This record shows pages from a petition sent to prime minister Alfred Deakin in 1906. It was created by the Pacific Islanders' Association and signed by 426 people.
A petition is a written request for change, addressed to someone in authority and signed by a number of people. Petitions are an example of how people can band together to seek change and be heard by the Australian government.
The Pacific Islanders Association represented people from over 80 different islands, including the New Hebrides (Vanuatu) and the Solomon Islands. They worked in the sugarcane and cotton industries in Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Many Pacific Islanders were kidnapped from their homelands in the early 1860s and then paid nothing for their labour in Australia. In other words, they were treated like slaves.
Later in the 1860s, a new law was passed in Queensland requiring Pacific Islanders to sign three-year contracts with their employers. They were heavily exploited under these contracts. Men, women and children were forced to work long, exhausting hours for no or low wages, while enduring very poor living conditions.
It is estimated that between 55,000 to 62,500 Pacific Islanders came to Australia between 1863 and 1904 to work in the sugarcane and cotton industries. After their contracts ended many Pacific Islanders stayed in Australia, acquired land and had families.
Shortly after Federation, the new Australian Government passed the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. This act became the cornerstone of a racist policy known today as the White Australia policy. This discriminatory policy sought to restrict immigration to Australia by people who were not white, in order to keep the new Australian nation 'British.'
The White Australia policy included laws that discriminated against Pacific Islanders in particular. Pacific Islander Labourers Act 1901 banned labourers from the Pacific Islands from entering Australia after 1904, and mandated the deportation of any remaining Islanders after 1906. Those keen to stay formed groups to lobby politicians and other leading figures – producing documents like this petition. They succeeded in having categories of exemption incorporated into the Act.
The exemptions incorporated into the act meant that a labourer originally from the Pacific Islands could avoid deportation if:
- They had resided in Australia for over 20 years
- They had married an Australian woman
- They had married a woman from a different island to their own
- They could no longer work due to 'bodily misfortune.'
As a result of these exemptions, 1,380 Pacific Islanders were legally allowed to stay in Australia. An estimated 1,000 others remained illegally. Meanwhile, around 7500 people were deported under the act.
In the year 2000, the Queensland Government formally recognised Australian South Sea Islanders – the descendants of Pacific Islander labourers – as a distinct cultural group who have played a major role in the economic, cultural and regional development of Queensland. In an official statement signed by the Queensland Premier, Speaker, and Leader of the Opposition, the state government acknowledged and expressed regret over the unjust treatment of Australian South Sea Islanders before and during the White Australia policy.
Today, the right to freedom from slavery and freedom from forced labour are internationally recognised human rights. The Australian Government has demonstrated its commitment to eliminating slavery and forced labour by signing the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and by making slavery, servitude, forced labour, debt bondage and human trafficking illegal under the Criminal Code Act 1995.
