-1,, AUSTRALIA
PRIME MINISTER
POLITICAL ACTIVITY BY VIETNAMESE REFUGEES
The Prime Minister, Mr Whitlam, today described as
false and misleading suggestions made by the opposition
during Question Time that the Australian Government had
proscribed the right of domestic political activity of
Vietnamese refugees who have entered this country.
Mr Whitlam said that only nine of the nearly 1000
Vietnamese who have so far come to Australia had been asked
to provide an undertaking that they would eschew political
activity. These nine persons were all admitted as special
cases because of the high risks to their security caused by
the change of Government. Each had been politically active
and involved in the policies of the previous Government.
Mr Whitlam recalled that such undertakings were
not novel. The policy was first developed by previous
Liberal/ Country Party Governments. He had been informed
that Mr Mikis Theodorakis had been requested to give a similar
undertaking, All Colombo Plan students were required by
previous Governments to sign a guarantee that they would not
engage in political activity during the period of their
residence in this country.
" It is to be expected", said Mr Whitlam, " that
refugees who were forced to leave their homeland will resent
the fact and long remember it. But it cannot be accepted
that this is justification for using Australia as a base
for futile political activity intended to change political
arrangements in their native land", he said. " For too long
now Australians and Australia have had to suffer the violence
and lawlessness of some emigre political groups who, in fantasy
fashion, believe that by their efforts they can alter these
political facts."
Mr Whitlam said that the Australian Government did
not discriminate between refugees in its requirement for such
undertakings. If Australian officials thought it possible
that certain refugees could cause dissension, disruption or
strife within ethnic groups, then they would be asked for such
an undertaking whether, for instance, they were Chilean or
Vietnamese. No discrimination between ethnic groups has been
practised or will be practised. The requirement will continue
to be put whenever it is justified and whatever the ethnic
origin of the refugees. / 2
-2-
Mr Whitlam said the Opposition charges were
designed to mask its guilt over Australia's intervention
in Vietnam. Mr Whitlam said that, unlike previous
Governments, the present Australian Government granted
citizenship to applicants irrespective of their political
views. Quite obviously, he said, a written undertaking
could not diminish the rights conferred by Australian
citizenship which all of the refugees were now entitled
-to seek under Government policies. The reqUirement . is
justified by the need to maintain peace and order in the
community. It is, he said, clear that upon becoming
citizens they could ignore that undertaking as no such
requirement can be made of an Australian citizen.
Mr Whitlam said no Government could tolerate its
-territory being used as a base for action designed to
overthrow the recognised Government of another country.
Whatever the Australian people or Government might think
of another Government's policies, there is no choice but
to prevent persons in Australia from taking action to
remove such a Government. This is the only reason for
such an undertaking being required. Its need is regrettably
apparent because of events in certain of the migrant
communities. As I have said before about other places, it
is no kindness and in fact a delusion to suggest to refugees
that there is any prospect of altering the political
arrangements in their former homelands. Unfortunately,
as we have seen often, such suggestions are promoted by
the disaffected within ethnic communities, generally to
the detriment of those communities and the wider Australian
community", Mr Whitlam said.
0 Mr Whitlam said that he would like to assure
any person who had been required to give an undertaking by
the present or previous Governments, that, they were entitled
to all rights of political activity in the Australian
community provided by Australian law. He said he regretted
that yet again, by its deliberate tactics, the Opposition
had set out to confuse migrants.
CANBERRA, 21 August 1975