Politics and the media: The immigration debate in Australia from the early 1900s to the present (part 2)

This is the second part of my previous post, with references listed at the end.

Part 2 of 2

The media: inciting racism?

It’s not just right-wing political parties that further intensify the ongoing immigration debate in Australia. In December 2005 the media played a key role in spreading the word about the Cronulla riots, in which white Australians clashed with Lebanese Muslims at Cronulla beach. ‘Then Prime Minister John Howard stated that he “did not accept that there is underlying racism in Australia”. Howard made this comment despite the prominence of images at the time of the riots that clearly depicted white Australians wearing T shirts saying “no Lebs”, chanting “Aussie Aussie Aussie”, and even people proclaiming “we grew here you flew here” and “go home”.’ (Due and Riggs 2008, p.211) In fact, most of the Lebanese Muslims subject to these taunts had not ‘flown’ to Australia, and their ‘home’ was here. Many Lebanese immigrants arrived in Australia between 1880 and the 1920s, and 1947 to 1975, with immigration continuing from 1976 until the present due to the civil war in Lebanon. Up to six generations of Australian-born Lebanese reside here. (Batrouney 2000) If ‘Australianness’ is determined by whether or not a person has been born here or the length of their family ties to Australia, I would be considered far less Australian than many Lebanese citizens. I am a first-generation British Australian with dual citizenship; however, as a white, English-speaking citizen I have never been subject to anyone telling me to ‘go home’.

Two years after the Cronulla riots, an investigation by the Australian Communications and Media Authority found that broadcasts by ‘shock jock’ Alan Jones on the day of the Cronulla riots were ‘likely to encourage violence or brutality and vilify people of Middle Eastern descent’. (Ricketson 2008) Jones’s 2GB colleague Brian Wilshire also had his say, telling listeners that ‘many of [the Lebanese] have parents who were first cousins, whose parents were first cousins, because of the culture — it’s not a religious thing, it doesn’t say this in the Koran — but it’s a cultural thing for some part of the world to have parents who are very closely related. The result of this is inbreeding, the result of which is uneducationable people, and very low IQ’. (Wilshire 2006)

One of Australia’s most outspoken media commentators on all issues relating to race and immigration is Andrew Bolt. In addition to having his say many times over on the Cronulla riots, Bolt uses his Herald Sun blog to vilify the Australian Muslim community (or pretty much anyone of middle-eastern descent), ‘ethnic gangs’ and Sudandese ‘immigrants’, as he refers to them (as opposed to ‘refugees’, which the majority of them are). Although he likes to poke fun at Pauline Hanson when he gets the chance (see Bolt March 2007), Bolt tends to use very similar language to her — ‘integrate’, ‘assimilate’ and ‘gang’ were all used in a single blog about the Sudanese community. (Bolt January 2007) It seems as though in Bolt’s opinion, any Sudanese people in Australia that are more comfortable associating with people from the same backgrounds as themselves can automatically be considered members of a ‘gang’. Because Bolt’s tirades are usually via his blog (although he sometimes appears on television as well), he is able to elicit similarly racist responses from his readers. Often he will say very little in his blog entry, instead opting for a simple link to a news article that is likely to draw hateful responses from his loyal online followers.

In December 2008 Gold Coast residents launched their own attack on the Muslim community, but instead of a riot it was a demonstration against a proposed new Islamic College at Carrara. Some 200 people were involved in the protest and, while violence wasn’t an issue, many of the methods used bore similarities to those employed during the Cronulla riots — people were ‘draped in Australian flags and shouting pro-Aussie slogans while Australian rock classics such as “Down Under” and “Great Southern Land” boomed across the parkland’. (Pierce 2008) It became clear that the protests were racially based when one of the opponents to the school was asked why they were not protesting against other religious schools such as those that are Christian-based. He responded that ‘Catholics aren’t a different culture. They are the same as us’. (Pierce 2008)

Only a couple of days after publishing the report about the Gold Coast protests, News Limited fuelled the fires further by printing an article with the title ‘Brisbane Islamic college bans Australian national anthem’ — something that was sure to incite outrage amongst countless Australians. Despite what was indicated in the alarming headline, the school had not banned the national anthem at all. It was true that the college did have a policy of not playing the anthem on Fridays, but this applied to all other songs as well, due to the fact that Friday is considered to be a Muslim holy day. It just happened that school assemblies had been moved from Monday to Friday, meaning that the anthem was no longer played during that time. Due to the pressure placed on the school as a direct result of the media coverage, the following day the title of the online news article was changed to ‘Brisbane Islamic college reviews national anthem ban’, and it was reported that the principal was reviewing the school’s policy on the matter. (O’Loan 2008)

Conclusion

Often the whole immigration debate can be difficult to comprehend. In fact, sometimes it is unclear why debate needs to occur on the subject at all. The Australia we know today was settled by foreigners who clearly did not assimilate with the cultural traditions and practices of the current inhabitants of the land. Instead, they introduced an entirely new way of life and, in the process, exploited and destroyed much of the original population. My parents migrated here as teenagers with their parents and families but, simply because they are white Europeans, they go unnoticed by the Andrew Bolts, Brian Wilshires, Pauline Hansons of Australia, as well as the rest of the right-wing media commentators and politicians. It is only those groups hailing from different cultural backgrounds to those of white Europeans that these prominent and highly influential people seem to have a problem with. Politicians and media commentators are regularly delaring to the public that Australia is home to a diverse and multicultural society — but it is often the same politicians or media commentators who are the first to voice their opinions when any of those other cultures become an apparent threat to our own.

References

Ang I 2003, ‘From white Australia to fortress Australia: The anxious nation in the new century’, in L Jaysuriya, D Walker and J Gothard (eds), Legacies of white Australia: Race, culture and nation, Perth.

Batrouney, Dr T 2000, Lebanese in Australia, Australian Lebanese Historical Society of Victoria, viewed 5 January 2009, <http://alhsv.org.au/resources_lebaneseinaus.html>.

Bolt, A 2007, ‘Hanson smart? Is the Pope a Muslim?’, Herald sun, 30 March 2007, viewed 31 December 2008, <http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/hanson_smart_is_the_pope_a_muslim/P40>.

Bolt, A 2007, ‘Our Sudanese question’, Herald sun, 31 January 2007, viewed 31 December 2008, <http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/our_sudanese_question>.

Due, C and Riggs, DW 2008, ‘We grew here you flew here’: claims to ‘home in the Cronulla riots, Monash University, viewed 30 December 2008, <http://colloquy.monash.edu.au/issue016/due-riggs.pdf>.

Hanson, P 1996, House of Representatives, Debates, vol.HR208, 10 September 1996.

Manne, R 2003, ‘The road to Tampa’, in L Jaysuriya, D Walker and J Gothard (eds), Legacies of white Australia: Race, culture and nation, Perth.

Markus, A 1979, Fear and hatred: Purifying Australia and California, 1850–1901, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney.

O’Loan, J 2008, ‘Brisbane Islamic college reviews national anthem ban’, Courier-mail, 5 December 2008, viewed 5 December 2008, <http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24753104-952,00.html>.

Pierce, J2008, ‘Protestors rally against Islamic school’, Courier-mail, 2 December 2008, viewed 3 December 2008,  <http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,,24738950-5003402,00.html>.

Ricketson, M 2008, ‘Bureaucrats try to “censor” Alan Jones’, The age, 6 December 2008, viewed 30 December 2008, <http://www.theage.com.au/national/bureaucrats-try-to-censor--alan-jones-name-in-report-20081205-6slh.html>.

Robb, A 2006, Australia to introduce citizenship, media release Ref 114/06, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 11 December 2006, viewed 20 December 2008, <http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/VFQL6/upload_binary/vfql62.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22media/pressrel/vfql6)%22>.

Souter, G 1976, Lion and kangaroo — Australia 1901–1919… the rise of a nation, Fonatana, Sydney.

Tavan, G 2005, The long, slow death of white Australia, Scribe Publications, Melbourne.

Wilshire, B 2006, ‘Brian Wilshire: uneducationable’, Media Watch transcripts, viewed 30 December 2008, <http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s1574242.htm>.