SYDNEY—The New South Wales Legislative Council has debated and unanimously passed a motion calling on Australia’s largest state’s government to expand Holocaust education to include the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides and establish a Museum to create further awareness, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
The motion, presented to the Legislative Council in the last sitting week of 2023 by Chris Rath MLC, was debated on Wednesday, February 7.
Members from across the political aisle spoke on the historic motion, including Daniel Mookhey MLC (ALP), Dr. Amanda Cohn MLC (GRNS), Susan Carter MLC (LIB), Mark Buttigieg MLC (ALP), Jacqui Munro MLC (LIB), Anthony D’Adam MLC (ALP), and Stephen Lawrence MLC (ALP).
In particular, powerful statements were made in support of expanding genocide education to incorporate the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocide in the curriculum and establish a museum to create awareness about the genocide, by Rath, Munro, Cater and Buttigieg.
Rath, the youngest ever member of the NSW Legislative Council – appointed in March 2022 – said, “All of us as Australians—students and children—know a lot about the Holocaust, and rightly so. Many, many years later I learnt about the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek genocides. They are still not well known and not well taught, which is a very sad thing and exactly what the motion is about.”
ANC-AU Executive Director, Michael Kolokossian welcomed the historic undertaking by the NSW Upper House.
“The Armenian-Australian community thanks Mr. Rath and his colleagues in the Legislative Council for ensuring New South Wales continues to lead the way after being the first state legislature to recognise the Armenian Genocide and the Republic of Artsakh,” Kolokossian said. “The teaching of the darkest chapter of Armenian history is the next step to ensuring we have a more vocal citizenry when future attempts to exterminate our race – as we witnessed with the recent ethnic cleansing of Artsakh – are attempted by criminal autocratic regimes.”