Prominent Australian businesswoman and philanthropist Janet Holmes à Court was the guest speaker at the fifth annual Barry Jones Oration on Monday.
Ms Holmes à Court’s address at Werribee Mansion focused on asylum seekers, asking how Australia has come to the point it’s now at.
She opened her speech with a 1956 quote from former prime minister Robert Menzies in 1959: “It is a good thing that Australia should have earned a reputation for a sensitive understanding of the problems of people in other lands; that we should not come to be regarded as people who are detached from the miseries of the world,” she quoted before sharing a personal anecdote.
“I was in New York and a cab driver asked where we were from,” she said. “‘We’re from Australia’, we said. The normal response to that is, ‘do you have kangaroos?’ But not this time. His response was, ‘Oh, that’s where you don’t look after asylum seekers very well’. That’s what we are known for.”
Speaking about the demonisation of asylum seekers by the media and politicians, Ms Holmes à Court suggested Australians suffered from a “mysterious case of amnesia” when it came to people arriving on boats.
“There is no expression of fear, bigotry, suspicion and hate that is now directed indiscriminately against Muslims that was not used … against the Irish, Chinese, Jews and so on,” she said.
“I was puzzled by how we came to this … but I think we’ve always been here. It’s time for change.”
The Barry Jones Oration, which honours former Lalor MP Barry Jones, is aimed at raising awareness of economic, education, social and environmental issues.
Mr Jones thanked all in attendance, saying the annual event provided an opportunity to hear ideas and, sometimes, uncomfortable truths.
