Like many Queenslanders, I was shocked when Liberal Party state president Bob Carroll announced last month that he would direct preferences to Pauline Hanson’s One Nation ahead of Labor. But nothing prepared me for the supposed high support that One Nation has in regional areas such as Gympie and Hervey Bay.
One wonders whether regional voters understand what One Nation really stands for and what the true impact on regional Australia would be if its members should gain office.
In September 1996, Hanson shot to fame through her attack on Asian Australians and Australia’s multicultural policy. In her maiden speech to Parliament, she said: ‘Immigration and multiculturalism are issues the Government is trying to address but for far too long ordinary Australians have been kept out of any debate by the major parties. I and most Australians want our immigration policy reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished. I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians.’
Like many on the far-right, Hanson and One Nation attack multiculturalism for favouring migrants over ‘ordinary’ Australians and for being divisive.
The previous government has been attacked for having high immigration at a time of high unemployment but the criticism ignores many studies which show that from increasing unemployment, immigration can have a positive effect on employment opportunities.
One has to look no further than Gympie for record unemployment rates, particularly among the young Gympie’s high support of One Nation implies that the residents have swallowed the line that migrants and multiculturalism are the cause of all their problems.
What right-wing groups such as One Nation have failed to explain to voters is the true reason for their suffering. Are Asian immigrants to be blamed for the closure of the local bank, Australia Post, employment agency or Medicare office? Are Asian immigrants behind the conservative Government’s competition policies, which have seen the downsizing of government services?
The pain caused by globalisation cannot be solved by attacks on immigrants and yet it seems that John Howard’s government has been rather slow to defend minority groups such as Australians of Asian background. Could it be that Howard’s government hopes it can continue its conservative policies unhindered while the immigrant community bears the blame for Australia’s unemployed?
Professor James Jupp of the Australian National University listed the dimensions of multiculturalism as:
- The right of all Australians to express and share their individual cultural heritage, including their language and religion.
- The right of all Australians to equality of treatment and opportunity and the removal of barriers of race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender or place of birth.
- The need to maintain, develop and utilise effectively the skills and talents of all Australians, regardless of background.
It also imposes obligations as well as conferring rights - the right to express one’s own culture and beliefs involves a reciprocal responsibility to accept the rights of others to express their views and values. Hanson ignores such principles and makes a simple-minded comparison to Ireland and Bosnia as reasons for opposing a multicultural Australia.
The residents of Gympie, Hervey Bay and other regional areas must ask themselves whether attacking Australians of Asian background is the only policy that One Nation has for countering the effect of globalisation and whether attacking Australians of Asian background will solve Gympie’s unemployment.
Voters should be aware that the politics of blame is far more divisive than any policy currently in place, spreading swiftly to all sections of the community. Arguments which separate Australians and pit them against one another can have terrible results.
Without the migrant community, One Nation will simply exploit the division between urban and regional Australia, which could result in urban Australians turning against regional communities because of misconceived notions of wealth and mismanagement within farming and regional communities.
The resounding vote for peace in Northern Ireland shows that even once bitter enemies, the Catholics and the Protestants, can live together. If there can be unity in Northern Ireland, why not in Australia?
Published in The Courier Mail, 27th May 1998
by Anthony Lee Australian Democrats (Asian) candidate for the state seat of South Brisbane.
