The is a generic term used to describe a collection of historical Legislation and Policies , intended to restrict non- White Immigration to Australia , and to promote European immigration, from 1901 to 1973. However, the Policy started unravelling some decades earlier than this, with reforms starting in the 1940s that encouraged non-British and non-white immigration. From 1973 onwards, the White Australia policy was for all practical purposes defunct, and in 1975 the Australian Government passed the 1975 Racial Discrimination Act which made racially-based selection criteria illegal.
Restrictions on immigration began with anti- Chinese legislation during the Australian Goldrushes of the 1850s. The key Legislative enactment of the White Australia Policy was the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. Discriminatory immigration policies were gradually removed between the end of World War II and 1982 with racially discriminatory aspects of the Migration Act 1958 officially overturned in 1973.
"White Australia Policy" is also commonly used to refer to the conception of Australia in Ethno-nationalistic terms.
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http://wwwmanningclarkorgau/papers/belonginghtm
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Anne-Mari
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2004-07-01
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Belonging and exclusion: national identity and citizenship, immigration and multiculturalism
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Manning Clark House Inc
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2006-06-14
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Dr James
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Immigration and Citizenship
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University of Melbourne
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwhighbeamcom/library/docfreeaspDOCID=1G1:18167215&ctrlInfo=Round20%3AMode20c%3ADocG%3AResult&ao=
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Markey
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Raymond
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1996-01-01
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Race and organized labor in Australia, 1850-1901
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This tension eventually led to a series of protests and riots, including the
Lambing Flat Riots between 1860 and 1861.
Governor Hotham , on
16 November 1854 , appointed a
Royal Commission on Victorian gold-fields problems and grievances. This led to restrictions being placed on Chinese immigration and residency taxes levied from Chinese residents in
Victoria from 1855 with New South Wales following suit in 1861. These restrictions remained in force until the early 1870s, but the tension never ceased.
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http://membersoptusnetcomau/~griff52/Shadow%20of%20millrtf
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Griffiths
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Phil
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2002-07-04
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Towards White Australia: The shadow of Mill and the spectre of slavery in the 1880s debates on Chinese immigration
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RTF
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11th Biennial National Conference of the Australian Historical Association
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwmuseumvicgovau/federation/pdfs/multiwpdf
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Willoughby
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Emma
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Our Federation Journey 1901 - 2001
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Objections to immigration restrictions for non-whites came largely from wealthy land owners in rural areas. It was argued that without "Asiatics" to work in the tropical areas of the
Northern Territory and
Queensland , the area would have to be abandoned. Despite these objections to restricting immigration, between 1875-1888 all Australian colonies enacted legislation which excluded all further Chinese immigration. Asian immigrants already residing in the Australian colonies were not expelled and retained precisely the same rights as their Anglo and Celtic compatriots insofar as citizenship.
Agreements were made to further increase these restrictions in 1895 following an Inter-colonial Premier's Conference where all colonies agreed to extend entry restrictions to all non-white races. However, in attempting to enact this legislation, the Governors of New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania reserved the bills, due to a treaty with Japan, and they did not become law. Instead, the Natal Act of 1897 was introduced, restricting "undesirable persons" rather than any specific race.
Immigration was a prominent topic in the lead up to Australian
Federation . At the Federation Convention, Western Australian premier and future federal cabinet member, John Forrest, summarised the prevailing feeling:
is of no use to shut our eyes to the fact that there is a great feeling all over Australia against the introduction of coloured persons. It goes without saying that we do not like to talk about it, but it is so.
The government following Federation in 1901 was formed by the
Protectionist Party with the support of the
Australian Labor Party . The support of the Labor Party was contingent upon restricting non-white immigration, reflecting the attitudes of the
Australian Worker's Union and other labour organisations at the time, upon whose support the Labor Party was founded.
The new Federal Parliament, as one of its first pieces of legislation, passed the
Immigration Restriction Act 1901 to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". The act drew on similar legislation in
South Africa .
Edmund Barton , the prime minister, argued in support of the Bill with the following statement: "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."
Early drafts of the Act explicitly banned non-Europeans from migrating to Australia but objections from the British government, which feared that such a measure would offend British subjects in
India and Britain's allies in
Japan , caused the
Barton government to remove this wording. Instead, a "dictation test" was introduced as a device for excluding unwanted immigrants. Immigration officials were given the power to exclude any person who failed to pass a 50-word dictation test. At first this was to be in any European language, but was later changed to include ''any'' language.
Australia was not the only British
Dominion to have such immigration policies.
South Africa ,
Canada , and
New Zealand also had racially restrictive immigration policies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Similar restrictions also existed in the
United States Of America . In 1905 legislation was introduced to the
United Kingdom , principally affecting
Jews . (see also
Komagata Maru , and the
Red Summer Of 1919 ). Australian soldiers were involved in the assaults on the
Black British community in
Cardiff ,
Wales in 1919.
In the same year, the government also passed the
Pacific Island Labourers Act . The result of this legislation was that 7,500 Pacific Islanders working in Australia were deported.
At the
1919 Paris Peace Conference following
World War I , Japan attended the conference with the explicit intention of having a
Racial Equality Clause included in the
League Of Nations Charter . Japanese policy reflected their desire to remove or to ease the immigration restrictions against Chinese and Japanese (especially in America and Canada) which Japan regarded as a humiliation and affront to its prestige.
Emperor Showa (Hirohito) was later to suggest that this was one of the reasons for the
Greater East Asian War (
Pacific Theatre of
World War II ).
Australia was one of few countries which had race as a dominant political ideology at the time. Australian Prime Minister
Billy Hughes vehemently opposed the proposition. Hughes recognised that such a clause would be a threat to White Australia and made it clear to
Lloyd George that he would leave the conference if the clause was adopted. When the proposal failed Hughes reported in the Australian parliament:
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http://wwwabcnetau/100years/EP2_3htm
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Wednesday March 21 , 2001
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100 Years: The Australia Story Episode 2: Rise And Fall Of White Australia
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Australian Broadcasting Commission
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2007-01-29
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http://wwwimmigovau/statistics/publications/federation/timeline1pdf
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Immigration to Australia During the 20th Century
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Australian Department of Immigration
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwimmigovau/media/fact-sheets/08abolitionhtm
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Abolition of the 'White Australia' Policy
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2006-06-14
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However, by the end of World War II, Australia's vulnerability during the war in the Pacific and small population led to policies summarised by the slogan "Populate or Perish". During the war, many non-white refugees, including Malays, Indonesians and Filipinos, had settled in Australia. Immigration Minister
Arthur Calwell , controversially sought to have them all deported. In 1949
Harold Holt allowed the remaining 800 non-white refugees to apply for residency, and also allowed Japanese "
War Bride s" to settle in Australia.
Australian policy began to shift towards significantly increasing immigration. Legislative changes over the next few decades continuously opened up immigration in Australia.
- 1947 The Australian Government relaxed the Immigration Restriction Act allowing Non-Europeans the right to settle permanently in Australia for business reasons.
- 1950 Colombo Plan , students from Asian countries were admitted to study at Australian universities.
- 1957 Non-Europeans with 15 years' residence in Australia were allowed to become citizens.
- 1958 The Revised Migration Act Of 1958 abolished the dictation test and introduced a simpler system for entry.
- 1959 Australians were permitted to sponsor Asian spouses for citizenship.
- 1964 Conditions of entry for people of Non-European stock were relaxed.
After a review of the European policy in March 1966, Immigration Minister
Hubert Opperman announced applications for migration would be accepted from well-qualified people on the basis of their suitability as settlers, their ability to integrate readily and their possession of qualifications positively useful to Australia. At the same time, the
Holt Liberal government decided a number of "temporary resident" non-Europeans, who were not required to leave Australia, could become permanent residents and citizens after five years (the same as for Europeans).
As a result, annual non-European settler arrivals rose from 746 in 1966 to 2,696 in 1971, while annual part-European settler arrivals rose from 1,498 to 6054.
The effective end of the White Australia policy is usually dated to 1973, when the
Whitlam Labor government implemented a series of amendments preventing the enforcement of racial aspects of the immigration law. These amendments legislated that:
- All migrants, of whatever origin, be eligible to obtain citizenship after three years of permanent residence.
- Ratified all international agreements relating to immigration and race.
- Issued policy to totally disregard race as a factor in selecting migrants.
The 1975
Racial Discrimination Act made the use of racial criteria for any official purpose illegal.
It was not until the
Fraser Liberal government's review of immigration law in 1978 that all selection of prospective migrants based on country of origin was entirely removed from official policy. Currently, a large number of Australia's immigrants are from countries such as
China and
India , though the
United Kingdom and
New Zealand respectively remain the two largest single sources of immigrants.
The last selective immigration policy, offering relocation assistance to British nationals, was finally removed in 1982.
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http://wwwabsgovau/ausstats/abs@nsf/7d12b0f6763c78caca257061001cc588/af5129cb50e07099ca2570eb0082e462!OpenDocument
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Population characteristics: Ancestry of Australia's population
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Australian Bureau of Statistics
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwmigrationinformationorg/Feature/displaycfmID=72
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Inglis
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Christine
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2002-12-01
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Australia's Increasing Ethnic and Religious Diversity
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Migration Policy Institute
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwimmigovau/multicultural/_inc/pdf_doc/united_diversity/united_diversitypdf
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MULTICULTURAL AUSTRALIA: UNITED IN DIVERSITY (SOCIAL ENGINEERING AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF DIVERSITY)
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The Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs
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2006-06-14
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http://wwwmigrationinformationorg/Feature/displaycfmID=72
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Megalogenis
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George
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2006-02-20
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Howard hits out at 'jihad' Muslims
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The Australian
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2006-06-14
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http://psephosadam-carrnet/countries/a/australia/index1998shtml
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Carr
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Adam
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Federal Election of 3 October 1998
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http://wwwtheaustraliannewscomau/story/0,20867,18204301-601,00html
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Hanson
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Pauline
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1996-09-01
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Maiden Speech
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