I love the irony in the story about Australia's most famous anti-immigrant becoming an immigrant herself.
Pauline Hanson made news around the world with her anti-immigration rantings. In fact it was pure racism, she was anti-immigrants if they were not Anglo-Saxon.
She had a short-lived political career and in her maiden speech in parliament commented that Australia was being 'swamped by Asians', which did great damage to the country's standing abroad, especially of course in Asia.
In particular I loved her reasons for leaving Oz:
"Over-regulation, increasing taxes and lack of true representation are affecting our way of life."
So she's decided to get away from that by moving to what UK blogger Keith calls Britanistan.
BBC report is here.
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11 comments:
Seabee, there is a certain irony in Ms Hanson relocating to the UK but she was neither a racist nor anti-immigration.
Ms Hanson's comments on immigration need to be clarified in the context that they were mainly made toward the late 80's, early 90's when the amount of Asian immigration into Australia concerned even the most humanitarian of us.
In 1989 attempted Asian immigration to Australia represented approx 45% of all immigration (Source - Dept of Immigration & Multicultural Affairs). This far outweighed Anglo-Saxon immigration which ran at around 35%.
Bearing in mind that this was occurring shortly after the Vietnamese influx of the 70's & 80's, the sell-off of Gold Coast Assets to Japan, and the commencement of yet another economic slump. Ms Hanson purely said what the majority of Australians were thinking (at the time) that Asian immigration (as with all immigration) needed to be controlled. It had been poorly managed and was hurting the economy and was in itself fuelling racism amongst the Australian communities due to Australia's left-wing open doors / open shores policies.
As a result of her outspoken stance she was (not suprisingly)voted into power under the One Nation banner and it was becoming obvious that her party was now a real threat to both the established Coalition and Labor Parties.
Subsequently they joined forces to ensure that she (& her party) were crushed. It is common knowledge that this attack was lead by Liberal power-broker Tony Abbott.
Thereafter she received a bogus jail term for practises that had been employed by the two major parties for many years. It must also be mentioned that once jailed in Oz for anything but minor crimes you are subsequently disqualified from being allowed to run for Parliament.
Seabee, don't get me wrong I am not a Hanson fan but her comments were made at a time when they needed to be made. The situation is now different. Taken out of context she could be perceived as a pure racist but she is not. This is purely the lies and deception of a media circus taking great delight in assisting the major parties in cutting her down to size.
This whole Pauling Hanson saga is a black mark on Australia's history. It disgraces our unoffical motto of "A Fair Go For Everyone".
To this day Pauline Hanson still has a soft stop in a lot of Australians hearts as she was the one who spoke out against what everyone knew was wrong with Australian society back then. But she didn't care about the PC crap going on at the time, and unfortunately did not see the wolves circling her wagon.
Her popularity still astounds today and her recent appearance on Australia's "Dancing with the Stars" only shows to reinforce that.
Who could blame her for leaving Oz after the shocking way she was treated by the Political system and the staunch left-wing media muppets.
And not to mention the doctored phony pornographic images of Ms Hanson that were released by a "source" in Australia which were later proved to be fakes.
Probably the worst smear campaign I have ever witnessed on an Australian in Australia in my life.......
Dave, have you ever considered for a minute that every Australian, New Zealander, American (South & Latin), South African were all immigrants that moved to the new world for better prospects?
And now, those same immigrants that immigrated are now anti-immigration.
Nice.
Dave, a long comment with which I agree and disagree.
I have always believed that multiculturism was a huge mistake, not only for Oz but for any country.
Government policy has been to encourage immigrants to bring their own culture with them rather than integrating. The lack of integration is the major cause of friction with the existing population, anywhere in the world it happens.
I'm also a firm believer that immigration numbers have to be controlled based on what the country can sensibly absorb.
She was indeed very badly treated with the jail term and the fake photos. Both were unforgiveable.
But there is no doubt that Hanson was by her own words racist and anti-immigration. You're agreeing with her when you bring into the discussion not immigration per se but Asian immigration - the 'Vietnamese influx' the balance between Asian and Anglo-Saxon immigrants and the Japanese investment in the Gold Coast you included. You, and Hanson, are saying the problem is where they're from.
I also have to disagree that "Hanson purely said what the majority of Australians were thinking" A minority, not the majority.
She managed enough votes from Qld to get her the one seat, then her One Nation managed eleven seats in Queensland. When John Winston Howard stole her policies her party became irrelevant.
As for her popularity on Dancing with the Stars, that's just a reflection of the current obsession with celebrity. Anyone in the public eye becomes a 'celebrity' and has a huge following of sad people - just look at the list of people who are invited to appear on shows like that, how people on shows like Big brother become huge 'celebrities' for behaving badly.
In 1989 attempted Asian immigration to Australia represented approx 45% of all immigration (Source - Dept of Immigration & Multicultural Affairs). This far outweighed Anglo-Saxon immigration which ran at around 35%.
OMG, the absolute horror of this wide disparity !
Care to find out a similar breakdown for immigrants to Australia in lets say, 1925 ?
Seabee "I have long believed multiculturalism was a mistake..."
Ahhh lovely...so since the Aborigines were in Australia long before the immigrants from the UK/Europe arrived, how have you adapated to the Aboriginal culture? What parts of it have you picked up? Apart from a trip to Ayers Rock (Uluru) and nodding along with satisfaction when an Aboriginal was depicted in the film Australia (even though the true brutality of the Stolen Generation issue was toned down in the film to appease those looking to feel good about the issue)?
Hmmm?
Towers..stones..
And don't try to pick apart the argument by avoiding it completely i.e. 'oh god your spelling is so atrocious this isn't even worth a debate'.. talk about the issues instead.
@ Dou Freeman,
Actually, the first Australians were not immigrants but deported convicts.
Sorry, I had to...
Ha..ha, firstly I wouldn't avoid a debate on the basis that the other person couldn't spell.
Nor have I been to Uluru, nor did I nod with satisfaction at 'Australia' - I nodded, but that was nodding off because I thought it was such a trite film. I said it was awful in my post back in March.
I don't always delete stupid comments either, I leave some to remind us how unintelligent so many users of the internet are. So I'll leave your comment in and even answer what I assume was your point.
There was no 'Australia' until federation just over 100 years ago. The indiginous people were not a nation but several hundred different tribes separated by vast distances, with different languages and cultures and over 700 different languages and dialects.
The Australian Museum says it better than I can: "Indigenous Australians are not one group of people, there is not one language or one religious belief. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders throughout Australia have different thoughts, ideas and beliefs. They belong to living cultures that have survived longer than any other on earth. Today their cultures are a mixture of contemporary and traditional thoughts, ways and practices."
Using what you obviously think is your wisdom and knowledge of the subject, which would you have us integrate with?
Australia is now a country, now has a culture, now has English as its official language. That's what we integrate with.
Firstly Seabee,
Understand it's your blog, however please throw away your self-righteous, "Oh if I were Mayor of Dubai I would solve all its woes" attitude. It bounces off all of your posts and in the nicest way possible, is pretty irritating.
The fact that you imply that it is only NOW that Australia has a 'culture' suggests that you think that it didn't have such a thing before British deportees made their way to the island. Which is quite a foolish thing to say.
However, using your own very words, encouraging those British "immigrants to bring their own culture with them rather than integrating" has been a "major cause of friction" with the Aboriginal community at large. An issue which I think Australia pretty much has no desire to resolve, which is quite simply pathetic when you consider Aboriginals only constitute 2% of the population.
So really, any recently-arrived Australian - such as yourself, the poster Dave above, or the ones that started arriving approx post-1700s - has absolutely NO right to demand Asians, or any other cultural group, 'integrate' and drop their cultural ways completely when the ones demanding this haven't done a single thing in the same veins when THEY were welcomed (cough) into Australia by the Aboriginals back in the day.
Ha..ha. I think you are very much naive to sight the lack of integration dating back to the 1700's.
Did any country even consider 'integration' way back then? Of course not!! It was invasion / take over call it what you like. In case you hadn't noticed things have changed quite a bit since then.
Immigrants are very welcomed and dress code here is pretty relaxed and you can wear shirts, shorts, skirts or anything you like. Just a bit orthodox in the month of Ramadan.
You should obviously try the Kaya Back shine if you plan to go for an evening party. It removes dead surface skin cells to improve texture, softness of the back. Flaunt that back with grace!
- Dr. Hala Hashad
(Kaya Clinic)
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