One Australia was the immigration and ethnic affairs policy of the Liberal-National Opposition in Australia, released in 1988. The One Australia policy proclaimed a vision of "one nation and one future". It called for an end to multiculturalism and opposed a treaty with Aboriginal Australians.
The policy set the scene for the August 1988 suggestion by Leader of the Opposition John Howard that the rate of Asian immigration to Australia be reduced.
Howard first flagged the concept of the One Australia policy on a trip to Perth in July 1988, having recently returned from a visit with Margaret Thatcher in Britain. One Australia was to be the name of the Liberal-National Coalition's immigration and ethnic affairs policy. [1]
During an interview on the John Laws radio program on 1 August 1988, Howard detailed the policy, expressing his preference to bias immigration towards skilled applicants rather than family reunion. [2] Later that afternoon, on the ABC PM program, Howard discussed the policy in relation to Asian immigration to Australia:
I do believe that if it is – in the eyes of some in the community – that it's too great, it would be in our immediate-term interest and supporting of social cohesion if it were slowed down a little, so the capacity of the community to absorb it was greater. [3] [4]
Howard's Shadow Finance Minister, John Stone, elaborated, saying that "Asian immigration has to be slowed. It's no use dancing around the bushes". [5] Ian Sinclair, National Party leader in the Coalition, also supported the policy, saying:
"What we are saying is that if there is any risk of an undue build-up of Asians as against others in the community, then you need to control it ... I certainly believe, that at the moment we need ... to reduce the number of Asians ... We don't want the divisions of South Africa, we don't want the divisions of London. We really don't want the colour divisions of the United States." [6]
There were widespread objections to the policy from within the Liberal Party, including from Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett, New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner, former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, and former immigration ministers Ian Macphee and Michael MacKellar. [5]
The Labor government sought to quickly exploit Howard's Asian remarks by introducing a parliamentary motion rejecting the use of race to select immigrants. Howard opposed this motion. [7] [8] [9] In an unusual show of dissent, three Liberal MPs—Ian Macphee, Steele Hall and Philip Ruddock—defied their leader by crossing the floor and voting with the Labor government. [10] Macphee lost preselection the following year. [11]
Criticising his own party's policy, Steele Hall said in a speech to Parliament:
The question has quickly descended from a discussion about the future migrant intake to one about the level of internal racial tolerance. The simple fact is that public opinion is easily led on racial issues. It is now time to unite the community on the race issue before it flares into an ugly reproach for us all. [10]
In a speech to the "Terra Australis to Australia" conference in Canberra, August 1988, Prime Minister Bob Hawke responded to the Opposition's One Australia policy:
In the field of immigration and ethnic affairs, the "One Australia" ideology seems to connote a return to the dark days of narrow minded intolerance, fear of difference and pressure to assimilate. It is less about uniting Australians than dividing them. [12]
One Australia was officially launched by John Howard on 22 August 1988. The policy document, whose title was personally chosen by Howard, stated the Coalition's ideal to create "One Australia and welcome all those who share our vision and are ready to contribute to it", detailing a vision of "one nation and one future" which included the rejection of Aboriginal land rights. In September 1988, John Howard criticised multiculturalism, saying "To me, multiculturalism suggests that we can't make up our minds who we are or what we believe in", and the idea of an Aboriginal treaty, saying "I abhor the notion of an Aboriginal treaty because it is repugnant to the ideals of One Australia". [3]
One Australia became the centrepiece of Howard's general policy manifesto, "Future Directions – It's Time for Plain Thinking", which was released in December 1988.
In a January 1989 interview with Gerard Henderson, Howard elaborated on his reasons for opposing multiculturalism:
The objection I have to multiculturalism is that multiculturalism is in effect saying that it is impossible to have an Australian ethos, that it is impossible to have a common Australian culture. So we have to pretend that we are a federation of cultures and that we've got a bit from every part of the world. I think that is hopeless. [3] [13]
In the months following the release of the One Australia policy, there was a decline in investment in Australia by Asian businesses. [14] Some political commentators later postulated that the dissent within the Liberal Party over immigration policy weakened Howard's leadership position, contributing to him being overthrown as Liberal Party leader by Andrew Peacock. [15]
The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia. It is one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party. The Liberal Party was founded in 1944 as the successor to the United Australia Party. Historically the most successful political party in Australia’s history, the Liberal Party is now in opposition at a federal level, although it presently holds government in Tasmania and the Northern Territory at a sub-national level.
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The White Australia policy was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European non-white ethnic origins – especially Asians and Pacific Islanders – from immigrating to Australia in order to create a "white/British" ideal focused on but not exclusively Anglo-Celtic peoples. Pre-Federation, the Australian colonies passed many anti-Chinese immigration laws mainly using Poll Taxes, with Federation in 1901 came discrimination based on the Dictation Test, which effectively gave power to immigration officials to racially discriminate without mentioning race. The policy also affected immigrants from Germany, Italy, and other European countries, especially in wartime. Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1973, when the Whitlam government removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws.
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Petro Georgiou AO is a Greek Australian politician who was a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from November 1994 to July 2010, representing the Division of Kooyong, Victoria.
Amanda Eloise Vanstone is an Australian former politician and a former Ambassador to Italy. She was a Liberal Senator for South Australia from 1984 to 2007, and held several ministerial portfolios in the Howard government. After her resignation from the Senate in 2007, she then served as the Australian Ambassador to Italy until July 2010. Her time as Minister for Immigration was marked by controversies within the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.
Raymond Steele Hall was an Australian politician who served as the 36th Premier of South Australia from 1968 to 1970. He also served in the federal Parliament as a senator for South Australia from 1974 to 1977 and federal member for the Division of Boothby from 1981 to 1996.
Geoffrey Norman Blainey, is an Australian historian, academic, best selling author and commentator.
The following lists events that happened during the year 1988 in Australia.
John Owen Stone is a former Australian public servant and politician. He was Secretary to the Treasury between 1979 and 1984, and a senator for Queensland, representing the National Party, from 1987 to 1990.
Ian Malcolm Macphee AO is an Australian former politician. He held ministerial office in the Fraser government as Minister for Productivity (1976–1979), Immigration and Ethnic Affairs (1979–1982), and Minister for Employment and Youth Affairs (1982–1983). He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1990, representing the Liberal Party. He was known for his contributions in developing Australian multiculturalism as immigration minister and for being one of the most prominent "small-l" liberals within the Liberal Party.
John Winston Howard is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and was the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales division of Bennelong from 1974 to 2007. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the second-longest in Australian history, behind only Sir Robert Menzies. Howard has also been the oldest living Australian former prime minister since the death of Bob Hawke in May 2019.
The history of Australia since 1945 has seen long periods of economic prosperity and the introduction of an expanded and multi-ethnic immigration program, which has coincided with moves away from Britain in political, social and cultural terms and towards increasing engagement with the United States and Asia.
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The Hawke government was the federal executive government of Australia led by Prime Minister Bob Hawke of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1983 to 1991. The government followed the Liberal-National Coalition Fraser government and was succeeded by another Labor administration, the Keating government, led by Paul Keating after an internal party leadership challenge in 1991. Keating was Treasurer through much of Hawke's term as prime minister and the period is sometimes termed the Hawke-Keating government.
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