On the Irish and Other Undesirables

Guest Author Uncategorized

Given today’s discussion of migration to Australia, this evening’s guest author is the illustrious Graham Freudenberg, no stranger to anyone who has an interest in the ‘left’ side of Australian politics. Mr Freudenberg’s article is published with the kind permission of John Menadue from his excellent forum, Pearls and Irritations.

Tasmania migration

Australia sometimes seems to suffer a mysterious case of multiple amnesia over immigration.

We are a nation built on migrants, but we have forgotten that almost every new wave of immigrants has been resented and resisted by those already here, especially those who were migrants themselves. It started around the 1820s when the convicts hated the first free settlers ‘taking our jobs’. We have forgotten that, without exception, each wave of immigrants has been successfully absorbed to national and individual benefit. We have forgotten that particular groups aroused special animosity, yet integrated so completely in one generation that it would scarcely occur to them to regard themselves as being of migrant origin. Such is Australia’s perhaps unique capacity to integrate and be enriched.

Take, for example, three of the groups among the 237 we comprise – the Irish, the Chinese and the Jews.

There is no expression of fear, bigotry, suspicion and hate now directed indiscriminately against Muslims that was not used passionately with malice aforethought and intent to harm and hurt against the Irish, the Chinese and the Jews.

With the Irish, the charges included actual terrorism, when the Fenian O’Farrell attempted to assassinate Queen Victoria’s son, the Duke of Edinburgh, at a picnic at Clontarf, Sydney, in 1868.

The persons who used these expressions and who used them as powerful political weapons were not clever ratbags on the make. They included Sir Henry Parkes, five times Premier of New South Wales, the ‘Father of Federation’, who regarded Irish migrants as part of the conspiracy of the Pope to take over the world. And Parkes put the world’s harshest anti-Chinese laws on the NSW statute books.

They included the Reverend John Dunmore Lang whose statue graces Wynyard Square, Sydney, and whose book, The Fatal Mistake, exposed the papal conspiracy in all its horror, dealing with the plot of his arch-enemy, Mrs Caroline Chisholm, to swamp Australia with hordes of unmarried Irish young women. For Lang, they had three irredeemable vices: they were Irish; they were Catholic; and they bred.

As late as 1937, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Craigavon, asked his Australian counterpart Joe Lyons: ‘Tell me, Lyons, have you many Catholics in Orstralia?’ ‘Oh,’ said Lyons, ‘about 25 per cent.’ Craigavon: ‘Good God! Watch ‘em, Lyons, watch ‘em. They breed like rabbits’. Lyons forbore to mention that he was a Catholic himself, and with (Dame) Enid, had thirteen children romping around the lodge in Canberra.

As for the Chinese, they brought every known vice with them, and being all male, the ‘crime not to be named among Christians’. They took our gold and brought their opium. True, we had forced China to buy Indian opium to finance the Empire in the Opium Wars of 1840-42, but that was in the sacred name of free trade. In any case, they were all barbarians, without any civilization worthy of the name.

As for the Jews, as late as 1939 the Australian representative, Sir Thomas White, at the Evian (Switzerland) Conference, called by President Roosevelt to discuss the question of German Jewish refugees, refused to increase the Australian quota, saying proudly: ’Australia has no racial problem and does not intend to import one’. Hitler loved it, and used it to great effect in a speech to the Reichstag three months before his invasion of Poland when the killing of the European Jews began in earnest.

In 1947, with shipping at a premium, the Australian Minister for Immigration, Arthur Calwell, made an arrangement with the Australian Jewish community that any ship specially chartered to bring Jewish refugees to Australia must carry at least 50 per cent non-Jews. ‘It would have been electoral suicide to do otherwise’, Calwell wrote frankly thirty years later, when his post-war immigration program had blossomed into the world’s most successful and creative – today’s multicultural Australia.

When I was at school in the 1940s, (Australian population: 7 million) we were taught that White Australia was not merely an important fact in our history, but one of its great positive achievements, along with the explorers, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Dame Nellie Melba and Don Bradman.

Every ethnic group except Northern Europeans was suspect. In his brilliant new biography of H.V. Evatt, Professor John Murphy quotes Evatt, then a rising star in Australian law and Labor, at an international conference on migration in London in 1926: ‘The Australian Labour movement was “bitterly opposed” to Southern European migration, especially Italian’ (p.82).

What a pity that in the crucial post-war years, and the next 50 years, when our need for migrants forced us to look beyond Britain, even beyond dubious sources like Italy and Greece, and now under successive governments of both parties, that our poor little continent is swamped with 24 million people from God knows where, we didn’t have, until 1996, someone with the integrity and intellect of a Pauline Hanson, to expose Australian naïveté in thinking ‘She’ll be right, mate’. But if history, our genuine aspirations for our economy, our security, and our reputation, in a region comprising the largest Muslim nation in the world and our largest trading partner, it may well be that she’ll be wrong mate.

The only difference in the 20 years since she first appeared on the scene when John Howard failed to repudiate her (although the Liberal party itself had done so) is that, while the immigration program proceeds as successfully as ever, to our continuing benefit, it has been marred by a poisonous bigotry she helped unleash. The result is that it is now impossible to have a proper debate on the immigration levels Australia needs for the next 30 years.

With fitting symmetry, Ms Hanson first came to notoriety with her attacks on aboriginal ‘over-privilege’.

Perhaps the aborigines, from their vantage point of 50,000 years of prior possession, got it right at the start, when they shouted at the polyglot mob on the First Fleet anchored in Botany Bay in 1788:

Wirra Wirra
‘Go away, Go away’

As she has acknowledged, her warning may be too late. By about 228 years.

Sovereign Union – First Nations Asserting Sovereignty

541 thoughts on “On the Irish and Other Undesirables”

  5. Amphetamines and their like were used extensively by armed forces on all sides during WWII . It would be interesting to see how ‘high’ the Allied commanders were.

  8. All I can say is that if HI was summonsed to a meeting with her superiors and betters at work to discuss “things”, without an agenda and a path to outcome, she would be right to tell them to naff off. If they then blamed her for not setting the scene, it would be laughed out of a kindergarten, much less any kind of competent court.

    You just do not call a meeting that has no agenda and then blame the other side for the meeting’s failure to resolve outstanding issues. He who calls the meeting sets the agenda. There is no other way.

    Actually, the Powers That Be DID try something like this on HI in March. We hit it so far out of the field that they’re still combing the carpark looking for it.

  9. Leone,

    Wolf Hall was superb. HI had read the book, so looked forward to it with enthusiasm. With a new series of Poldark commencing immediately before, Sunday night on the ABC was 7th Heaven for her.

    I knew nothing about it, but as soon as I saw Thomas Cromwell I said, “That’s the guy who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing the spy in Bridge Of Spies,” Mark Rylance.

    Sans glasses, of course, but otherwise he played a similar “straight bat” role in Wolf Hall.

    My only disappointment was that no-one asked him whether he was worried that he had incurred the King Henry VIII’s displeasure. Because then he could have answered, “Would it help?” as he did in Bridge Of Spies (several times).

    Poldark has had a haircut too. And it looks like he shaves, at least occasionally. Happy days!

    • Sunday night on the ABC is superb – at least for a few more weeks.

      Has everyone noticed that Robin Ellis, who played Ross Poldark in the 1970s series is in the new series as Reverend Halse, the crabby judge?

  11. Nice article from Andrew Street.

    http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/can-we-expect-pauline-hanson-to-move-when-australia-has-samesex-marriage-20160926-grocj0.html

    I particularly like this paragraph:

    That’s why Attorney-General George Brandis is bleating that the plebiscite is “now the only feasible path to that outcome [same sex marriage] for many years to come”, which is exactly as accurate as a dentist claiming that the only way to access a tooth that needs filling is to enter via the rectum: it requires ignoring an obvious and straightforward technique in favour of one that’s unnecessary messy, painful, time-consuming and legally dubious.

    • And the last §

      “The least-coherent thing about Hanson’s position is that she’s so gosh darn worried about Australia being “swamped” by all these people coming to Australia from countries which evidently have opinions which are identical to hers.”

  14. Good decision

    Timor-Leste will have its case against Australia over a disputed maritime boundary heard by the permanent court of arbitration in the Hague after the court rejected Australia’s claim that the court had no jurisdiction.

    Timor-Leste asked for the process which could decide on which side of the border lies a large oil and gas field over which the two countries have a revenue-sharing agreement.

    Australia has resisted negotiating a permanent border until 2056 at the earliest. The conciliation process will now take place behind closed doors over the next year, the court said.

    …

    It was during the negotiations over CMats that Australia bugged Timor-Leste’s cabinet room. Australia has not admitted to the espionage, though it did raid the Canberra offices of Timor-Leste’s lawyer Bernard Collaery, and seized the passport of the intelligence agent who blew the whistle on the spying operation.

    Timor-Leste say the spying voids the treaty, which, it argues, was not negotiated in good faith.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/26/australia-fails-in-attempt-to-block-timor-leste-maritime-boundary-case

  15. Muppet is at it again

    One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has said he will respectfully consider climate change evidence given to him by the CSIRO, but also accused the science agency of pushing the “de-industrialisation” of Australia.

    Roberts met the CSIRO on Monday after asking for a briefing for the agency to provide empirical evidence of global warming which he has said it has “never provided before”.

    Roberts told Guardian Australia the meeting was very interesting and he would treat the CSIRO with respect by going through the material it provided him, which included information on climate change and vegetation levels.

    “The onus of proof is on the CSIRO, they are the tip of $1tn climate industry. They’ve pushed the de-industrialisation of Queensland and Australia,” he said.

    • I do not understand why it is the fault of the CSIRO that Australia is being “de-industrialised”, when it is far more evident that it is the responsibility of global companies being aided and abetted by sycophantic politicians on the right of the political spectrum. (Or would that be hitting too close to home for the likes of Mr Roberts?)

  16. Kirsdarke

    Thanks for that link. I admire people that can turn someone’s own words back at them, a pity the people interviewing her didn’t think of it at the time, now that would have been hilarious to see what her reaction would have been.

  18. Gorgeous Dunny.
    All going well I may be passing through Portland on my way to Mt Gambier to visit a cousin on Sunday afternoon. Do you feel like having a cup of coffee with a wayfaring stranger?

    • As Fiona has said, Mick, it would be an honour and too good to miss to meet up with you for coffee. I’m sure Fiona will pass on both my phone and email contact details to you.

      That’s something really to look forward to!

  21. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Michael Pascoe tells us to shop around for better interest rates ahead of the Joint Committee hearing.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/who-the-banks-are-really-screwing-on-interest-rates-20160925-gro9i0.html
    Is the housing market cooling a bit?
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/housing-market-really-is-cooling-hsbc-says-20160926-gropf7.html
    Tony Jones homed in on this remark from Simon Birmingham on QandA last night.
    http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv-and-radio/qa-simon-birmingham-says-some-private-schools-overfunded-20160926-grp1ji.html
    This SMH editorial says it’s time to go for the “full Gonski”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/time-to-go-the-full-gonski-for-childrens-sake-20160925-groahj.html
    Jenny Macklin takes aim at Christian Porter over the government’s planned welfare cuts.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/27/labors-jenny-macklin-accuses-coalition-of-planning-welfare-cuts
    Meanwhile Michael West tells us how PwC has given bludgers a lesson in corporate welfare.
    http://www.michaelwest.com.au/pwc-gives-bludgers-a-lesson-in-corporate-welfare/
    According to Ken Davidson the sale of the Port of Melbourne will drive prices sky high.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/port-sale-will-send-prices-through-the-roof-20160926-grodsh.html
    Trump’s debate game plan.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/us-presidential-election-2016-four-tactics-donald-trump-uses-in-debates-20160926-grp1h8.html
    More revealing evidence comes out in the Dick Smith collapse court hearing.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/managerial-militia-in-dick-smith-war-zone-20160926-groxf3.html
    This analyst reckons Apple stock is “boring” (good) and Tesla is “shot” (bad).
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/apple-is-now-boring-enough-to-buy-but-tesla-is-doomed-20160926-grormn.html

  22. Section 2 . . .

    It looks like Senator Bob day, a highly principled Christian man, has been a bit naughty. Google.
    /national-affairs/senator-bob-days-empire-hit-by-delays-payment-claims/news-story/075453336f98927042b18168fe737da4
    Trumps goes well in the debate “pre-game” when he calls the moderator a Democrat when he’s actually a registered Republican.
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-election/first-presidential-debate-a-test-for-lester-holt-and-nbc-20160922-grmn0b.html
    Three federal cross bench politicians are asking for whistle-blowers from the pokies indstry to come forward.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/pokieleaks-campaign-calls-for-gambling-industry-secrets-20160926-groino.html
    It’s not just crime that’s causing NSW’s burgeoning prison population writes Michaela Whitbourn.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/court-delays-and-bail-laws-drive-increase-in-prisoner-population-20160926-groe2t.html
    More trouble for Baird over the forced council mergers.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/councils-push-for-flawed-merger-inquiries-to-start-from-the-beginning-20160926-groicg.html
    The three big issues facing Bill Morrow and the NBN. Google.
    /brand/chanticleer/the-three-big-challenges-facing-nbn-ceo-bill-morrow-20160926-grovvs
    Five ways the plebiscite money could be spent on health.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/five-ways-that-the-160m-same-sex-plebiscite-could-be-spent-in-health-20160922-grm14u.html
    Steve Irons, you naughty boy!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-government-mp-steve-irons-also-charged-taxpayers-to-fly-wife-home-after-wedding-20160926-groqn9.html
    Want to know what makes George Christensen tick? Then read this.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/sep/26/george-christensen-on-poverty-priesthood-and-a-flirtation-with-one-nation
    Another George Brandis “success”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/australia-loses-attempt-to-knock-out-east-timors-maritime-boundary-complaint-20160926-grooik.html
    With the plebiscite talks reaching a dead end and the latest NewsPoll surely it’s time for Turnbull to show some mettle and take on the poisonous right wing rump.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/marriage-plebiscite-talks-hit-dead-end-as-turnbull-government-and-labor-play-the-blame-game-20160926-groioo.html

  23. Section 3 . . .

    Michelle Grattan says that the SSM manoeuvring has now become a charade.
    https://theconversation.com/same-sex-marriage-manoeuvring-has-become-a-charade-66074
    Paul Bongiorno writes that the “better angels” have gone missing in the SSM debate.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2016/09/26/marriage-equality-farce/
    Andrew Street wonders what Pauline Hanson will do when Australia finally gets marriage equality.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/view-from-the-street/can-we-expect-pauline-hanson-to-move-when-australia-has-samesex-marriage-20160926-grocj0.html
    Why we need to tackle bigotry.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/26/we-cant-build-a-progressive-political-agenda-without-tackling-bigotry
    Stephen Koukoulas says the Turnbull government is taking an unnecessary risk in issuing 30-year bonds.
    http://thekouk.com/item/407-why-the-turnbull-government-s-plan-to-issue-30-year-bonds-is-an-unnecessary-risk.html
    Is Aldi “leeching” off the big supermarkets?
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/your-budget/2016/09/26/aldi-parasite/
    Medibank has been piloting a program to keep people out of hospital. Looks promising. Google.
    /business/health/hospitals-and-gps/why-medibank-spends-30m-a-year-on-taxis-handrails-and-talking-scales-20160926-groo5u
    Even though he’s retired Steven Conroy will not give up on the fight for parliamentary privilege over the seized NBN documents.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/nbn-raids-stephen-conroy-to-maintain-document-privilege-fight-in-retirement-20160926-gron7g.html
    Have we reached “peak secrecy”?
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/have-we-reached-peak-secrecy-20160926-grodbv.html
    The New York Times tells its readers why Trump should become President.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/why-donald-trump-should-not-be-president-20160926-grojfl.html
    The vital role of fact checking in today’s presidential debate.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/26/debate-fact-checking-donald-trump-lester-holt

  24. Section 4 . . . with Cartoon Corner

    Another multiple shooting in gun-loving America.
    http://www.theage.com.au/world/houston-shooting-six-people-injured-some-seriously-at-us-mall-20160926-grp23p.html

    Ron Tandberg at Steve Irons’ wedding.

    Beautiful work from David Rowe on the struggle to advance SSM legislation.

    Cathy Wilcox with the Trump lie detector for today’s debate.

    Ron Tandberg and policy options.

    Peter Broelman on Operation Sovereign Bribing.

    Mark Knight takes us into the ring for the Presidential debate.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/80186928b56e1aaf13c75dc455972f5b?width=1024
    Jon Kudelka at the Brandis/Dreyfus SSM meeting.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/c9f582eb437918ca3894d50427a01185

  27. I thought you might like this old tweet from Steve Irons.

    Not only did Mr ‘Integrity’ Irons charge us for his wedding travel expenses, he also claimed for trips to Melbourne for ‘sitting of parliament’ after too many sitting weeks before his marriage.

    His fiance lived in Melbourne back then.

    His schedule seemed to be to fly from Perth to Canberra for a sitting week, then fly to Melbourne for the weekend, then fly back to Canberra or home to Perth . We are such generous taxpayers to finance all this romance. We paid for his flights to Melbourne and his accommodation for his weekend love-ins with his fiance as well.

    Click to access IRONS_Steve.pdf

  33. She is, Bill, she is.

  34. Trump asked a question on Tax Returns.

    Go for the kill Hillary (although the moderator’s having a go too)

  35. Hillary is slaughtering him now, saying Trump didn’t pay his laborers, saying an architect was sitting in the audience who built one of his Golf lodges, and saying that Trump didn’t pay him.

    And he admitted it too. “Maybe the architect didn’t do a good enough job?!”

  39. Hillary says nothing during his diatribe.

    She doesn’t have to say anything: Donald is killing himself.

  45. The Libs have mastered the art of backflipping.

    Waffles would be the star of any circus….Wait…. He is!

  47. http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2016/09/voters-nationally-say-clinton-won-debate-5140.html

  48. https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/09/27/essential-indigenous-recognition-struggling-for-support/

    Sep 27, 2016
    Support for indigenous recognition in the constitution falling: Essential

    Support for constitutional recognition of Australia’s first peoples is weaker than previously thought, and a high proportion of “don’t knows” could prove fertile ground for opposition.
    Bernard Keane Politics Editor

    Support for recognition of Australia’s first peoples in the constitution is below 60% in today’s Essential Report, with more than a quarter of voters uncertain about the issue and a solid core of people opposed, disproportionately conservative voters.

    The result suggests there’s now a real question over successful passage of the referendum, which needs majority support in a majority of states: 58% of voters say they would vote recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, 15% say they would vote against it and 28% say they’re not sure.

    https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/09/27/essential-euthanasia-support-stays-strong/

    Sep 27, 2016
    Essential: euthanasia support stays strong
    More than two-thirds of Australians support the right to euthanasia, with only a small minority outright opposed, today’s Essential Report shows.
    Bernard Keane — Politics Editor

    Australians strongly support the right to medically assisted dying, despite the reluctance of major party politicians to discuss the issue, this week’s Essential Report shows, while voters put a global agreement on climate change ahead of most of the priorities put forward by both parties.

    The right to euthanasia is backed by 68% of Australians, with just 13% opposing it. That’s down from 72% in 2015, but higher than in 2014. Greens voters are strongest in support and Coalition voters weakest, but nearly two-thirds of the latter still support euthanasia, and Coalition voters are more likely to say they don’t know than to outright oppose it. Support is also stronger among older voters, with 76% of people aged 45-64 backing medically assisted dying.

    ………………

    On voting intention, the Coalition is up two points to 39% and Labor down a point to 36%; the Greens are down a point to 9%; NXT is down a point to 3% and One Nation remains on 6%. Based on the allocation of preferences at the July election, that leaves an unchanged two-party preferred result of 52%-48% in Labor’s favour.

  49. Yet another good article from Kristina Keneally.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/opposition-to-marriage-equality-is-the-last-stand-against-changes-to-the-family

    some good comments also, in particular this one https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/27/opposition-to-marriage-equality-is-the-last-stand-against-changes-to-the-family#comment-84109516

    My (unrealistic) view on possible exemptions is that no individual, business or organisation, including faith organisations, should be allowed to discriminate against same sex couples – the attitude among clergy that church law is above civil law is one of the reasons for non-reporting of child abuse.. No one should be above the civil law of the land.
    I’d go so far as to say the sanctity of the catholic confessional is equivalent to obstruction of justice when a crime is confessed to a priest.

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