FATHER Frank Brennan told his audience at the annual Light on the Hill dinner that those who thought stopping the boats was a major national emergency have no historical sense of perspective.
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Fr Brennan delivered his keynote address in front of 140 guests at Bathurst Panthers on Saturday evening.
He pointed to the “leaps and bounds made with post-war reconstruction”, before pondering what Bathurst’s favourite son – former prime minister Ben Chifley – would have done when confronted with the “poisonous cocktail” of the contemporary asylum issue.
“Would he have tried a Pacific Solution, a Timor Solution, a Malaysia Solution, or a PNG Solution?” Fr Brennan asked.
“Both sides of Australian politics are now committed to stopping the boats but disagree as to how it might best be done.
“Chifley would think it time to set down a few incontrovertible ethical parameters. He would take professional advice. He would insist on a fair go for all – those on boats, those stranded in remote camps, and those trapped in transit countries.
“He would not take refuge in flowery rhetoric or one-line slogans.”
An advocate in law, social justice, refugee issues and Aboriginal reconciliation, Fr Brennan reflected on the role Aborigines played in ensuring the safe arrival and settlement of his Irish forbearers.
He said that, 150 years ago, the traditional owners helped his ancestors and their fellow passengers on the David McIver to find safe anchorage so that they might call Australia home.
“The David McIver was only the second migrant ship ever to come into Hervey Bay and there were two Aborigines happy to extend a helping hand to complete strangers who must have looked very strange indeed,” he said.
“If my mob ... were to arrive by boat today uninvited, they would be sent to Papua New Guinea.”
Touching on another timely issue, Fr Brennan said the confusion over religion and politics was presently being played out in Australia over the same-sex marriage debate.
“Any extension of the civil law’s definition of marriage should be the preserve of the Commonwealth Parliament with all members being granted a conscience vote,” he said.
“As a Catholic priest and as an Australian citizen I think the public good would be best served by all parties in the federal parliament being granted a conscience vote on same-sex marriage.”
