We Were All Boat People Once

December 03, 2009

By Susan Merrell

A Blueprint for Success?

So, could Cabramatta’s experiences provide a blueprint for other such communities?

Sergi stresses that the Asian community of Cabramatta had traits that made their particular solution workable. For instance, although the Indo-Chinese community were initially reluctant to co-operate with police, they were never confrontational and policing became easier as people’s confidence in working with them grew.

Asked about the recent arrival of boat people from Sri Lanka, Huynh says it is a difficult question. ‘There are positives and negatives,’ he says. ‘If we are tolerant and accept them, how many more hundreds and thousands of Tamils are going to come? When do we say enough is enough?’

This ’slippery slope’ argument is a pervasive one in Australia.

It’s a Matter of Security

Although boat people are a relatively recent phenomenon in Australia, migration is not. With the exception of the indigenous population, all were migrants once.

Nevertheless, Australians have always had an ambivalent attitude to the issue. For with each wave of migrants since World War II, when Australia took in refugees from eastern and southern Europe, the cultural flavour of Australia has changed. Not all Australians have welcomed this. Parts of the population still carry attitudes that were embodied in the now defunct ‘White Australia Policy’, a policy that was maintained until 1973.

It was this Asian migration that was the catalyst for the rise to prominence of the right-wing politician Pauline Hanson in the mid 1990s. In her maiden speech to Parliament she warned Australians of the dangers of being ’swamped by Asians’ threatening the Australian (or Western) way of life. Her rhetoric hit an Australian nerve and at the height of her popularity The Australian newspaper was giving Hanson more coverage than the prime minister. It also polarised the country.

Similarly, Australians have always been nervous about national security, a feeling that stems from being a ‘Western’ country situated in the Asia-Pacific region. With neighbouring countries to the north often perceived as hostile, and with a large coastline, Australians have felt vulnerable to invasion.

Indeed, the Australian government’s ‘populate or perish’ migration program of the 1950s had little to do with economics and everything to do with the perception that if Australia didn’t populate the country of its own accord, someone else would do so forcibly. Phrases such as ‘the yellow peril’ and ‘reds under the beds’ became part of the vernacular, typifying the worries of the day.

National security is the reason why Australia embraced the ANZUS treaty, and is why support for this pact remains strong even though it has meant Australians have had to fight in American wars.

Migration and invasion are perceived to be two factors with great potential to threaten the Australian way of life. Boat people breach both.

Opportunistic Politics

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently told Parliament that he had fielded 88 questions about boat people in the past few weeks. With the opposition party in disarray over whether to back the government’s Emissions Trading Scheme, attacking the government on its refugee policy is a good diversionary tactic — it’s worked in the past.

Looking back over the last 60 years, appealing to immigration and security fears has been a sound political tactic within the Liberal Party. In 1954, Labor lost the ‘unlosable’ election after the playing up of the communist threat and Labor’s perceived sympathies there. In 2001, it was Howard’s tougher stance on refugees that led his party to victory. Even though international human rights’ agencies condemned the Pacific Solution as inhumane, it was initially popular at home. With Tony Abbott having just taken over the leadership of the opposition Liberal Party from Malcolm Turnbull, Australia can expect more of the same.

‘What’s happened with Kevin Rudd [since he scrapped the Pacific Solution] is that people smugglers now determine who comes to our country and the circumstances under which they come,’ Abbott said recently on ABC television.

It’s clear that the issue has the potential to do considerable political damage — since the recent arrival of boat people in Australia, Rudd’s approval rating has fallen for the first time since he took office. It will therefore need a delicate balancing act from the Labor Party to appease both the hardliners and keep the faith with those who favour a softer approach.

Yet, if there are lessons to be learnt from Cabramatta it is that all problems are solvable given the will, the patience and the right resources. It will be for all Australians to decide if the end result is worth it.