Andrew Fisher

Quotes

Parliamentary Hansard 6th November 1901

'The return to this Parliament of such a large number of labour members from Queensland is a proof of the position which we hold in the esteem of the electors of that State. I come now to the larger question, with which I shall deal very briefly. As I have already pointed out, there is in Queensland a class of people which is in touch with a band of speculators resident outside of Australia.

For years past these people have been contending that the white race should not attempt to cultivate the soil of, or, indeed, to live in, a large part of Australia except as governors, and directors of semi-servile races. That aspect of the question has been forcibly put in London again and again. In Queensland the leading newspaper openly urges the same point. But whilst this journal is pleading for delay by advocating the appointment of a Royal commission to inquire into the sugar industry, it has maintained that it will never be possible for the white race to develop the tropical portion of Australia. When a newspaper of such standing adopts an attitude of that kind with the object of leading the average elector to suppose that it is opposed to the employment of kanaka labour, we should be treading on very dangerous ground if we listened to it.

We are not afraid of the facts. At the same time, I fear the result of delay in the settlement of this question. The speculators of whom I have spoken are a sleepless body, who are gaining wealth by the employment of this class of labour. Many of them are living comfortably in other countries. I ventured the prediction a short time ago that if the industry and the interests involved were three times as large as they are, civil war would result. A prominent politician in the northern State, in reply, said - " If the interests were three times as large as they are, you would not be able to deal with the industry." Yet we are asked in circumstances of this sort to delay action. This question admits of no delay. It can be best dealt with now. We have told the world, by means of the Immigration Restriction Bill, that we do not desire the presence of coloured aliens here. I hope that we shall tell the world just as emphatically, by means of this Bill, not only that do we not need coloured labour to develop our States, but that we deem it inadvisable to have it in our midst.

I desire that we shall be able to proclaim to the world that the whole of Australia, and not a part of it, has been reserved for the use of the white man. If the northern tropical lands are not developed so speedily by the white race as they would be by Asiatics - and I admit that they will not be - we shall at least have as a set-off against that disadvantage one race and one people who " are equal in voting power, and who are ready and able in time of emergency to defend our shores.

I do not admire those advocates of coloured labour who urge that Australians are equal to any men in the world when they go forth to fight the battles of the Empire, but who, when they are sent to earn a pittance of 4s. or 5s. a day in Queensland, say that they are inferior. Every other page of the Brisbane Courier reports contains an insult to the white man. It is urged that he will work for two or three days and then get drunk ; that he cannot be relied upon. In my early days it was said that the white man could not be relied upon because a goldfield might break out, and he would leave his employment to tempt fortune upon the diggings. The truth is that the white man can never be relied upon if he is to receive only poor habitation conditions and 25s. a week. How can we expect men to" forsake all the attractions of a city life for a wage of 25s. a week 1'

I am ashamed of those in the State of Queensland who talk about appealing to the Colonial office. If they are going to appeal to the Colonial-office to frustrate the wish of this Parliament I shall oppose them very strongly. If there is to be an attempt to work up an agitation to show that Australians are an inferior class of people, who are to be governed and guided by Downing-street, the sooner they are told that they are on the wrong track the better. Australians will then take a course which will not be at all palatable either to Downing-street or to any other street. I would not tolerate for one moment the interference of British statesmen in a matter in regard to which we are sure of our facts.

I would not for one moment remain in a Parliament which tolerated any such interference. I would rather be hounded out of Parliament twenty times over. I shall always resist any encroachment upon the right of Australia to govern itself in its own way.