenced by this
invitation on behalf of yourself and a section of your
opposition colleagues, but acknowledge that this is your
own affair. I now understand a little more clearly the
report in the Capetown Argus of 29 February, attributed
to the Opposition spokesman on Foreign Affairs,
Mr Mackellar, that the Coalition Parties proposed to
develop a more accommodating policy towards South Africa.
The Government takes the view that South Africans
holding official positions will not be permitted entry
to Australia if the principal purpose of their visit
is to promote apartheid doctrine or policies. This
follows from the peculiarly odious character of the
apartheid doctrine practised by the South African
Government. It is not merely that apartheid is the antithesis
of the fundamental democratic values of our open
liberal society which you call in aid: but the
racism of apartheid is fundamentally and intolerably
anti-human. Apartheid discriminates on nothing more
than the biological circumstances of one's birth:
there is nothing over which one has less control.
It is moreover the case, as you will be well aware,
that the south African Government does not allow
prominent and vocal domestic opponents of apartheid
to freely leave and return, nor does it allow prominent
and vocal international opponents of apartheid to visit
South Africa for the purpose of publicly challenging
apartheid doctrine and practice.
2.
To give aid and comfort under these circumstances to
official South African spokesmen to promote apartheid
doctrine and policies would not only be utterly at odds
with the positions Australia has consistently taken in
world forums, with our practice in specific policy
areas such as sporting contacts, with our internationaf
human rights treaty obligations, and with the dignity
and aspirations of our indigenous Aboriginal minority,
but would lack any justification in principle.
It was because of his awareness of their intent to
promote the racial obscenity of apartheid that my
colleague, the Minister for Immigration and Ethnic
Affairs, decided last month not to issue visas to
Messrs Durr and Rajab.
For any of the proposed delegates to be a member of
the South African Parliament adds nothing to the quality
of the case you make, given the utterly unrepresentative
and undemocratic character of the South African Parliament
with its wholly racially-based franchise.
If you are able to give me a written assurance that
the proposed presence in Australia of the South African
politicians, as the Opposition's guests, will not be
exploited by them for the purpose of promoting apartheid,
the Government will be prepared to approve the
applications for visas which may result from your request.
Yours sincerely
R. J. L. Hawke