Dear RObert,

Prof. James Jupp in his book, "From White
Australia to Woomera," sums things up rather
well regarding "One Nation."
He states that:

"In one sense, "One Nation" was a farce. It was
inept, incompetent, unintelligent, and spurious.
It earned large sums of money through donations
and public funding for which it was unable
to account."

"In another sense it was a tragedy.
By creating a block of 1 million voters strategically
placed between Labor, the Nationals and the Liberals,
it tempted the parties to pander to its prejudices.
The Liberals adopted much of its refugee policy.
More importantly they pursued their own similar
agenda against multiculturalism and Aboriginal
reconciliation. The ALP under Kim Beazley had no
policy on immigration worthy of the name and followed
lamely behind the Coalition when the "Tampa"
crisis broke out in August 2001. The Nationals were
divided and had most to lose."

"The worst effect of "One Nation" was that it gave
legitimacy to those who had always opposed the changes
of the past thirty years. Its message was spread by the
media to the entire population. It created the belief
that there was a large constituency of "Aussie battlers"
whose prejudices had to be treated seriously. It
encouraged anti-intellectualism, like all populist
parties."
"This meant that much that had been creative in national
development since the 1960s had to be argued for again.
By failing to do so, the Howard government consolidated
its own electoral position in 2001 and legitimised the
whole agenda which he and his colleagues had been
developing since the early 1980s. This led directly to
the punitive detention of asylum seekers and the
hunger strikes of Woomera."

This is not some urban legend.
The government really did spend a fortune on focus groups and a report.

The prime minister even responded to media questions about it.
I wish someone would report the *name* of the document, so we could read it.

Apparently anything and everything "offends" someone these days.

This is our war memorial day.
Every country has one.
Japan has one. Germany has one.
Get over it.

If foreigners have become Australian citizens, they shouldn't be "offended".
Anzac Day is about the nation *Australia* (which they supposedly now are part of) and its fallen.

Any naturalised citizens who make trouble at these events should have their citizenship revoked and be deported back to "their" land.

Our day is unlike the baton-twirling, cheering-crowd American type.
Ours is sedate and serious.
We don't bombastically "glorify" war.
What's there to be offended by?

And what's this have to do with "culture"?
We never went to war with anyone because of their "culture"!

There is no evidence what so ever that any new Australians, now or in the past, have shown any substantive desire to destroy the well established tradition that is ANZAC Day. It is far more likely that the hate peddlers and their piddling number of supporters, who reside in such political parties as One Nation and Australia First, on finding they can't garner the slightest modicum of popular support through the ballot box will resort to lies about migrants in an attempt to divide Australia into opposing sectarian groups. These hateful bigots are simply trying to create division where no division exists. I give credit to our migrants past and present who in the main do their best to become Australians in their own way, and the contribution such people make to the true Australia, it can't be easy for anyone of them.
Its notable that no worthwhile links have been posted on the subject.

RObert, "Have you followed any of the discussion in the US regarding attempts to outlaw lying in political campaigns? Interesting arguments both for and against. I'm in favor of political discourse being held to some kind of account but bothered by the ability for it to be misused to silence genuine discussion"

It is impossible and leads to all manner of abuses, one being continual challenges to gag.

The only protection is free speech (and liberty).

In the late 1980s I lived in Marrickville area, Sydney, which has to be one of the most diverse places in Australia (my immediate neighbours included people of Italian, Irish, Tongan, Aboriginal, Egyptian and Greek background.) I heard about a project between one of the schools and the local studies centre at the library. A group of high school students, of similar varied backgrounds (also including Vietnamese), each chose a name from the war memorial and researched that soldier. This was before easily accessed digitised records. They did amazing projects - tracked down families, interviewed them, dug out old records and photographs and so on. I was shown their reports in the local studies collection - amazing work - they'd clearly been passionate about the task. And I still remember the pride I felt in the pride these young migrants felt in becoming Australian.

I can remember a small Turkish contingent marching at Young in the late 50s.

They were welcomed & respected. I think there was real respect between them & us even during the fighting.