Henry Parkes Push For Federation Essay

Sir Henry Parkes Push for Federation

From October 24 1889, Sir Henry Parkes has been considered the ‘Father of Federation’ and the first influential Australian to publicly press for the establishment of a new federal government. In his 1889 Federation speech, “the Tenterfield Oration”, Parkes addressed matters of national defence and a national railway transport system with a uniform rail gauge. He also proposed a national convention to progress the push for Federation. Parkes later added the issues of inter-colonial trade tariffs and an exclusionist immigration program to his proposal.

Parkes felt that Australia must have a national defence force to protect the nation from foreign attack. Interest in the South Pacific had been made clear
For much of Australia’s history until Federation, British immigrants had composed a significant proportion of the population. Australia experienced an influx in Chinese immigration during the 1850s gold rushes and many people wanted to maintain a strong British heritage in Australia. British Australians were afraid that any available jobs would be taken by Asian immigrants, as they were prepared to work for less pay than British Australians. Queensland allowed the immigration of indentured labourers from the South Pacific islands to work in the cane fields. This created a fear among “white” Australians of racial conflict occurring in Australia, with the recent American civil war fresh in peoples minds. A fear of exotic disease and illness being introduced was common in British Australians, despite the number of diseases they had introduced when settling
Without Sir Henry Parkes’ push for Federation, Australia might not be the organised, systematic nation we know