Dear Belly,

"Australia would risk its future prosperity if it chose the
isolationist path on immigration." This warning was made by
former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks in his speech given
at the 2010 Brooks Oration for Deakin University.

He stressed the fact that Immigrants had been pivotal to the
nation's post war success and that they remain vital for the
coming century.

"We need migrants. We need them in our
workforce to drive our economy into the 21st century. We need
them to help us to make the transition to a sustainable economy...
It's not a question of yes or no on migration."

Mr Bracks said that it was not in our interest to be isolationists.
That we have to guard against the demonising of entire communities,
because that's the kind of "Fortress Australia" mentality that
led to the isolationism and monoculturalism of the White Australia
Policy.

The former Labor Premier spoke about the fact in which both
parties had rejected a "Big Australia." Picking up on the public
mood of resentment over inflated house prices, over crowded
public transport and road conjestion and in some cases over
immigrant groups creating cultural enclaves within big cities.
He spoke about setting caps on immigrants - so that sustainability
could be maintained. However -

He made it quite clear that if we become insular in our thinking
we will miss out on new opportunities for the kind of investment
and next-generation technologies we need to make a leap forward
in our economy.

And if we miss out on these opportunities overseas, the future
prosperity and sustainability of our nation will be at risk.

Mr Bracks said the current political leaders should heed the
lessons of the recent past. The success or failure of
multiculturalism is not just up to our government leaders. Leaders
can lead by example. Ultimately though, the day-to-day task of
living and working alongside people who may appear on face value
to be different falls to communities.

cont'd ...

Foxy said- "Yes, my ancestry is European - so what.
We all have different ancestors. But are you saying that if
they're not Anglo-Celtic - we're not true Australians? In that
case - shame on you."

Answer- One way to look at it is that those people that are very different from Australian people and don't have a long history of Australian and British ancestors don't have a commitment to the formation of Australia by the British (Anglo-Celtic's) and the interest of the continued control of Australia by Australians- this probably more about who's got the power than any objective view on who should have the power. One view is- similar to ownership of real estate, cultures own countries. But Europeans do have some traditions in common with the British. The Greek and Roman traditions are considered by many as the foundation of Western Culture. The Catholic Church was perhaps the dominant party in the middle ages. The German, French and British dominance from about the 1500s may be considered more influential until 1920s. Currently the US is most influential. Because Greek and Italian culture has influenced British and Australian culture in the past means we are more accepting of their people than cultures that are further afield.

I don't feel "shame" for these views and am concerned about those who would "demonize people out of the own country" by labelling them as shameful.

If I went to Japan and criticised the Emperor I would expect to be disliked. In the same way if a European person or their ancestor comes to Australia- then say that those people that gave them shelter are "shameful" for their protection of their culture- such a "European person" could have a few names. And it might discourage other cultures from accepting outsiders.

There have been a few people quoting "politicians and department support of immigration" (John Howard, Steve Bracks, Australian Human Rights Commission). This could be somewhat "superfluous" as everyone agrees that both political sides support high immigration rates even if the electorate doesn't support it.

cont'd ...

Dear Belly,

There have been quite a few suggestions in the past as to how
to deal with some of the problems that we may face in the
future regarding sustainability. Our cities cannot keep
growing at the rate that they are. We all know that they
are getting too big and putting a strain on services, transport,
road conjestion, and so on. Our governments need to look at
better long-term planning. Suggestions for building new towns
along inter-state transport routes with new infrastructure,
services and industry to encourage people
to move out of the big conjested
urban areas. Perhaps there could be a requirement for immgrants
to move into these areas as a condition of being accepted into
the country (as the 2 year work contracts were for the post war
migrants). Just a thought.

Foxy has said a few times that "Australia is an immigrant country"- presumably therefore Foxy sees everyone in Australia as immigrants- therefore Foxy is also an immigrant presumably.

"Australia is a British country" but we also have a large influence from Ireland. Let me draw a pie chart... in 3d to account for the historical changes...

Foxy much of what you say is what I say, constantly,however if we try to solve any problem the best we can expect is something in the middle I TRULY wanted to get views about how others see the undoubted changes 50 years will bring, said here and in the other thread that in the end is about Muslims, mono culture is dead, no turning back, but yes hight lighting strongly a change I see, right now a very real danger is the emerging right, all over the world, Trump rode into town on that wave, it is my view both sides of politics will, in part, notice and act on that danger, it is well past time the overly PC stopped telling us expecting SOME degree of assimilation is racist, time will see some assimilation take place,and it should,no more than 3 percent of us are from Muslim background,about that number are from yet other faiths,I am from [Australian Census ] 30 percent nonbeliever, have I any rights? should I change? such is humanity we do change and 50 years is a long time