A backbench Labor MP will today rail against “creeping xenophobia” in political debate, taking his own party to task for anti-Asian sentiment in recent campaigns – including over the multi-billion dollar Future Submarines project.

In a draft speech obtained by InDaily, Vietnamese-born Tung Ngo controversially critiques Labor’s campaign in the recent New South Wales state election, and rhetoric used by union and party leaders pushing for a local submarine build, saying “politicians and community leaders should not use xenophobic messages as a way to win votes”.

But neither, he argues, should they “too readily use the word ‘racist’ for the sake of damaging their opponents”.

Ngo, a member of Labor’s right faction, will instead praise the contribution of Malcolm Fraser, calling the late Liberal Prime Minister “one of the most progressive leaders this country has ever seen”.

Fraser, who died in March aged 84, championed the resettlement of some 200,000 Asian and Middle Eastern migrants, including more than 50,000 displaced Vietnamese during and after the Vietnam War.

In a motion to state parliament’s upper house today, Ngo will claim Fraser “opened Australia up to the world with his social reforms”, laying the foundation “for the economic growth of our nation”.

But in a pointed attack on some Labor colleagues, Ngo laments that “xenophobia has been creeping back into Australian political debate in recent times”, arguing “the submarine debate should be about 12 submarines being built in Australia, (to) provide people with jobs in advanced manufacturing and the long-term national security of our nation”.

“This debate has nothing to do with Japan or its people – the debate should be about local jobs, building our capability, security and pride,” he will tell parliament.

Tung Ngo

Labor’s federal leader Bill Shorten was criticised for a strident speech last year when he told workers at ASC Labor would build the submarines locally “because we love this country”. At the same rally, AMWU national secretary Paul Bastian led a chant of: “They gave our jobs to the Japanese.”

Ngo will also take a swipe at the NSW ALP, saying he is “concerned that fear over Chinese and Asian ownership of assets was being used to win votes in the recent NSW state election”.

Labor controversially ran an ad (see the video above) showing an Advertiser front page with a photo of Li Ka-Shing, who has a major share in SA Power Networks (formerly ETSA), which Ngo believes portrayed “anti-Chinese/Asian investor sentiment to this country”.

“Mr Li is a great friend of SA and has regularly visited Adelaide (and) I know various Premiers, Ministers and Opposition Leaders have caught up with Mr Li for lunch or dinner whenever they visit Hong Kong,” Ngo says.

“I notice in Victoria, electricity assets are owned by non-Chinese investors but that didn’t seem to feature (in the NSW scare campaign) at all.

“It is unfortunate that anti-Chinese or anti-Asian sentiment has been and continues to be used by our political leaders to create fear and to score political points … starting with the Gold Rush era, then the White Australia policy, the fear over the Japanese after World War Two, to now, where xenophobia dominates debates about our assets and natural resources.”

Ngo’s speech conspicuously omits any mention of SA Labor’s controversial campaign in the state seat of Elder, which targeted Liberal candidate Carolyn Habib, and has been since referred to the Human Rights Commission for adjudication.

However, he also warns against too-readily hurling the epithet ‘racist’ “for the sake of damaging political opponents”.

“Overuse of the word racist by political groups for political gain runs the risk of downplaying what racism really is,” says Ngo.

“It also does not help the image of this great country abroad; more importantly, it divides and creates a lot of anxiety in the community.”

The first-term Legislative Councillor yesterday sought the assent of caucus to move the motion recognising Fraser, who remains a divisive figure in Labor circles given the manner in which he seized the Prime Ministership from Gough Whitlam.

But Ngo, who came to Australia on a boat as an 11-year old with his older sister after spending time in a Philippines refugee camp, believes Fraser’s social legacy outshines that of Whitlam, arguing it is “no secret that … the Whitlam government, the union movement and significant elements of the Labor Party were opposed to the entry of thousands of Vietnamese, like myself, fleeing persecution from a brutal communist regime”.

“Whitlam never denied that he told the cabinet in 1975 and I quote ‘I’m not having these f***ing Vietnamese Balts coming into the country with their religious and political prejudices against us’,” Ngo will tell parliament.

Referring to demonstrations in 1975 by Baltic State refugees against the Whitlam government’s recognition of their incorporation into the Soviet Union, Ngo believes the uprising “clouded his thinking on the question of admitting Vietnamese refugees” and that his administration baulked at welcoming immigrants fleeing Communist dictatorships for fear of damaging relations with the likes of China and Vietnam.

“Put simply, it does not seem like the Labor Party of the 1970s was in the business of importing those whom they believed would be Liberal voters to Australia, even on such dire humanitarian grounds,” he argues.

“Unfortunately, it was not a proud period in the ALP’s history as many Vietnamese military personnel who served with our Diggers were abandoned and left behind.”

Ngo argues “successive Australian Governments of today from both the Liberal and Labor parties are doing the same thing Gough did”.

“The Australian Government often tries to avoid conflict with our Asian neighbours, with economic benefits often taking precedence over human rights,” his speech says.

He quotes Fraser, as Opposition Leader in April 1975, describing the Whitlam Government’s response to South Vietnam’s situation as “petty and miserable” and arguing for greater Australian intervention.

“Pretty brave for an Opposition Leader; could you imagine Tony Abbott saying that instead of ‘stop the boats’?” Ngo will tell parliament.

“I would argue that by effectively dismantling the White Australia Policy, Malcolm Fraser actually laid the platform for the economic growth of our nation … Hawke and Keating’s economic reforms would have only succeeded with a socially mobile population, one that Asian immigrants would play an important part in.”