Just who is it that Australia needs protecting from?

On 18 January 2011 yet another national political party has been registered by the Australian Electoral Commission.

This one is called the Australian Protectionist Party.

A small hint as to its world view can be found on the official website homepage at the moment, with headline grabbers like;
Media Admits that Nick Griffin Has Been Right all Along over Muslim Paedophile Gangs and Say no to a Caliphate in Australia, say no to Shari’a in Australia! A vigil against Hizb ut-Tahrir.

While a current poll asks Should we ban the building of Mosques in Australia? and yet another post trumpets Left-wing extremists declare war on our freedom of speech!

As a final example of the mindset one cannot go past its apparent support of Creationism being taught in Australian schools in this 19 March 2010 press release titled; Protectionists Condemn Government Intolerance.

The registered officer of this new political party is one Andrew Phillips, who according to a 2007 Destiny newsletter:

.....has had a long involvement in Australian politics, having been the Senate team leader for the One Nation Party in South Australia, and is now the National Chairman for the Australian Protectionist Party. This article is purely written in his capacity as an independent political commentator. For more of his independent political articles, see the South Australian site for the Australian Protectionist Party....

Northern Rivers xenophobia

For years an inaccurate and nastily xenophobic email has been circulating around the world and, adapted for Australia, it has turned up in Inboxes on the NSW North Coast from time to time.

Here is one version posted on a blog in May 2020 as If you cross the US border...

Now that the Australian federal election campaign has begun, the editor of the Tweed Daily News should exercise some care, because that same piece of arrant nonsense is turning up within that newspaper's pages.

From the Tweed Daily News letters to the editor published on 19 July 2010:

No room for immigrants

MUCH is being made of illegal immigration, be it by boat or plane. My belief is until all homeless Australian-born citizens are catered for, all Australian young people can get a real job, our immigration intake should be zero.

If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labour.

If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely.

If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.

If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.

If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard of again.

If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into a political prison to rot.

If you cross the Australian border illegally you get: a job; an interpreter; free legal aid; a driver's licence; social security number; welfare; free education and free health care.

All at the expense of the Australian taxpayer.

With back-flip Gillard champing at the bit for a federal election, perhaps the locally based federal member could inform us what welfare payments illegal boat people receive. I am sure Australian-born pensioners who are battling to exist would.

Carl Redman *

* Carl Redman, Australian-born Cudgen resident

# Hat tip to Clarrie Rivers for alerting me to this letter.

Whither now, Fortress Australia?

Apart from the indigenous peoples of Australia, all those living here in 2010 could be considered the descendants of migrants or migrants themselves.

From those whose forebears were either convicts forced to migrate by the Crown or Irish and Scots landless poor who were among our earliest economic migrants, right though to World War II refugees and others seeking a better life in the years since that tumultuous era.

It can't have been an easy decision to leave one's roots and journey so far, sometimes with no hope of return. Surely a trace memory of this lingers in many families, so why is it that as a community we seem to swiftly run into Fortress Australia anytime the nation's immigration policy is debated?

Are we so xenophobic that any population change (even sustainable growth) is automatically considered bad and any subsequent shift in cultural nuances thought to be intrinsically harmful?

Right now as I write, approximately 45 per cent of the population was either born overseas or had one or both parents born overseas.

As well as people coming into this country to live many also leave within the first ten years of residency. In 2008-09 there were 39,769 permanent departures of those born overseas.

Australian-born citizens also permanently leave our shores - around 117,275 of them left between 2006-07 and 2008-09. Compared with the 158,021 of overseas-born people who came to settle in this country in those same years (48 per cent of which had a profession or trade), one can see that net population growth through immigration is not that high a figure.

As one of the many migrants who came to settle in Australia as a subsidized 'Ten Pound Pom' perhaps Prime Minster Gillard would do well to temper her language in the current election year debate. "People like my parents, who have worked hard all their lives, can't abide the idea that others might get an inside track to special privileges." Inside track to special privileges? What on earth does she think subsidized migration from Great Britain was, if not an inside track?

When it comes to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott on the subject of immigration - his dog whistling is utterly shameless couched as it is in terms of border protection and 'restoring' sovereignty.

If Fortress Australia ever really existed then it has been an abject failure and, as someone whose forebears stepped off those first uninvited boats in 1788 I for one am eternally grateful.

Population Flows: Immigration Aspects 2008-09 Edition

Immigration update 2008-2009

Tony Abbot cartoon from Laberal

Columbus go home! Columbus go home!

Last Monday Crooks and Liars posted the transcipt of a tongue-in-check speech given at a Tea Party Against Amnesty And Illegal Immigration rally before an initially cheering crowd of American wingnuts - the best punk'd I've read this year:

Hi, my name is Robert Erickson and I'm really excited to be here. Its people like all of you, and events like this that make our country great! Give yourselves a round of applause!

I just want to talk about a couple themes this afternoon because I love this country and I want to see America be the best place it can be.

Mr. Gutierrez is getting ready to propose an immigration bill in just a few short days, and we have to make sure he knows that we want a bill that's tough on immigration. Now is the time for us to stand up and make our voices heard!

In Minneapolis, where I'm from, we have a huge immigrant population that's been causing a number of problems. With the economy in recession, and so many people getting laid off, and unable to find work, immigrants should not be competing for the few jobs that are out there. It's just not fair to the folks who have a claim to this land and the right to be here. All across America, they are contributing to the flooding of our job markets making it hard for Americans to find jobs. Well, I'm fed up, and it's time to let our politicians know that enough is enough, and we're not gonna take it any more!

We need to secure our borders to protect our country. We need to restore order and put an end to the anarchy that's sweeping the nation. We need tougher immigration laws to make sure that we send these people back where they came from. We need to protect the sovereignty of the real Americans. We need to hold our politicians accountable.

It's no secret that with an invasion of immigrants comes waves of crime. We see them involved in massive theft, in murder, and bringing diseases like smallpox, which is responsible for the death of millions of Americans. These aren't new problems, though -- they have been going on for hundreds of years, and continue to this day.

I say it's time for us to say enough is enough! Are you with me? Are you with me? Let's send these European immigrants back where they came from! I don't care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian! European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinous crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery! It's time to restore the sovereignty of people native to this land!

I want more workplace raids, starting with the big banks downtown. There are thousands of illegals working in those buildings, hiding in their offices, and taking Dakota jobs. Let's round them up and ship them out. Then we need to hit them at home where they sleep. I don't care if we separate families, they should have known better when they came here illegally!

If we aren't able to stand up to these European immigrants, who can we stand up to? We need to send every one of them back home, right now.

Thank you very much, and we'll see you in the streets!

Columbus Go Home! Columbus Go Home! Columbus Go Home!

I suppose it doesn't surprise that anti-asylum seeker venom is starting to seep out in viral emails

It is hard to imagine where all this hate comes from.

Last weekend's sad little venomous, error-ridden, misspelt, viral email doing the rounds on the NSW North Coast and in Queensland:

Let Me See Why This Is So.

If you cross the North Korean border illegally, you get 12 years hard labour.
If you cross the Iranian border illegally, you are detained indefinitely.
If you cross the Afghan border illegally, you get shot.
If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally, you will be jailed.
If you cross the Chinese border illegally, you may never be heard from again.
If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally, you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.
If you cross the Cuban border illegally, you will be thrown into political prison to rot.

However, if you cross the AUSTRALIAN border illegally, you get a job, a driver's licence, a social security card, welfare benefits, food stamps, credit cards, subsidized rent or a loan to buy a new house, free education, free health care, a lobbyist in Canberra and, in many instances, you can VOTE.

Why is this so?

Because we voted for incompetent polititians !!!

A bunch of pansies !!!

That is why !!!

No two ways about it - this is a political hate crime

Image from Crikey 12th August 2009

This poster is a political hate crime in the making if ever there was one and it looks suspiciously like it was incited by a member of the Victorian arm of the Liberal Party, Federal MP Bruce Billson.
I'd like to say that the man is silly as a two bob watch - except he sounds too much like many other far right acolytes left over from the rabid JW Howard era version of them and us.
What are the Victorian Libs and the Federal Leader of the Liberal Party Malcolm Turnbull going to do about it?
More to the point - what is the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke QC, going to do about it?
It seems that the Howard era gave Aussie politicians 'permission' to be as openly racist as some of their constituents and the Rudd Government (along with its state counterparts) is doing little to reign in this ugly xenophobia.

What is particularly offensive about the Billson-led community campaign is that the increase in crime statistics the poster talks about cannot be slated solely to African residents - it's also due to the fact that the police have been more active in making arrests across the board in those areas in 2008-09 (big thanks to clarencegirl for this 2008 media release concerning the Wyndham Police Service Area, this webpage and this 9th August 2009 news story).

Billson's so-called political views are beneath contempt.

A word about national borders for the record..........

..........I'm not afraid of refugees in general or boat people in particular.
I don't hate the idea of these desperate people or wish to deny them safe harbour in Australia.
I take as much notice of Turnbull's little rants as I did of Howard's and I think Rudd's people smugglers are the scum of the earth line is simple-minded demonising which doesn't do a thing to address the problem of commercial smuggling.
So will both sides of the divide in Canberra just get over it.
Maybe then certain small minds in the mainstream media will quit their hysterics and we'll be able to avoid another boring earbashing.