After the abolishment of the White Australia Policy in 1973, the Government began implementing the Multiculturalism Policy. However, the undercurrent of anti-multiculturalism often appeared and created ripples.
In March 1984, a famous historian in Australia, Professor Geoffrey Blainey, repeatedly made remarks during many meetings saying that multiculturalism policy was detrimental to the interests of the country and majority of Australians, and he was against taking Asian migrants.
His remarks sparked immediate attention. Some federal members of parliament supported his remarks, including the then federal member who later became Prime Minister, John Howard. At the same time, there were reports that some Asians were spit upon on the streets and anti-Asian graffiti appeared in public places.
Facing the rapidly rising anti-Asian political sentiment, a group of concerned people in the Chinese community began to respond. Mr. Francis Lee who was active in the media, published a commentary in ‘The Australian’ in October 1984 to refute Professor Blainey’s viewpoints. This led to heated debates in the media. He and a group of like-minded friends formed the ‘Australian Chinese Forum’ in October 1985 with Francis Lee as the Chairperson (the name was later changed to the current one ‘Chinese Australian Forum’).
Regarding the fallacy of Prof Blainey, Henry and the directors of the Society were also concerned. They believed there was a need to initiate discussions and responses from the community. In March 1985, a forum was held at the Society’s Campsie Child Care Centre to discuss the viewpoints of Blainey and Howard, and the impacts of their views. Conclusions of the discussions was submitted to relevant government departments in the form of opinion letters.
With the widespread publicity of the discussions, leaders of a number of Chinese organisations, including the Australian Chinese Forum, Chinese Youth League and The Chinese Masonic Society etc., met to discuss how to get everyone together to form a national organization as a voice for the Chinese communities in Australia.
To achieve this goal, it was suggested to organize a ‘National Get Together’ at the end of 1986 in Sydney. The original aim was to gather people of the Chinese communities from all the different states and territories to further mutual understanding and share views.
As news about the meeting was spread, it attracted positive responses from people in the Chinese communities among all different states and territories, with huge responses from New South Wales and Victoria, while some states or territories had one or two people only wishing to participate.
During the planning and preparation stages, many diverse and complex situations already appeared among people in the local Chinese community. While there was appeal for the leaders of the different Sydney Chinese community to work together cooperatively and harmoniously for the holding of the event, some of the people from the groups based in south western Sydney (Cabramatta and Fairfield areas) were swearing in meetings due to differing opinions. Someone even held a knife, grasped the collar of another participant and threatened to kill.
The event was planned to be held over 3 days from 28 to 30 November 1986 at the then well-known Mandarin Club in the City of Sydney. Proceedings included keynote speeches, discussions and dinner. Over 100 people attended the event.
Unfortunately, the meeting was often disrupted by heated debates on topics unrelated to the welfare and safeguard of rights of Chinese in Australia. The event ended in chaos, with no final consensus communique published, nor any action afterwards. It was the only national get together for the Chinese communities in Australia.
🤔How would CASS further develop under such circumstances? There’s more to share in the next article!