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The origin of the policy can be traced back to the 1850s when large numbers of Chinese immigrated to Australia during the gold rushes. The Anglo-Australian population resented Chinese who were undercutting white labour prices, and also disliked some Chinese cultural practises. There were several race riots. In response, the newly self-governing colonies introducing restrictions on Chinese immigration. By 1888 Chinese were excluded from all the Australian colonies, although those Chinese who were already in Australia were not deported. Prime Minister Edmund Barton stated that "The doctrine of the equality of man was never intended to apply to the equality of the Englishman and the Chinaman."
Another source of the policy was opposition to labourers from Melanesia (known pejoratively as " kanakas") in the sugar-cane fields of Queensland. They had been forcibly removed from their homes and the practice of importation of these labourers was known as blackbirding. The leaders of Australia were determined not to follow the mistake of America. The desire to stamp out this human trafficking, and to prevent the importation of further non-European labour, was one of the principal motives of the Federation movement of the 1890s. Around 7,000 Islanders were subsequently deported. Afterward the government and the trade union made sure that only white labourers were allowed to work in the field.
The main rationale of the policy was to keep Australia racially pure. "I am prepared to do all that is necessary to ensure that Australia shall be free for all time from the contamination and the degrading influence of inferior races." (Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 12th Sept 1901 p.4845) The trade unions and their political party, the Labor Party, was the driving force for White Australia. Chris Watson, the leader of the Labour Party stated that "The objection I have to the mixing of these coloured people with the white people of Australia - although I admit it is to a large extent tinged with considerations of an industrial nature - lies...in the possibility and probability of racial contamination." It was widely believed that racial purity was essential for social and political stability. "The unity of Australia is nothing, if that does not imply a united race. A united race not only means that its members can intermix, intermarry and associate without degradation on either side, but implies one inspired by the same ideas..." (Alfred Deakin, Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates, 12 September 1901, p.4807)
In 1901, the new Federal Parliament, as its first piece of legislation, passed the Immigration Restriction Act to "place certain restrictions on immigration and... for the removal... of prohibited immigrants". Early drafts of the Act explicitly banned non-European from migrating to Australia. But objections from the British government, which feared that such a measure would offend British subjects in India and Britain's allies in Japan, caused the Barton government to remove this wording. Instead, a "dictation test" was introduced as a device for excluding unwanted immigrants. Immigration officials were given the power to exclude any person who failed to pass a 50-word dictation test in any European language.
Australia was not the only nation to have a discriminatory immigration policy. The United States, Canada and New ZealandFor alternative meanings, see New Zealand (disambiguation). New Zealand is a country formed of two major islands and a number of smaller islands in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. A common Mori name for New Zealand is Aotearoa popularly translated as Land also had racially restrictive immigration policies in the 19th and early 20th centuries. At this time many people believed that there were deep and innate differences between races, and that their own race was superior to all other races. Many Chinese and Japanese believed this as strongly as did Europeans. However, it should be noted that these racist views were common but not the dominant political ideology at the time. The acceptance of slavery was long gone in Europe and Britain specifically objected to the Australian wish to make the policy officially racial. At the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I, Japan attended the conference with the explicit intention of having a racial equality clause included in the League of Nations Charter. It was Australian Prime Minister Billy HughesWilliam Morris "Billy" Hughes ( September 25 1862 October 28 1952), Australian politician, was the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, the longest-serving member of the Australian Parliament, and one of the most controversial figures in Australian politi who vehemently opposed the proposition. Hughes recognised that such clause would be threat to White Australia and made it clear to Lloyd George that he will leave the conference if the clause is adopted. When the proposal failed Hughes reported in the Australian parliament, "The White Australia is yours. You may do with it what you please, but at any rate, the soldiers have achieved the victory and my colleagues and I have brought that great principle back to you from the conference, as safe as it was on the day when it was first adopted." Australia was one of few countries who had race as the dominant political ideology at the time.
The trade unions and their political party, the Labor PartyThe Australian Labor Party or ALP is Australia's oldest political party. It is so-named because of its origins in and close links to the trade union movement. While Australians normally spell Labour with an "-our" ending, in the name of the party it is sp, was the driving force for White Australia. It was Labor which forced the Barton government to pass the Immigration Restriction Act, and Labor clung to White Australia until well into the 1950s. Labor's fears about Asian immigration were based on the fact that in 1901 the Australian continent had a population of 3.7 million, and was a short distance from countries where hundreds of million of people lived in conditions of great poverty. The unions believed that these people would "swamp" European Australia if allowed to do so. The unions also believed that large numbers of workers might be imported from Asia to undercut Australia's high wages if immigration was not restricted. This was not an unfounded belief - many employers said openly that they wished to do just that. Arthur CalwellArthur Augustus Calwell ( August 28 1896 July 8 1973) Australian Labor politician, was born in Melbourne, Victoria. His father was a police officer of Irish descent. His mother was of Irish-American descent. A gifted high school student, Calwell was a dev, who retired as Labor leader in 1967Events January January 4 British motorboat racer Donald Campbell dies while attempting a water speed record in Coniston Lake. January 4 Algerian revolutionary Mohammed Khider is shot in Madrid. January 6 Vietnam War: USMC and ARVN troops launch " Operatio, was the last major Australian politician to believe in White Australia.
The White Australia policy retained almost unanimous public and political support until the late 1940s. After World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough opinion began to shift. The deportation of Indonesians and Filipinos who had arrived during the war as refugees aroused protests. Some of the refugees were allowed to stay, and Japanese women who had married Australian servicemen were also admitted. The revelation of the crimes of the Holocaust in Europe had the effect of making racism less acceptable, as did political changes such as the independence of India.