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 Assimilation may refer to: Culture *Cultural assimilation, the process whereby a minority group gradually adapts to the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture and customs **Language shift, also known as language assimilation, the progre ...

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, 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

.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 in 1958, and Italian-Australian

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 presidin ...

in 1964.

References

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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

See also

References

External links