A story that appeared in the Herald Sun describing comments made by State Labor MP John Pandazopoulos at a conference last week as “divisive” has been ridiculed by the member for Dandenong and others – and quite rightly.
Pandazopoulos attended the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria conference and gave a speech which described the diverse multicultural background of many of the Diggers who fought and fell at Gallipoli – and how an even deeper understanding of the ANZAC story can be achieved by honouring the sacrifice of Australians born overseas.
The Herald Sun chose to interpret the MP’s words and intentions differently. News Ltd journo John Masanauskas quoted RSL state president Maj-Gen David McLachlan as saying Pandazopoulos’ comments were “divisive” (Masanauskas’ word) before going on to directly quote the RSL head as saying: “We need to recognise the culture of the people, but if we’re going to make this nation, we’ve got to be united as Australians,” before adding: “All those who served . . . were there as Australians.
The Major General was also quoted as saying: “They didn’t go there as Greeks or French or anything else. We’ve got to get over this business of what your origin was.” The story was picked up by 3AW’s Neil Mitchell who added to the media beat-up by posting on the station’s blog: “Have you ever heard so much nonsense? There is a campaign to honour specifically a section of the Australian Defence Force that fought and died at Gallipoli.”
He was wrong. There isn’t a campaign and it’s mischievous in the extreme to suggest that that was what Pandazopoulos was proposing. The MP understandably took to a more direct unmediated media channel to give his response. On his Facebook page he wrote: “Know-all Neil Mitchell never even spoke to me about what I was supposed to have said. “I never said that there should be separate recognition.
This is just divisive media diatribe. “I said that we should understand that many Anzacs were born overseas, that many Australians had joined with British forces and that we should recognise our allies, many of whose descendants call Australia home.” In answer to the Herald Sun’s original story, Pandazopoulos wrote: “My speech was not only recognising the diverse origin of Anzacs but mostly as a migrant-nation honouring our Allies as well who have been forgotten – they were Irish, Canadians, Scottish, Welsh, Kiwi, Maori, French, Cypriot, Jewish, Maltese, Egyptian, West and North African as well as Greek. “Their descendants are now Australians.
They have a double bond… My kids have a Gallipoli link through their great-great grandfather, who was an English soldier and not Australian. Isn’t the Gallipoli story part of their story? Pandazopoulos’ final remarks included a question, as to whether the Herald Sun and 3AW’s response to his speech would have been different “if these facts were stated by a historian rather than someone of Greek descent? You decide.”