September 17 was Australian Citizenship day, but it went unnoticed by most. Yet alongside gender and Indigeneity, multiculturalism stands as the third dimension of our national identity. The date is the anniversary of the renaming, in 1973, of the Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 to the Australian Citizenship Act 1948.
Until then, everyone born in Australia and residents born in Commonwealth countries were British subjects. Those born in other countries were “aliens” who could be naturalised to become British subjects. When the original Act took effect on 26 January 1949, it made all former British subjects Australian citizens and enabled those born anywhere overseas to become naturalised Australians. Amended several times since then, it was superseded by the current Australian Citizenship (Transitionals and Consequentials) Act 2007.
The Immigration Act, also passed in 1948, opened the way for large-scale immigration and ushered in waves of early post-war migrants and continuing waves ever since. Overseas born Australians now account for 30% of the population, eight in ten of them born in non-English speaking countries. The great majority of migrants become citizens, so they account for a similar share of voters.
Who was our first ‘multicultural’ member of the federal Parliament?
We have identified Dr Richard (Dick) Klugman as our first multicultural MP on the basis of four criteria. First, he was born in a non-Commonwealth country, hence an “alien” on arriving in Australia, and second, he had a non-English speaking ancestry. Third, he was naturalised as an Australian citizen under the Citizenship Act 1948, although a British subject for an interval between arrival and 1949. Last, he was elected to Parliament as a naturalised Australian citizen, that is, he was not already an MP before the 1948 Act. Information from the Parliamentary Library definitively rules out a number of pre-war contenders whose citizenship is uncertain on one or more of these criteria.
Dick Klugman was born in Vienna in 1924, to Polish born parents who became Italian nationals in the 1930s. He arrived in Australia with his family in 1938, aged 14, and not speaking English. He excelled to be dux at Hurlstone Agricultural High School in Sydney and completed degrees in science and medicine at Sydney University. As a general practitioner in the western suburbs of Guilford and Villawood for about 20 years, he got to know the local community and they got to know him.
He was elected Labor member for the new seat of Prospect in 1969. Then on the outer south-west fringe of Sydney, suburbanisation over the next 20 years saw a large multicultural population settle there. Klugman represented Prospect until his retirement from parliament in 1990. Post-retirement, he served for two decades as a member of the council of the Australian National University. He died in February 2011. His obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald observed “his life epitomised the gains Australia enjoyed from European migration associated with World War II”.
Multiculturalism has come a long way since the Whitlam Government and Al Grassby. The increasingly diverse countries of origin of migrants are seen in the 47th federal Parliament. The guide to cultural diversity, compiled by the Parliamentary Library in September 2023, lists eight senators and three MHRs who reported Indigenous ancestry, and 48 reporting non-English speaking ancestry. The 13 first generation migrant members include ministers Penny Wong and Anne Aly and the 35 second generation members include Anthony Albanese. They are from all parties: 25 are Labor members, 13 Liberal, three National and the remaining seven are minor parties or independents. Eleven reported Italian ancestry, 14 had 10 different European ancestries and the other 19 were spread across the world from Egypt to Fiji.
It is time for this diversity of the electorate and the Parliament to be recognised in the same way that women and Indigenous members of parliament, and the populations they come from, have been recognised in the Parliamentary Triangle. A statue of Klugman would recognise him as pioneering the way for the naturalised Australians elected to parliament over more than six decades. It would join the statues of Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons, the first women elected together in 1943, and a coming statue of Neville Bonner as the first Indigenous member. It will also stand for all immigrants who have become Australian citizens and exercised their right to vote. It would prompt us to think about the rights and responsibilities of citizenship that unite us and responses to social change that can encourage migrants to become citizens.
Klugman was a founding member of the NSW Council of Civil Liberties in 1963 and maintained his strong commitment to human rights and civil liberties throughout his career inside and outside Parliament. Ever the dissident who challenged the established order, he exhibited a spirit of critical inquiry that is much needed in today’s MPs. He would be a strong supporter of the proposals in the report “Towards fairness: A multicultural Australia for all” released by the immigration minister in late July to enable more migrants to become Australian citizens. Perhaps as he did and others have since, some might become members of parliament.
Anna Howe
Anna Howe PhD, Honorary Professor, Department of Sociology, Macquarie University
Kristine Klugman
Kristine Klugman PhD OAM is President of Civil Liberties Australia.
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