New Australians were non-British migrants to Australia who arrived in the wave of
immigration following World War II. The term initially referred to newly arrived immigrants, generally refugees, who were expected to eventually become mainstream Australians. It was coined by
Arthur Calwell
Arthur Augustus Calwell (28 August 1896 – 8 July 1973) was an Australian politician who served as the leader of the Labor Party from 1960 to 1967. He led the party to three federal elections.
Calwell grew up in Melbourne and attended St J ...
, Australia's first Minister for Immigration, to promote the
assimilation of migrants to Australia from continental Europe. Its use was intended to be positive, and to discourage use of pejorative terms such as "reffo" or "Balt" that were then in frequent use. The term has fallen into disuse since the 1970s.
The
Democratic Labor Party in
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada
* Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory
* Victoria, Seychelle ...
, under state leader
Jack Little, is credited with being the first Australian political party to promote New Australian candidates in parliamentary elections in the period after the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
[Ainsley Symons (2013), "Jack Little: leader of the DLP," in ''Recorder'' (Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, Melbourne Branch), No. 278, December, p.3] Prominent candidates were
Hungarian-Australian Vilmos Kormos for the
Australian Senate
The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the House of Representatives (Australia), House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Chapter ...
in 1958, and
Italian-Australian
Italian Australians ( it, Italiani Australiani) are Australians with Italian ancestry. Italian Australians constitute the sixth largest ancestry group in Australia, and one of the largest groups in the global Italian diaspora. At the 2021 ce ...
Nino Randazzo
Nino Randazzo (22 July 1932 – 10 July 2019) was an Italian-Australian journalist and politician. He arrived in Australia as a young man and for 30 years served as the editor of ''Il Globo'', one of the country's largest non-English newspapers. ...
for the
electoral district of Fitzroy in the
Victorian Legislative Assembly
The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne.
The presiding ...
in 1964.
See also
*
Anglo-Celtic Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australians is an ancestral grouping of Australians whose ancestors originate wholly or partially in the British Isles - predominantly in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
While Anglo-Celtic Australians do not form an officia ...
*
Post-war immigration to Australia
Post-war immigration to Australia deals with migration to Australia in the decades immediately following World War II, and in particular refers to the predominantly European wave of immigration which occurred between 1945 and the end of the Whit ...
*
White ethnic
White ethnic is a term used to refer to white Americans who are not Old Stock or White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. "Religion is the most critical factor in separating white ethnics in American society. As Catholics and secondarily Jews ... they were ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Article exploring the term "New Australian" and its use in found footage cinema
Cultural assimilation
History of Australia since 1945
History of immigration to Australia