Centre for Open Education

MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY NSW 2109 AUSTRALIA

ASSIGNMENT COVER SHEET

(For Open Universities Australia students)

Office Use Only **

Student Name Student Number

Family Name WOODBRIDGE

Given Name GABRIELLE

42717353

Date

02/02/2012

Unit Code Assignment No.

HST110 2

Unit Name

THE MAKING OF AUSTRALIA

COE USE ONLY Date Received

Assignment Title Due Date Contact Info Word Count

(If Applicable)

What Influence did the White Australia Policy have on Australian Identity? 03/02/2011
Phone:+447902527274 Email: gabriellemedcraft@gmail.com

Turnitin No. 2620

(If Applicable)

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What Influence has the White Australian Policy had on Australian Identity? The White Australia Policy has had an everlasting effect on the Australian identity, not because of its implied legacy, but because it highlighted insecurities that exist within the Australian identity that are as strong today, as they were at the time of federation when the policy was introduced. The same contextual catalysts and ambiguity of the Australian national sense of self1 are still apparent in our society over 100 years on from a time where the white Australia policy was introduced as a political tactic to solidify and unify the colonial territories of the newly formed Australia2,3. This argument will be anchored by the key reaction to our shameful past4 of the white Australia policy, which was a social need to assert ourselves as a multicultural nation. This need to assert ourselves is evidence that we have an opposing side to our identity, an Anglo-centric true-blue Aussie, one doesnt have to be white to be an Australian citizen, but they do to be an Aussie5- this is demonstrated by our description of social groups- Asian, Lebanese, Italian, Sudanese which can be seen in the media, playgrounds or even religious gatherings in todays Australia- the very assertion

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , 74-97
2

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , pp 264
3

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , 98-112
4

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , 74-97
5

L Hafez. (2011). Changes and continuities: Australian citizenship from the White Australia Policy to multiculturalism and beyond. University of Wollongong. School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication. Masters Thesis (1), pp 47

of Multiculturalism implies that there are many cultures 6 which stems from ethnocentric developments of different societies- one hundred years ago these were called races. Not much has therefore changed in the way of racial classification in asserting our Australian identity apart from the promotion of the idea of white superiority and the implied biological supremacy that came with it7. However surely the classification of someone as non-white still challenges their ability to belong to an Australian identity- or is this rectified by the word multiculturalism8? We no longer use the word white to class our national identity, but perhaps more damaging we use the word Australian. We only need to look to events and leading figures to see the assertion of a white aussie- the Cronulla riots of 2006, Pauline Hansons One Nation Party, and the typical representation of the Aussie way of life in adverts for typical Australian products- Vegemite, Milo, Bonds and Victoria Bitter9. Various historians have sought out to justify a means to an end, the end being the White Australia policy by providing us with chronological explanations of what caused a country who, within its own cultural context, was an outpost of secondary citizens from the race in which they came10, to a

ibid

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , pp. 100.
8

Sebastian De Brennan. (Jul. - Aug., 2006). Multicultural Australia: The Way Forward Post-Cronulla. AQ: Australian Quarterly. 78 (4), pp.35.

John Sinclair. (2008). Branding and Belonging, Globalised goods and national identity. Journal of Cultural Economy . 1 (2), 217-231.

10

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , pp.106

country which declared itself supreme over its surrounding nations- solely based on ones physical appearance. The more interesting point is that this assertion came into full furore after the nation federated so as Windshuttle11 demonstrates this was not some simple xenophobic racial reaction to non-white neighbours, but rather one of political and defensive tactics. Windshuttle shows this by describing the anti-Japanese yellow peril slogans and the writing of the threat of the Asian nations by Charles Pearson (National Life and Character) of the time12. He goes onto say, as did Prime Minister Barton13 , that we are threatened by their superiority rather than their un-civilised ways. The British even posed considerable pressure on the newly formed Australia to retract the insult of restricting immigration to the highly civilised Japanese14 during the 1919 Paris Peace conference to which Britain had just made japan an ally. One could appreciate the desire of the newly federated Australia to assert an Identity as a Civilised white Australian nation in a sea of Kanakas and Asians as a way to justify their worth as a nation to a mother England who still thought of them as an uncivilised colonial outpost. 15 The protectionist policies introduced by the 1907 Harvester Judgement held by Henry Bourne Higgins and the first Prime Minister Edmund Barton demonstrate the feeling of vulnerability held by

11

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , 261-282
12

Ibid pp. 266

13

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , p. 265.
14

Ibid

15

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , 74-97

the Australians at the time16. The presence of Chinese of the goldmines has provided a negative foundation of Chinese- Australian relations which the grass roots working class digger population of the time17- a sentiment which still hung over at the time of federation. The ability to reduce this fear of the average Australian male to not being able to provide for his family, and the subsequent protectionist policies of Edmund Barton and the Protectionist Party with the Support of the Australian Labour Party18 to a matter of blaming a single race- notably the Asians to the north-was helped along by the echoes of the Chinese competition of the gold-rush era which led to the average Australian not to question the need to keep Australias identity going into federation as white for fear of further exploitation by their northern neighbours19. The more legitimate fears which led to the acceptance of a white Australia policy were in reaction to the Russo-Japanese war, where Japan established themselves as the strongest Navy in the pacific, with a strong economy to back their already intimidating defence programme20. The British werent so quick to share this fear with Australia, who at this stage had little to nothing in the way of a

16

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , p. 264
17

Curthoys, Ann. "'Men of all nations, except Chinamen': Europeans and Chinese on the Goldfields of New South Wales" in Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia , McCalman, Iain; Cook, Alexander; Reeves, Andrew , 2001 , p106.
18

Burgmann, Verity. "Racism, socialism, and the Labour Movement, 1887-1917" Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History , 47:November , 1984 , p. 41
19

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , p. 101.
20

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , p. 263

defence force, which as Lake. M explains- led Australia to feel naked and vulnerable to the powerful imperial Japan21. However across the Pacific the Americans were sharing similar recognition of the newly established threat of japan22, which led to the formation of ANZUS is still a post cursor of the White Australia policy which exists today. The newly elected Theodore Roosevelt was a proclaimed fan of Charles Pearson23 and so therefore shared an educated estimate of the threat Asia played in the pacific. This was therefore not helped with the breakout of world war two, in which Japan declared its war on the West and challenged Australia for Custody of the pacific, notably Papa New Guinea. Japan further demonstrated it military power which a Naval demonstration in Australian Waters, along with the fall of Singapore to the Japanese this lead a vulnerable Australian to a fear of the power of their oriental Neighbours24.

Although this fear was helped along by the war, unfortunately the (notably anti-Asian) racial undertones of our immigration policy were further juxtaposed when post-war there was a scramble to encourage the emigration of German Scientists who may have committed war crimes as Australias enemy25. The political motivation of this cannot outshine the racial ones in this case. The gradual relaxation towards other Europeans who were not of Anglo- Saxon origin, for example

21

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , p.101
22 23

Ibid p. 103 Ibid

24

Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , p.268
25

ibid

Greek and Italian immigrants of the 1950s further demonstrates the Australian fear of the Eastern nations26. The argument is that the motivations for singling one race out, was not racially motivated by the idea that Australia needed to remain white because white is a supreme race- the real reason as numerous academics have argued, is that it was another form of protectionist policy in federating Australia. The Legislation was formed to protect Australia not against uncivilised races, but the competition of a civilised one, Australia is not an inherently racist nation, but it is an insecure one27. However the manifestation of the more working class idea that these races were dangerous and unwanted28 almost made the ideal of the White Australia Xenophobic in nature as, ironically more identity came to be attached to what it meant to be Australian, which is now seen as white. Therefore an argument can be made also that the effect the white Australia Policy was a selffulfilling one. The racially fuelled riots of Cronulla did not target Asians, as did the lambing flats riots in the gold rush era29; however they targeted any non-white Australian. This therefore is proof that the White Identity we were trying to create at federation now defines what we think is an identity, an identity that never actually was.

26

Markus, Andrew. "The era of assimilation, 1945-65" in Australian Race Relations, 1788-1993 , Markus, Andrew , 1994 , p158
27

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , p. 95
28

Burgmann, Verity. "Racism, socialism, and the Labour Movement, 1887-1917" Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History , 47:November , 1984 , p.41
29

Curthoys, Ann. "'Men of all nations, except Chinamen': Europeans and Chinese on the Goldfields of New South Wales" in Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia , McCalman, Iain; Cook, Alexander; Reeves, Andrew , 2001 , p.110

So, what influenced this policy to change publically, what caused the fear and insecurity to either is outshone, or taken away. There are multiple facts which can be attributed to the introduction by the Whitlam government of the Racial discrimination Act in 1975, which made any official discrimination on the basis of race illegal30. However the more interesting development is to understand how a country who based almost their entire founding ethos on the discrimination of foreign threats came around to protecting these foreign forces within a quarter of a century and then promoting their Belonging as its identity. The first catalyst for change can be seen as post World War Two, social ideals about the inclusion of pacific Islanders and Aboriginals in the ANZAC forces developed mate ship amongst non-white and white Australians, also leading to the argument that if one can die for their country, they should have full rights31. This, as well as the drive to increase population after the war through immigration of the other- European category led to a relaxation of Australian society towards other cultures. However the discrimination against nationalities such as the Italians continued with an unfair indenture system for their assisted passage32. Policies started to be introduced which relaxed immigration towards non-Europeans such as The Chifley government allowing non- Europeans to settle for Business reasons under the Immigration restriction act in 1947, and the ability for Japanese war brides to be admitted under the Holt government in 1949.33 The Head of the Australian Catholic church at the time of federation- Cardinal Moran, was a great advocate of the immigration of the Chinese, heralding them as a highly Civilised and believed that with the impress of Christianity they would become one of the greatest powers and greatest

30

Abolition of the White Australia Policy. Australian Department of Immigration. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm, Retrieved 28/1/2012.
31

Markus, Andrew. "The era of assimilation, 1945-65" in Australian Race Relations, 1788-1993 , Markus, Andrew , 1994 , p. 164
32 33

Ibid p. 160 Ibid p. 169

peoples in the world34. Obviously one can source from this, it was reliant on the Church to provide them with this Civilisation, and Moran favoured the expansion of Catholic Missions in China. However the More interesting points are the motivations of Moran to Educate Chinese Students in Australia. Morans Advocacy in the early 20th Century helped to establish leniency to educated Chinese. The Colombo Plan of 1950 introduced by external Affairs minister helped to encourage the Education of Chinese students in Australia35 following on from Morans Legacy- further expanding the olive branch to Asian immigration.

Further Adjustments to the immigration policy were climaxed with Prime Minister Harold Holt introducing the Migration Act 1966 which allowed access to non-Europeans, paving the way for the asylum seeking and Humanitarian component of Australian immigration which still exists today36. The Contextual agents which led to this change in policy can be attributed to the considerable pressures put on western countries post world war 2, and because of the establishment of UNESCO in the 1950s to promote Racial equality across all of its member nations37. the ability of the two world wars to break up most of the imperial powers who held colonies all over the world for the past hundreds of years led to an exposure about the human rights issues these empires had created. As Miriam Dixson explains Australia is in the process of a historical revision.which damns the totality of the past in a bid to create a swept-clean present38 further more- Dixson even suggests that as Australians attempt to redefine their sense of nation, there is a risk that the European Past will be
34

Cahill, A. E. "Cardinal Moran and the Chinese" Manna , 6: , 1963 , p. 101

35

Markus, Andrew. "The era of assimilation, 1945-65" in Australian Race Relations, 1788-1993 , Markus, Andrew , 1994 , p.172
36 37

ibid Ibid p. 156

38

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , p. 89

repudiated. The creation of the new post war global society and its moral repercussions could be attributed to the reason that the fear of Asia and its competing labour markets dissolved. Juxtaposing these contextual elements with the relaxation of immigration further demonstrates that Australian Identity as an influence on the White Australia Policy is not motivated by discrimination against race on a biological level. We were forced by globalisation to re-think our shameful past, and how it affected our identity on a world stage, once again Australian Identity is being moulded in reaction to what other countries think of us which questions the origin again, of the motivations of the White Australia Policy to shape our identity as a country- where they to keep Australia Physically white or were they to keep our country relevant as a western nation amongst our grown up worldwide counterparts. It is this motivation with provides us with an explanation as to what lasting effect the White Australia Policy has had on Australian Identity and further serves to explain that this need still exists. As Dixson explains we in fact have a weak Identity as a nation which lends us to be tangible in what we stand for. This tangibility further demonstrates that we have no real basis for our ethos as they are always influenced by outside forces- as the establishment and consequential abolishment of the White Australia policy demonstrates is quite fickle. However when we look at this in regard to what the White Australia Policy left with Australia in way of its Identity is a false assumption that Australia is white which led to a phantom type of patriotism amongst white Australians39. The One Australia Policy, along with Pauline Hansons political campaigns is strengthened by the myth of the need to protect this White Australia which in theory never really existed in the first place and this patriotism, due to its unfounded nature will be

39

Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , p.96

challenged in the future by society as right- this questioning leads to an insecure nation who then will create dangerous ideals such as racism. 40 The more tangible and long lasting effect Australian Identity has taken from the White Australia Policy is the ideal of equality, the fundamental goal of the protectionist policies were to ensure a fair and reasonable ability for an Australian to provide for themselves and their kin to a civilised level41. As society has developed it has come to accept that equality does not discriminate against gender, age or race which is ironically a modernised version of the motivation behind the White Australia Policy. The evolution of a globalised society where the myth has taken the fear away from foreign people and cultures has led to a more Multi-cultural Society42 however the real test will be if this transpires to a global society where no Identity or need for nationalism exists- replaced only by the identification of persons as belonging to Humanity however this would call for Western nations, such as Australia to relinquish any idea of implied Power or superiority. This point is demonstrative of why such negative manifestations of the white Australia policy have come to exist, they justify a means to an end, an assertion of power- a power which is not motivated by the colour of ones skin or the culture they belong to, but identification with a power which will be superior to any other. Therefore the assertion of Australia as a multicultural assertion further re-iterates the different powers challenging each other for claim to an identity in Australia which demonstrates that the ability to define different Australians by their race still exists, and therefore their need to assert their

40

Sebastian De Brennan. (Jul. - Aug., 2006). Multicultural Australia: The Way Forward Post-Cronulla. AQ: Australian Quarterly. 78 (4), p.36.
41

Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , p. 108.
42

L Hafez. (2011). Changes and continuities: Australian citizenship from the White Australia Policy to multiculturalism and beyond. University of Wollongong. School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication. Masters Thesis (1), p. 29

non-whiteness by opposition suggests inferiority against a white Australian Identity which is only established as a dominant as it came first43. If the argument was to be made for what colour Australian Identity should be, the case would be won by our Native inhabitants the Aborigines who really are the only ones with the right to call White Australians part of their Multicultural Nation which started, not with federation, but with the Colonisation of Australia in 1788. The time when Australians can define their identity by a common set of characteristics as a culture within themselves will be the time when the shameful past of The White Australia Policy ceases to determine its effect on Australian Identity, and when Australia will truly understand its own identity.

43

Sebastian De Brennan. (Jul. - Aug., 2006). Multicultural Australia: The Way Forward Post-Cronulla. AQ: Australian Quarterly. 78 (4), p.34

References Abolition of the White Australia Policy. Australian Department of Immigration. http://www.immi.gov.au/media/fact-sheets/08abolition.htm Retrieved 28/1/2012. Burgmann, Verity. "Racism, socialism, and the Labour Movement, 1887-1917" Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History , 47:November , 1984 , 39-54 Cahill, A. E. "Cardinal Moran and the Chinese" Manna , 6: , 1963 , 97-107 Curthoys, Ann. "'Men of all nations, except Chinamen': Europeans and Chinese on the Goldfields of New South Wales" in Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia , McCalman, Iain; Cook, Alexander; Reeves, Andrew , 2001 , 103-123 De Brennan, Sebastian. (Jul. - Aug., 2006). Multicultural Australia: The Way Forward Post-Cronulla. AQ: Australian Quarterly. 78 (4), 34-36. Dixson, Miriam. "Australian identity interrogated" in The Imaginary Australian: Anglo-Celts and Identity 1788 to the Present , Dixson, Miriam , 1999 , 74-97 L Hafez. (2011). Changes and continuities: Australian citizenship from the White Australia Policy to multiculturalism and beyond. University of Wollongong. School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication. Masters Thesis (1), 23-50. Lake, Marilyn. "On being a white man, Australia, circa 1900" in Cultural History in Australia , Teo, Hsu-Ming; White, Richard , 2003 , 98-112 Markus, Andrew. "The era of assimilation, 1945-65" in Australian Race Relations, 1788-1993 , Markus, Andrew , 1994 , 155-173 John Sinclair. (2008). Branding and Belonging, Globalised goods and national identity. Journal of Cultural Economy . 1 (2), 217-231. Tavan, Gwenda. "White Australia ascendant, 1901-1939" in The Long, Slow Death of White Australia , Tavan, Gwenda , 2005 , 7-29 Windschuttle, Keith. "The rise of Japan and the yellow peril" in The White Australia Policy , Windschuttle, Keith , 2004 , 261-282