''One Australia'' was the
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
and ethnic affairs
policy
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of the
Liberal
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Politics
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* Liberalism (international relations)
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Arts, entertainment and m ...
-
National
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* Nation or country
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Opposition
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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
The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
and opposed a treaty with
Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...
.
The policy set the scene for the August 1988 suggestion by
Leader of the Opposition
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
John Howard
John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...
that the rate of Asian immigration to Australia be reduced.
History
![Howard2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Howard2.JPG)
Howard first flagged the concept of the ''One Australia'' policy on a trip to
Perth
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...
in July 1988, having recently returned from a visit with
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
in Britain. ''One Australia'' was to be the name of the Liberal-National
Coalition's immigration and ethnic affairs policy.
During an interview on the
John Laws
Richard John Sinclair Laws CBE (born 8 August 1935) is a Papua New Guinean-born Australian radio announcer. For 50 years, until 2007, he was the host of an Australian morning radio program combining music with interviews, opinion, live adverti ...
radio programme on 1 August 1988, Howard detailed the policy, expressing his preference to bias immigration towards skilled applicants rather than family reunion.
[
] Later that afternoon, on the
ABC PM programme, 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.
Howard's Shadow Finance Minister,
John Stone, elaborated, saying that "Asian immigration has to be slowed. It's no use dancing around the bushes".
Ian Sinclair
Ian McCahon Sinclair (born 10 June 1929) is a former Australian politician who served as leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989. He was a government minister under six prime ministers, and later Speaker of the House of Representative ...
, 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."[
]
There were widespread objections to the policy from within the Liberal Party, including from
Victorian Premier
The premier of Victoria is the head of government in the Australian state of Victoria. The premier is appointed by the governor of Victoria, and is the leader of the political party able to secure a majority in the Victorian Legislative Assembly ...
Jeff Kennett
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett (born 2 March 1948) is a former Australian politician who was the 43rd Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999, and currently a media commentator. He was previously the president of the Hawthorn Football Club, serving ...
,
New South Wales Premier
The premier of New South Wales is the head of government in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Government of New South Wales follows the Westminster Parliamentary System, with a Parliament of New South Wales acting as the legislature. ...
Nick Greiner
Nicholas Frank Hugo Greiner (;) (born 27 April 1947) is an Australian politician who served as the 37th Premier of New South Wales from 1988 to 1992. Greiner was Leader of the New South Wales Division of the Liberal Party from 1983 to 1992 an ...
, former Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser (; 21 May 1930 – 20 March 2015) was an Australian politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983, holding office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Fraser was raised on hi ...
, and former
immigration ministers
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...
Ian Macphee
Ian Malcolm Macphee AO (born 13 July 1938) is an Australian former politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 until 1990. He is best known for his contributions in developing Australian multiculturalism and for bein ...
and
Michael MacKellar
Michael John Randal MacKellar (27 October 1938 – 9 May 2015) was an Australian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Party and served in the House of Representatives from 1969 to 1994, representing the Division of Warringah. He was M ...
.
The
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
government sought to quickly exploit Howard's Asian remarks by introducing a
parliamentary
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democracy, democratic government, governance of a sovereign state, state (or subordinate entity) where the Executive (government), executive derives its democratic legitimacy ...
motion
In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and mea ...
rejecting the use of
race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
to select immigrants. Howard opposed this motion.
[
][
] In an unusual show of
dissent
Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...
, three Liberal
MPs—
Ian Macphee
Ian Malcolm Macphee AO (born 13 July 1938) is an Australian former politician who was a member of the House of Representatives from 1974 until 1990. He is best known for his contributions in developing Australian multiculturalism and for bein ...
,
Steele Hall
Raymond Steele Hall (born 30 November 1928) is a former 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 f ...
and
Philip Ruddock
Philip Maxwell Ruddock (born 12 March 1943 in Canberra) is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire.
Ruddock is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia and currently the state president of the party's New South W ...
—defied their leader by
crossing the floor
In parliamentary systems, politicians are said to cross the floor if they formally change their political affiliation to a different political party than which they were initially elected under (as is the case in Canada and the United Kingdom). ...
and voting with the Labor government.
[
] Macphee lost preselection the following year.
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.
In a speech to the "Terra Australis to Australia" conference in
Canberra
Canberra ( )
is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...
, August 1988, Prime Minister
Bob Hawke
Robert James Lee Hawke (9 December 1929 – 16 May 2019) was an Australian politician and union organiser who served as the 23rd prime minister of Australia from 1983 to 1991, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (A ...
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.[
]
''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
Indigenous land rights are the rights of Indigenous peoples to land and natural resources therein, either individually or collectively, mostly in colonised countries. Land and resource-related rights are of fundamental importance to Indigenou ...
. 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".
''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
Gerard Henderson (born 1945) is an Australian author, columnist and political commentator. He founded and is executive director of The Sydney Institute, a privately funded Australian current affairs forum.
Education and earlier career
Henderso ...
, 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.
In the months following the release of the One Australia policy, there was a decline in investment in Australia by Asian businesses.
[
] 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
Andrew Sharp Peacock (13 February 193916 April 2021) was an Australian politician and diplomat. He served as a cabinet minister and went on to become leader of the Liberal Party on two occasions (1983–1985 and 1989–1990), leading the par ...
.
Commentary on the One Australia policy
*In 1993, Liberal Party MP,
Peter Costello
Peter Howard Costello (born 14 August 1957) is an Australian businessman, lawyer and former politician who served as the treasurer of Australia in government of John Howard from 1996 to 2007. He is the longest-serving treasurer in Australia' ...
, dismissed the One Australia policy as just "a passing policy".
*In a 2007 article in the British newspaper ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'',
left wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...
journalist
John Pilger
John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York.
Pilger ...
claimed that the One Australia Policy was a forerunner to the
One Nation political party.
See also
*
Criticism of multiculturalism
Criticism of multiculturalism questions the ideal of the maintenance of distinct ethnic cultures within a country. Multiculturalism is a particular subject of debate in certain European nations that are associated with the idea of a nation state ...
*
Opposition to immigration
Opposition to immigration, also known as anti-immigration, has become a significant political ideology in many countries. In the modern sense, immigration refers to the entry of people from one state or territory into another state or territory ...
*
White Australia policy
The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting i ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:One Australia Policy
Political history of Australia
History of immigration to Australia
Politics and race
Anti-Asian sentiment in Australia
Anti-immigration politics in Australia