Apparently We’re Full

Australia pretty much now has the dubious honour of being internationally known as a racist culture. Our ever-tightening immigration policy (I defy anyone to prove that Rudd has taken any steps since ousting Howard to make a real difference for immigrants) is vindicated by right-wing media, telling us that ‘we’re full’ – we couldn’t possibly let anyone else into the country, because they will clearly take our jobs, rape our daughters and generally blow everything up around us.

No doubt I sound facetious with that comment, but it doesn’t take much digging to see that this is a view held by many Australians. It’s not one that is confined to our country either. Dateline broadcast an interesting piece last night on the rise and rise of the British National Party (BNP). To be honest, it’s not the views of the people leading this party that concern me, it’s the groundswell of support they’re getting from the middle class that’s truly frightening. What would have been considered extremist politics up until recently, has been fueled by difficult economic circumstances, disappointment and disillusionment in elected government and of course, the sensationalist media.

Our fear of refugees and immigration was something I attempted to address last semester. And so, it was great to stumble across another Australian group with a similar message this morning. Digging through posts on the Australian Creative Commons site, I spotted this fine work by non-profit company, human…

Human have kindly made the printable PDF version available for download, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License. Print some up and get the message out. It’s time more dialogue was started on this subject – and not from the same, old talking heads.