In a speech made this week in federal parliament, Perth MP Luke Simpkins accused successive Australian governments of taking a “biased” position in relation to the renaming of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and moreover, the Greek government – supported by Australia’s stance – of seeking “instability” in the Balkans.
“Australians of Greek heritage have bigger issues in their lives than [the naming issue]” Luke Simpkins MP
Alluding to Australia’s long-held position on the FYROM naming issue, Mr Simpkins told the House of Representatives during an adjournment debate that “the failure of successive federal governments to call the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name” was because both sides of politics were fearful that a decision in favour of Skopje would “galvanise the Australian Greek community into a block vote against whoever makes this change.”
Mr Simpkins went on to suggest that Australia’s position “to stand with a very small group of nations [who] remain committed to the UN-sponsored process that aims to achieve a mutually accepted agreement over the name issue” was “a smokescreen that is good for hiding behind for a perceived domestic political advantage”.
While the Liberal MP’s support for Skopje’s position has been widely known and reported on in recent years, his latest appeal for the Abbott Government to alter its policy in regard to the naming issue was marked by offering his personal insights into Greek Australians.
“Australians of Greek heritage have bigger issues in their lives than [the naming issue] and they vote like any other Australians on issues that really affect them, such as the economy and opportunities for them and their families,” he said, before adding that there were “a handful of Australians of Greek heritage who do contact members of parliament” but that not enough Greek Australian voters would vote only according to the issue.
In a statement that is likely to enrage many in the Greek Australian community, Mr Simpkins said it was “tragic that literally a handful of nationalists can exert such power as to control the foreign policy of this nation.”
“Those of Greek heritage are pretty much like every other ethnic community…they are not locked into some false and paranoiac belief that Australia officially uttering the words ‘Republic of Macedonia’ will somehow lose territory of the Hellenic Republic. “
Mr Simpkins said that following Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s reported declaration last year that Skopje’s request to the bilateral name change was “fair enough”, Australia should now “do the right thing and recognise the Republic of Macedonia by its constitutional name.”
The MP added that the Australian Government – by being “unwilling to seek progress” on the naming issue – was responsible for hurting FYROM’s economy.
Unsurprisingly, reaction to the Perth MP’s latest comments on the matter has been immediate and robust.
Professor Anastasios Tamis, President of the Australian Institute for Macedonian Studies, described Mr Simpkins’ statements as “superficial and provocative” and that the name issue “has nothing to do with politics and diplomatic recognitions; it is an anthropological and ethnographic one.”
“The Greeks as a nation – both within Greece and the five million of the Hellenic diaspora – will never compromise their historical and cultural rights as Macedonian Hellenes – hence the name of Macedonia will always remain well rooted within their history…” he told Neos Kosmos.
Professor Tamis added: “The entire population of 550,000 Australian Hellenes are committed devotees of the Macedonian Hellenic legacies, and will never compromise their patriotism to offer to another ethnicity – for unilateral usage, a name which is well-related to their national identity and attested with their history and culture over the last 3,000 years.”
“To claim that a small group of Greek ‘nationalists’ are only keen and sensitive on the issue of ‘Macedonia’ is absurd and fallacious”.