australia Xenophobia

australia Xenophobia

One of the main factors I think was the white Australia policy during 1901 to 1973. This was basically policies that restricted the immigration of non-whites into Australia.   Although Australia is seen to have moved on from those times I doubt that the real issues were never resolved instead they were buried. This issue was to try and promote a cultural change within the people of Australia. Instead the Australian government actively promoted immigration and as a result a huge number of people from different countries started to move to Australia, bringing with them their religious beliefs and cultures and customs. This I believe came as huge culture shock to the Australian people initially but over time they began to accept the diversity.

As I mentioned before the underling cultural issues were not solved and were masked, since it also became politically incorrect to be seen as a hard line nationalist or xenophobe.

Over the past 10 years this suppressed xenophobia has started to resurface. The following are just a few examples:
• Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party which won seats in the Queensland parliament, this party also had a large following in a lot of rural towns and also many cities.
• 9/11 – the attack on the twin towers I believe led to increased amount of xenophobia.
• The children overboard issue and also the Tampa saga.
• Mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
• New citizenship tests.
• The treatment of indigenous Australians, plus also how the national apology to the indigenous people only resulted when a new government came into power.( as genuine as it sounded still seemed to be highly politically motivated)
• Cronulla riots.