Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently told an audience at King’s College in London that we should hear uncomfortable stories rather than stay ‘sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories’. Taking Wong’s advice in the context of the Australian Labor Party’s virtue signalling over ‘the Voice’, it seems timely to recall the uncomfortable truths of Labor’s historical support for the White Australia policy.

At Federation, the first Australian government formed with the support of the Australian Labor Party, which insisted on maintaining Australia’s British identity and restricting non-white immigration. Thus was born the White Australia policy, which included the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901. The ALP consistently supported White Australia until the policy was undone by Liberal governments, starting with that of Robert Menzies.

In 1928, Ben Chifley complained that: ‘Australia was supposed to be a white man’s country’ but that the Bruce government was, ‘fast making it hybrid’. Chifley accused Bruce of giving ‘preference to Dagoes – not heroes.’ Indeed, Chifley’s version of White Australia excluded southern Europeans as well as Asians.

In the 1940s, John Curtin declared that Australia, ‘Shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race.’

Arthur Calwell promoted a policy of deporting Asian refugees, even those who had served with Australia’s forces and those married to Australian citizens. He even supported the deportation of Chinese refugees who lived in mortal fear of the communists. Calwell held that a safe, sane, and socially just Australia would be tied to its identity, ‘as a citadel of European civilisation’.

In 1947, Calwell made his most notorious statement. When debating Liberal Sir Thomas White about the plight of wartime refugees, he referred to a long-term resident, Mr Wong, and claimed, ‘Two Wongs do not make a White.’

Calwell also opposed the settlement of Japanese wives of Australian servicemen. He said, ‘An Australian marrying a Japanese can live with her in Japan but it would be the grossest act of public indecency to permit any Japanese of either sex to pollute Australian shores while any relatives remain of Australian soldiers dead in the Pacific battlefields.’

It is not without irony then, that when he drafted his War-time Refugee Removal Bill he not only defied the warnings of the High Court, but Calwell also claimed that Robert Menzies and ‘the whole Liberal-Country Party Opposition’ were people ‘who would like to break down our selected immigration policy’.

In 1949, the Australian Workers Union moved to uphold the White Australia Policy at the State conference of the NSW Labor Party, arguing that, ‘Labor policy was to populate Australia from the finest [white] people in the world – the stock from which Australians had come.’

Ironically, Labor and the unions’ White Australia policy excluded Aboriginal people from the nation, even though they had been living in Australia for tens of thousands of years.

Vestiges of Labor’s racism were seen in 1975 when Gough Whitlam refused to support Vietnamese refugees, even those who had worked for the Australian embassy. He is widely reported to have said, ‘I’m not having thousands of f***ing Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their political and religious hatreds against us.’

Just as it was Liberals who undid the White Australia policy, it was Fraser’s Liberal government that allowed Vietnamese refugees into Australia, despite opposition by parts of the Labor party.

Returning to ‘the Voice’, Labor may have a reputation for social justice, but for those of us who support Aboriginal people, we may want to recall a few inconvenient truths.

The Commonwealth Electoral Act (1962) that recognised the right of Aboriginal people to vote, and the referendum and constitutional change (1967) to count Aboriginal people in the census occurred under Liberal governments.

As for voices to Parliament:

• The first Aboriginal Senator, Neville Bonner, was appointed, then elected, as a Liberal.
• The first Aboriginal Member of the House of Representatives, Ken Wyatt, was a Liberal.
• Liberal Ken Wyatt was also the first Aboriginal Minister for Aboriginal people.
• The first Aboriginal Head of Government in Australia was Adam Giles, a member of the Country Liberal Party.
• The first Aboriginal State party leader in Australia, Zak Kirkup, was also a Liberal.

To use Minister Wong’s words, it would seem that Labor’s rhetoric regarding the ‘Voice’ may be an example of taking shelter in a narrow version of her party’s history. Indeed, before we again divide our nation by race, we should call to mind the uncomfortable stories about Labor’s racist history and ask ourselves which political party has done more for racial equality in this country.

Get 10 issues for just $10

Subscribe to The Spectator Australia today for the next 10 magazine issues, plus full online access, for just $10.

SUBSCRIBE 10 issues for $10 REGISTER 3 articles a month

Already a subscriber? Log in