Politics

The Chinese-Australian Community Is Paying Special Tribute To Bob Hawke Today

His response to the Tiananmen Square massacre should be an example for leaders today.

by Sam Langford  17 May 2019
Bob Hawke

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Overnight, social media was flooded with tributes to Bob Hawke, Australia’s beloved former Prime Minister who died yesterday. So many people loved Hawke, but many of the most moving tributes to his memory come from the Chinese-Australian community, and with good reason.

If you’re unfamiliar with Bob Hawke’s time as PM, here’s why. Thirty years ago, in June 1989, the Chinese military opened fire on protesters in Tiananmen Square, in what has become known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. An official death toll has never been released, but estimates range from hundreds to thousands, as high as 10,000 according to some sources.

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Former PM Bob Hawke Has Died

Hawke was Australia’s Prime Minister at the time of the massacre, and his response is famous: in a tearful speech, he offered asylum to all Chinese students in Australia.

We know now that he did this unilaterally, without consulting cabinet. “I had no consultation with anyone,” Hawke told The Guardian in 2015. “When I walked off the dais [after the announcement], I was told: ‘You cannot do that, prime minister.’ I said to them, ‘I just did. It is done.’ ”

Hawke’s actions made it possible for thousands of Chinese students and their families to make Australia their home. Today, many of the children of those students are sharing what that generosity means to them.

Hawke’s decision, thirty years ago, flew in the face of the government’s immigration quotas. It faced opposition at the time, but Hawke stood his ground.

Compare that to the government’s current treatment of asylum seekers, and it’s extraordinary. Today our Prime Minister won’t step in to help a single asylum seeker family whose community is begging for them to stay. He spent $185 million to re-open a detention centre on Christmas Island for a few months rather than transfer people to Australia for urgent medical care.

Thirty years have demonstrated that Hawke made the right call. The outpouring of gratitude today from Chinese-Australians is worth your time, as is the video of Hawke’s speech below. With a federal election taking place tomorrow, these are pretty timely reminders of what Australia once was, and what it could again be.