Immigration
In this week’s ABR Podcast, we revisit the Australian Labor Party’s long and uneasy relationship with immigration. Dr Ebony Nilsson, a research fellow at the Australian Catholic University, argues that while the ALP no longer looks like a ‘happy white men’s club’, its policies on immigration reflect a longstanding ambivalence around race. Listen to Ebony Nilsson’s ‘A happy white men’s club: The Australian Labor Party’s uneasy history with immigration’, published in the July issue of ABR.
... (read more)On election day in 2022, thousands of Australian voters – perhaps already in line at their local primary school, democracy sausage in hand – received this text message. Refugees had not been a hot-button issue in this election, and the messages were generally seen as an unsuccessful last-ditch effort by a Coalition government already on the ropes. But the new Albanese Labor government was quick to confirm, just a day after being sworn in, that it had turned the boat back without hesitation. A public warning was issued to people smugglers that Australia’s border policy remained iron-clad and inflexible. Such statements are usually for the benefit of the Australian public, rather than an imagined audience of people smugglers.
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