WE DECIDE WHO COMES
‘Australia claims to be a free society with freedom of speech. In a free society, in a
democratic society they should be able to basically take on that criticism or that message
that I'm putting out and be able to deal with it in a civil discourse, not in basically, you
know gagging and arresting and removing people who disagree with them’.
-Scott Parkin
On 10 September this year an American peace activist, Scott Parkin, was arrested outside a
café in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Following his arrest he was locked up for five days, his six-
month visitor’s visa was revoked and he was deported back to the US with a large bill
payable to the Australian Government.
Parkin, from the Texas-based Houston Global Awareness Collective (HGAC), had been in
Australia for six weeks running non-violence training workshops for groups including
Friends of the Earth. Parkin described himself as a student of peaceful social mass
movements in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He had shared his
experiences campaigning with HGAC for the withdrawal of US oil services corporation
Halliburton from Iraq.
He was detained by the Australian Federal Police and immigration officials on the grounds
that he constituted a threat to Australia's national security. He was not charged with any
crime or given further grounds for his detention. Federal Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock
told ABC News that the Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone, revoked Parkin's visa
based on an ASIO Security assessment. The Murdoch media reported the affair as expected,
with The Australian newspaper announcing ‘Deported activist was to teach tactics of
violence.’
A vigil was organised outside the Melbourne custody Centre, with activists taping their
mouths in solidarity. As controversy over his detention grew, the government sought to
limit media access to Parkin. A small group of supporters gathered at the airport to protest
against his deportation on September 15. He plans to appeal.
This paranoid exhibition by the government brings to mind the case of Egon Kisch in 1934,
as related by Wilfred Burchett in ‘At the Barricades’ (1981). Kisch was a Czech writer who
had been living in Germany at the time of Hitler’s takeover. He had been jailed by the
Nazis but later released and expelled. In 1934, fascism was on the march. Hitler was
persecuting Jews in Germany and preparing for war. The Japanese had invaded Manchuria.
However, to the Australian Government the Soviet Union, not the fascist powers, was seen
as the main enemy. This was when Australia was supplying raw materials for Japan’s arms
industry.
The Australian Government was planning to celebrate the anniversary of Melbourne’s
founding with a jingoistic display of the British Empire’s military might. Antiwar activists
regarded the celebrations as a cover to whip up militarist sentiments against the Soviet
Union. The Australian peace movement decided to organise a counter-rally – an antiwar
congress with Egon Kisch as keynote speaker. Robert Menzies, then Attorney-General, was
instructed to ensure that Kisch should not be permitted to land in Australia.
Kisch had a Czech passport and an Australian visa. When his P & O liner arrived in
Fremantle, he was not allowed to land as planned. By the time it reached Melbourne, a
Kisch Defence Committee had formed made up of trade unions, writers, journalists,
lawyers and academics. The ship was surrounded by small boats with banners demanding
that he be allowed to land. Once again Menzies insisted that Kisch was not to leave the
ship. As the ship started to pull away, Kisch jumped overboard, injuring his leg. Police
seized him and he was hustled back aboard before the ship headed for Sydney.
In Sydney an application for habeus corpus (a writ for a person to be brought before a judge
to determine the lawfulness of his or her detention) was lodged with the Supreme Court.
Justice Evatt found that the detention on ship was illegal and ordered Kisch’s release. But
once ashore, he was transferred to the nearest police station, where he was informed that he
had to take a Dictation Test. Under the 1901 Immigration Act, the government had the right
to exclude ‘undesirables’ if they failed to write fifty words of a European language ‘as
dictated by a designated official’. Kisch knew a number of European languages. However,
he didn’t know Scottish Gaelic. He was pronounced to have failed the test, and was locked
up.
Another appeal was launched, and pending the hearing, a magistrate set Kisch free. Leg in
plaster, Kisch went straight to the Sydney Domain, the first of many public gatherings
where he spoke about the situation in Nazi Germany, the persecution of the Jews and the
danger that Hitler would lead the world into a new world war.
The first appeal was rejected, but after a number of subsequent actions the Sydney High
Court found that an immigrant could not be legally tested in Gaelic. The Government
started another action. Meanwhile, two sailors from a German ship leaked the news that
their ship was leaving that evening with a ‘very special prisoner’. Kisch was to be sent back
to Germany. A friendly policeman sent news by a friendly cab-driver to tell Kisch’s lawyer,
who upon hearing the news collapsed. The magistrate adjourned the hearing and the ship
sailed without Kisch. By this time the Government was a laughing-stock, and Kisch had
managed to gain more publicity for his cause than he ever could have imagined.
Additionally, Australians had been given a salutary lesson about freedom of speech.
Menzies eventually dropped the case.
These stories, seventy years apart, lead us to a few thoughts. Firstly, the Parkin affair is not
the first time the Australian government has been exposed in getting rid of undesirable
visitors. Secondly, the message Kisch was spreading turned out to be the truth, just as Scott
Parkin is likely to be telling the truth. Thirdly, it is always better for the judiciary to decide
who gets detained, and for what, and for how long. Separation of powers between the
administrative, the judicial and the legislative is a feature of democratic political systems.
Kisch was aided by the judiciary. Parkin can appeal. More and more, our government is
now intent on increasing administrative powers to detain - with minimal recourse to the
court system - both Australians and people from other countries.
-Claire
TO THIS COUNTRY