A QUIET REVOLUTION

Beginning in 1950, annually until 1966, and then biennially until 1970, Canberra hosted the ‘Citizenship Conventions’ that marked the evolution of Australia’s post-war immigration program. The change of government in December 1949 did not disrupt final planning for the first gathering, held over a week in January, but it was the Liberal Party’s R.G. Menzies rather than J.B. Chifley who, as Prime Minister, spoke to over 200 delegates. Assembled in the Albert Hall, not far from Parliament House, they represented 100 community, religious, industry, union and other interest groups from around Australia. While Canberra in the past had provided the venue for many conferences seeking the status of national representation, none had been as inclusive in participation or theme, or so supported by the imperatives of government policy. None would provide such regular signposts for the evolving nation over which the city presided.

All attending that first meeting were encouraged to work towards the ‘rapid assimilation’ of those who were arriving with ‘developing momentum’. (Over 38 000 assisted British residents and 75 000 European ‘displaced persons’ were among the 147 000 people who came to Australia in 1949; 1950 would see a peak of 149 000 not exceeded until the 1980s.) Bipartisanship prevailed. Menzies expressed ‘the deep gratitude’ owed to the Labor Party for initiating this ambitious policy, and urged delegates to strive at overcoming the ‘active or passive resistance’ meeting immigrants. Australians must go ‘to no end of trouble to make every migrant feel at home’. More pointedly, they must recognise that ‘in an unpeaceful world’, there was no alternative but to welcome those who would add to the stock of ‘the King’s men and the King’s women’. Subsequent conventions expanded on these themes with increasing sophistication. By 1960, over 250 delegates considered the challenge of maintaining a pace of economic development sufficient not only to support population growth but also to embrace new sectors of production, welfare and services in which all citizens must feel ‘at home’.