TRANSCRIPT - SPEECH - NATIONAL MARATIME MUSEUM - SATURDAY 22, NOVEMBER 2025

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

SPEECH - NATIONAL MARATIME MUSEUM

SUBJECTS: UNVEILING OF NATIONAL MONUMENT TO MIGRATION, NATIONAL MARATIME MUSEUM CHAIR HIEU VAN LE, IMMIGRATION

SATURDAY 22, NOVEMBER 2025

TONY BURKE: Thank you so much. And thank you, Olivia. That was just absolutely extraordinary. Matt, I want to thank you for providing a welcome to country.

When we look at the history and think of all the different words that could be said, the fact that we keep hearing the word “welcome” is an extraordinary act of generosity. Today, in honouring the Welcome Wall we're trying to follow the same example, Matt, that you and First Nations people are giving us every single day.

To each and every one of you, today is a celebration of modern Australia. That's what we're celebrating today. I know that we're at a particular moment in Australian commentary, right now. Not long ago, on the other side of Sydney, there was a very different gathering of people with a very different view on the celebration of immigration. One of those people - and it still stuns me - travelled from another country, flew here, stayed here for three hours and then started telling everybody else to leave. He will soon be leading and leaving by example, that individual.

Normally, when we choose someone to be chair of the National Maritime Museum, we choose somebody who absolutely loves getting out on the water and is passionate in doing so. With Hieu Van Le, we have somebody who dreads getting out on the water because so much of the experience and risk that he and his loved ones took 48 years ago. But I think it sends the most wonderful message to Australia that the national institution dedicated to remembering our maritime history, is chaired and led by Hieu Van Le, somebody who came to this country on a vessel. So, thank you Hieu.

Hieu’s already referred to the invisible suitcase that he was carrying, and so many of you who are being honoured in that wall, will have told your children and grandchildren about either the invisible suitcase or the one suitcase that you had when you travelled to Australia. But for each and every one of you, it was a suitcase full of dreams. Today, what we're honouring in that wall is an acknowledgement that was not simply a story for yourself. It was not simply a story for your family, but your decision is part of the building blocks of what makes modern Australia. Modern Australia and multicultural Australia are exactly the same thing. Part of loving Australia is loving who we are and your story is intrinsically part of Australia's story and deserves to be officially honoured the way it is today.

Those names that are there are all people who took a decision that I could not imagine taking. There's never been a moment – I've basically never moved more than five kilometres from where I was first raised. The concept of leaving everything and deciding to start a new life in Australia is a massive decision and I might say a huge compliment to Australia that you have paid us. A compliment where you have looked at the world and you have chosen us not simply to dedicate something small to, but to dedicate the rest of your life to. I know that for myself, the last people who arrived on my line of ancestry arrived a very long time ago. When they came on a vessel fleeing a famine in Ireland, they arrived in the 1860s, the very last of mine, everyone else had arrived before them. But can I tell you this? I know who they are. I know their names. They died long before I was born, but I know who they are because they are the reason I'm Australian.

The names on that wall, for family members who are here right now and for generations of people not yet born – who those we honour, will never know. Your name will always be honoured because you are the reason they are Australian and for the achievement and the aspirations that they have. You didn't know that they were within your suitcase full of dreams, but they certainly were.

When you came, I want to remind you, we didn't just want you to do what some countries, like the United States, which characterise themselves as a melting pot. We didn't want you to leave your traditions, your ideals and your heritage at the door. We want you for everything you are and for the skills that you bring, for the values that you hold, for the traditions that you know, for the heritage that you own, that has been part of your gift to the Australian story. In bringing everything that you are, with each immigrant who has arrived, you have brought yourself and your traditions and your cultural heritage as a gift, as a new instrument in the orchestra that we call Australia that continues to build a phenomenal symphony together. We celebrate all of that today.

For all of those who are here today, you all, in different ways, have a connection to that wall. The connection might be, as mine is, that you're connected to that wall because you love this country and that wall is part of the story and contribution of this country. You might have the connection that a name on that wall is the name of somebody who's no longer with us, but they are the reason you are Australian. The connection might be that it is you that we honour on that wall today. But no matter what your connection is, please own the celebration today. Multicultural Australia is not a subset of who we are. It's the definition of modern Australia. We have so much to celebrate, and we celebrate it with the spirit that is there on the words in big letters above that wall, “welcome”.

ENDS