Silent Feet

Silent Feet

 

Australia Day, Anzac Day and Remberance Day are important days to all Australians.  It is when we celebrate the birth of our nation, our achievements, and reflect on the many thousands who gave their lives fighting for this country.  Through their determination and sacrifice we are able to enjoy a unique lifestyle and freedom, and an exclusive standard of living, making us the envy of many other countries around the world.

 

When we consider the progress we have made as a nation, we should acknowledge the migrants who have made a contribution to this country in developing the infrastructure that required their engineering skills to enable the Snowy Mountain Hydro Electric Scheme to be completed. one project that we can relate to locally is the Lawson Syphon right here in Deniliquin. 

 

These projects were completed largely by skilled workers from abroad who earned their place in this country and quickly became fully fledged “Aussies”.  They struggled with the language, but were quickly accepted due to their strong work ethic and desire to assimilate with us in their adopted country.

 

Previous Australia Day ceremonies that I have attended speakers have paid tribute to those migrants who established their market gardens, and other enterprising business people who have worked extremely hard, often under the most arduous and primitive conditions, seeking to earn a living and raise their families in their new homeland. The Italian, Greek, Poms and Eastern Europeans have all been great migrants and contributors to this country and have all assimilated well.

 

As a nation we are extremely generous and tolerant.  Some would say we are too generous, and charity begins at home. We are always quick to respond to our neighbours who are affected by any natural disasters, and we provide specialist medical help, emergency aid and military assistance at short notice whenever it becomes necessary.

 

But the world is changing, and far too rapidly for many of us.  Terrorist with “silent feet” planned and executed the terrorist attack on the twin towers in the US in September 2001 that shook the world, and has “changed the way we live, forever”.  It has changed the way we travel, and made us more aware of our surroundings in centres where large numbers of people congregate where any one of us could be a victim of a terrorist attack. We have a different set of values and respect for life of those who come here to disrupt our way of life and daily routine.

 

On Remembrance Day on November 11,  2010 one Government Department in Victoria issued a statement to their employees that they did not want staff to pause for one minutes silence to remember the fallen as it may offend other non- Australians in the workforce.  Unless we voice our opinion on issues such as this in the strongest possible terms, this will become normal practice and those things we value that are very much a part of our custom will become forbidden.

 

For the United Kingdom and the United States it is too late to close the gate. The “enemy within” are well entrenched and have established their networks and are pretty much comfortable in our own backyards. The authorities have huge problems monitoring potential terrorist threats and we have had a number of incidents here that luckily have been foiled before any damage occurred. Only a fool would say that it will not happen in Australia, although it is a far safer place than many other countries around the world.

 

Those who are responsible for terrorism are well settled in the community but they have not assimilated into our way of life and are unlikely to do so at any time in the future.

 

In time they will want to build more mosques and will want their children educated in Muslim schools. 

 

They will require taxpayer funded accommodation and any other government handout they can get.  If you have ever visited a Muslim country and lived in close proximity to a Mosque you would know it does not fit into our culture.

 

 The issue of border protection is a complex one and “boat people” have very few documents and history to identify them.  It is not a simple task to trace a person’s background from a third world country where falsifying documents is rife.

 

 Those who have a criminal background are prepared to wait patiently in the shadows while they meticulously plan acts of terrorism aimed at inflicting maximum casualties against the country that provides them with welfare, housing and an income to support their families without ever giving anything back.

 

We owe it to every Australian serviceman and woman that has lost their lives fighting for this country to ensure that any refugees (particularly boat people who try to enter the country illegally and are at best “queue jumpers”), are given a strong message that they are not welcome here unless they apply through the right channels and satisfy a strict criteria.

 

Peter Costello is the only Politician who made it quite clear that any migrant who acts in breach of the law in regard to any activity connected with terrorism would be immediately deported.

 

Neither the Labour Party nor the Coalition gave any guarantee in the lead up to the last Federal elections that they would get tough with boat people illegally entering Australian waters.  It would appear that if you are relying on the Government to maintain strong border protection you are going to be disappointed.      

 

We also owe the same debt to those who have fought for their country and may be affected by their service fighting for their country on foreign soil. Some handle these debilitating physical and mental health problems better than others, but they all deserve our respect. 

 

Sir Edmund Barton had some strong views on immigrants as early as 1907 when he said” In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an Australian and assimilates himself to us. He shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or origin.  But this is predicted upon the person’s becoming in every facet an Australian. There can be no divided allegiance here.  We have room for but one flag, the Australian flag…….we have room for one language here and that is the English language ….and we have room for but one loyalty, and that is loyalty to the Australian people”.

 

 Australian troops have never been better prepared for war than they are now, but the potential for casualties with Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) placed under the cover of darkness and used extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan has never been greater.  Our troops receive the most thorough and advanced training and the lessons learnt from previous deployments and the ongoing opportunities for exchange and deployment with other coalition forces gives them a great deal of expertise and flexibility but the tempo of the fighting and the pace of the war on terrorism (with a very formidable enemy), is not to be taken lightly. It is well to remember that the Taliban handed out a solid back hander to the Russians a few short years ago.

 

Any parent who has a family member on an overseas deployment should be immensely proud of their involvement and we know from the feedback we are getting from other coalition forces that the Aussie soldier and service men and women are highly regarded for their professionalism and ability to get the job done. That hasn’t changed from our earliest deployments as a young nation when we sent troops to South Africa in 1901. 

 

This is why we owe it to them to be doing the right thing at home while they are away fighting terrorism at the sharp end.

 

Sadly, many veterans and others who cares about our country have expressed a view that they are glad they will not be around to see the result of our “out of control immigration policy” in another 20-30 years. There are others in the community that simply don’t care about what our service men and women have done for them.

 

We can all do something about this, although not in a direct way:

 

·       We need to continue to support our troops who are serving overseas. 

·       Resist all attempts from those who want to change our flag. Many service men and women fought under this flag.

·       Fly the Australian flag at your home.

·       Continue to promote and support Australia Day, Anzac Day and Remberance Day.

·       Protest loudly when minority groups want us to change our culture to suit theirs.

·       Encourage the younger generation to read the military history books and learn about the number of service men and women who have lost their lives on the battlefields so that we can live the way we do. 

·       Instill into the younger generation the values and pride in being a “Fair Dinkum  Aussie” and the reasons we need to retain our own identity.

 

 

John Trist

Deniliquin