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The Forum > General Discussion > The New White Australia Policy

The New White Australia Policy

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The English test etc is not for visitors or temporary visas to Australia, they are for people intending to reside and become citizens. Where is the racism in in such a test? Those refuting the need for such a test appear to be the ardent racists against settled Australians; who have enjoyed peace and harmony though racially diverse, but language assimilated.
Posted by Philo, Thursday, 28 December 2006 4:16:03 PM
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Michaelk, “A good example of seemingly a positive process is MWin auto-correcting, which automatically changed letters in messages to “fore-breads” for instance.”

An old English proverb, “It is the worst sort of craftsman who blames his tools”.

However, you then followed with a sentence comprising 74 words, irrationally arranged around one single comma (is a position for which it is redundant) and not one other punctuation character. Your lengthy statement remains, despite several attempts at translation, to be a complete nonsense.

Not that I am picky but you have successfully abused the Language of your adopted country to an almost criminal extent. You represent a good example of why people who want to aspire to Australian Citizenship should be required to communicate in English because, as evidenced by your posts, you surely cannot.

Celivia “What I would like to see though, is for one main language to become a compulsory subject at High Schools all over the world so that it will become everyone’s second language and everyone would be able to communicate.”

I have tried to find out what this is, with no success. However, reason and common sense leads me to suggest it is most likely English, in those countries where “English” is not the first language.

Darn it Celivia, all your high brow opinions come down to the likelihood that “Learning English” is the most reasonable assertion, not only for new Australians but anyone else around the globe.

As has been said before and affirmed by Pericles, Expectations that people are competent in the language of the country which they have been accepted for residency and citizenship is not illogical and it is not unfair. It is common sense and a similar requirement is a condition for citizenship expected internationally.

Philo, I think you are on to something, certainly we have seen Michaelk’s deranged ramblings include some racist invective of the lowest order.
Posted by Col Rouge, Thursday, 28 December 2006 5:24:41 PM
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Pericles,

You seem to be confused about “multiculturalism”. Australia had people of different cultures right from settlement - certainly by the time of the gold rush.

The self-destructing multiculturalism I refer to is the official policy of multiculturalism adopted by wacko politicians without reference to the people. I will never understand how anyone can think that is a good thing for any country or any people. We have a non-discriminatory immigration policy, and that should be enough, even for you.

Thankfully, you don’t make the rules, and I do not have to “forfeit” any of my rights as you think I should. Bit of a slip there, old son, which points up your intolerance.

Good to see Philo back with some sensible comments; and Col Rouge who, I believe is a successful migrant himself, and has always seemed capable of coping with the rigours of living in what 80% of the moaners and groaners who “grace” these pages seem to think is an awful racist, intolerant country.

For all the Australia-bashers, love it or leave still applies. I hope to see not just a toughening of the rules for immigrants, but a complete cessation of immigration for the forseeable future.
Posted by Leigh, Thursday, 28 December 2006 7:26:07 PM
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As a third generation Australian, I'm not sure that I 'love' the country of my accidental birth and citizenship. However, I often consider myself fortunate to have been born here and to live here.

One of the things I've always liked about Australia is its 'multicultural' society, and I've lived long enough and in enough different parts of the country (and overseas) to have witnessed the enrichment of our society by its cultural diversity. This has manifested in many ways, from the relatively trivial (e.g. cuisine) to more profound influences (e.g. labour and business, art, science, philosophy and religion).

One of the things that I've always disliked about Australia is the disproportionate and pervasive influence of racist and jingoistic sentiments that are held by a relative minority of the populace. Ever since my youth I've been repelled by obvious displays of xenophobia, and offended by the more subtle ways our institutions continue to sustain Australia's ugly racist underbelly.

That's why I, like most Australians, applauded the dismantling of the old 'White Australia Policy'. It's also why I am apalled that our current Federal government (and to a lesser extent, its opposition) seems to be hell-bent on reintroducing this embarrassing vestige of our colonial past.

It's not surprising that this despicably retrograde trend finds a welcome reception among that small proportion of knuckle-dragging xenophobes who persist in dragging ignorant public opinion to their level of dumb misanthropy. Fortunately, there's always been a healthy tradition in our society of giving short shrift to those who seek to entrench privilege for their own social class or cultural group.

If the xenophobic recidivists who like to infest this forum are unhappy that "80%" of other commentators disagree with their vile and self-serving racism, then I'm sure they can find other forums where they can vent their spleens.
Posted by CJ Morgan, Friday, 29 December 2006 9:33:43 AM
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I will speak from my own experience.

I was born in England of mixed Caucasian family and came to Australia over 44 years ago, because I wanted to live near the beach in a hot climate. I immediately felt at home with Aussies of all sorts of racial backgrounds and cultures. The only ones I didn't see eye-to-eye with were the wowsers. Funny thing about wowsers, generally ridiculed and lampooned, but politicians, local councillors and bureaucrats seem to be too scared to risk upsetting them.

My work was in sales and sales management. I really didn't care where my clients or their families originally came from. I seemed to have the knack of communicating with people from different backgrounds and my attitude to them was obviously accepted as a clear indication that I was not judgemental in this respect.

My social life revolved around Ballroom and Latin dancing [and still does]. In addition to going to ordinary ballrooms, my second wife and I either joined, or were regular visitors to various ethnic clubs, because we enjoyed their dances, both Ballroom/Latin and ethnic.

My second wife, originally from Cumbria, England, spoke fluent German and passable Italian, which was a great help to our social life. My schoolboy French was rarely of much help in Australia, but sometimes came in handy.

Kathy, who was an excellent dancer, took up Belly Dancing and became very proficient. She certainly had the Hollywood style looks for it. She taught this artform for the WA Education Dept and regularly performed at many functions, where the clientele would be predominantly Eastern Mediterranean/Middle Eastern. Another wonderful opportunity for us to broaden our social contacts.

cont
Posted by Rex, Friday, 29 December 2006 9:38:04 AM
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In regard to long term migrants not speaking fluent English, some friends originally from Sicily come to mind. Tony worked in the engineering trade with English speaking workmates and spoke good English. His wife Serena owned and managed a small, but prosperous catering business for home parties etc. I sometimes wondered if all her clients were Italian, because her English was not fluent at all. But I don't see this as a problem, why should it be?

I lost my wife some years ago. I couldn't see myself sitting at home, drinking too much and getting bored with TV, so I forced myself to go back to social dancing on my own. I was eventually fortunate to meet a delightful Japanese lady, who was a trained dancer.

Emiko came here 14 years ago as a business migrant, with her then husband and 3 children. She had a very restricted life, working in the family restaurant and otherwise being expected to stay at home. She had little opportunity and no encouragement to learn English. She did the sensible thing and divorced some years ago.

She wanted a social life, but, with very little English, decided to learn dancing, something which did not require much in the way of conversation. She was a natural as a dancer and has obtained some good qualifications and achieved in competition.

When we met, at a dance, she was happy with my suggestion that we go dancing together, but did not think we could become close, because of her limited English. However, this has never been a problem and our very active social life has improved her conversational English to a marked degree.

cont
Posted by Rex, Friday, 29 December 2006 9:41:08 AM
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