Turf Club member The Honourable Ivan Trayling OAM honoured in Queens Birthday honours
Posted on - 21 Nov 2016
RWITC member The Honourable Ivan Trayling was awarded the Order of Australia medal - postnominal OAM - by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in what is his third honour and adds to his Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal.
The citation was for “services to the people and Parliament of Victoria” but what is little known was that this included his strengthening of ties between Australia and India.
In the 1970s, as a Member of the Legislative Council of the state Parliament of Victoria, Ivan Trayling promoted closer ties between Australia and India both cultural and economic. Trayling married Mumbai resident and Xavier’s College graduate Bernadette (nee Simmons) in 1977, but his connection to India went further back.
In the early 1970s, Vadilal Dagli – editor of Commerce magazine in India and friend of Ivan Trayling’s – reached out for Ivan to assist well known Indian businessman Mahendra Mafatlal explore economic opportunities with Australia. Ivan introduced Mr Mafatlal to Hon. Jim Cairns, the Minister for Trade. As Vadilal Dagli was accompanying Mr Mafatlal to Australia, Ivan introduced Mr Dagli to the iconic poet AD Hope, in what was a great moment for showcasing Australia’s culture.
In September 1973, Ivan Trayling was invited to meet with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in New Delhi during the country’s emergency period. India was effectively in lockdown and the Prime Minister very selective to foreigners or interviews, but Ivan Trayling’s relationship with Vadilal Dagli and his previous experience with India paved the way for a historic meeting that would later have the Australian Embassy calling on him for intelligence. When Ivan met Prime Minister Gandhi, they talked about not only India’s political and economic situation, but also exchanged comments on perceptions of India in the Western press and the differences between Australia and India with respect to income tax, government spending, politicians’ travel perk differences and land prices/ownership.
In an interview with the Victorian Bairnsdale Advertiser in June, Trayling said, “the whole world had come down on her, everyone was so anti-India. I got to meet with her for an hour and talk about India’s future, including birth control and a whole range of issues. She was very forthcoming with her answers.”
Five years later Ivan would meet Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai in Melbourne, after Sydney’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Prime Minister Desai visited Melbourne briefly to meet with his friend Sir Robert Menzes and on the recommendation of Vadilal Dagli, Ivan, to discuss both country’s economic and political situations. In a February 1978 publication of Commerce magazine, Ivan Trayling described Desai’s reception in Australia to having won over the country.
In around 1977/1978 terrorists of the Anand Marga group threw a severed pig’s head into the Sydney office of Air India (the national carrier of India). Following this police protection was given to the Air India offices in both Melbourne and Sydney but it was withdrawn quicker than Air India would have liked. The manager of Melbourne’s Air India office, knowing Ivan Trayling was a state MP and his relationship with India, met with Ivan to request help in extending police protection as their office staff were very worried about being attacked. After this meeting Ivan Trayling telephoned the Police Commissioner of Victoria to discuss the issue of extending police protection for another week or so, however the police commissioner was not initially inclined to do so. Ivan reasoned with the Commissioner that this issue needed to be taken seriously and otherwise merited to be raised in Parliament on behalf of the Indian community. This led to the Victorian Police Commissioner understanding the importance of Air India’s security concerns and police protection was subsequently re-instated for a week..
An interesting way to objectively measure Ivan Trayling’s impact in promoting Australia - India ties is to look at Sudhershan K. Savara’s book, Fight Against Poverty (published 1977), which analyses Indira’s Gandhi’s stint as Prime Minister and her anti poverty performance/measures. On pages 112 and 113 when the book mentions various countries’ perspectives on Indira Gandhi’s performance, they break-up various country’s positive comments. For Canada, three members of a Canadian delegation to a Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference comment on how India had changed; Britain had Baroness Jannie Lee and a Labour MP quoted; France, Yugoslavia, Iran, Egypt and Botswana had no less than their heads of states – Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, Prime Minister Bjemal Bijedic, the Shah of Iran, Prime Minister Anwar Sadat and President Sir Seretse Khama, respectively – commenting. As for Australia… only one mention under the country’s heading. Not a head of state or members of a delegation…. but just "Ivan Trayling.”
He is also mentioned in the book The Changing Image of India (published 1977), by Santwana Kumar Das, as part being in Indira Gandhi’s schedule as, “interview with Mr Ivan Trayling, Australian legislator.” This also backs the view that he was considered in India to be not just a state representative but one for all of Australia at the time.
For this was a time before India had multiple Australian Trade Commission offices in India and before the creation of the Australia India Business council. Real legwork and representation of Australia to India and indeed vice versa, was being performed by Ivan Trayling.
(Disclaimer: The content has been received from the family of The Honourable Ivan Trayling, and reproduced as is)
