Indian-proof fence
There is plenty of talk about multiculturalism in this country, but is humanity itself at stake here? ROY LANGE explores.
The recent ‘information evenings’ on the opening of a new South Australian centre for boat people has dark importance for the Indian community. Yes, Indians come to Australia by Singapore Airlines, but it was a rather frightening litmus test of this country’s strong immunity to foreign bodies.
The widely televised proceedings had terrifying close ups of a mob that were very different to one another. Bronzed, fair dinkum Aussies in singlets and thongs, and pallid, long-retired Scots in frayed jumpers knitted for them by their mothers in the war.
What sickened me to the bottom of my guts was the uniformity in their expressions. Undisguised fear. Hysterical aggressiveness. Magpies defending their nest from invaders. What sickened me was the uniformity in their expressions.
If this is a cross-section of Australia, how deep is the reserve of political will to continue Australia’s multicultural immigration policy? The Age recently reported that a majority of Australians supported the detention of asylum seeking children. This dark satanic fact proves the Australian well of human kindness is anything but bottomless, and indeed, may dry up.
For the message that migrant communities are hugely beneficial to Australia, is simply not out there. It is a political hot potato. If Labor openly evangelized that immigrants are indeed a great asset to the nation, they would lose a great amount of support, and in these knife-edged times, they would lose power. Which is a frustrating paradox, as a great deal of Labor’s electorate is a people smuggler’s passenger list.
But this message must get out. How long will this insane concentration of hate towards a comically small amount of boat people last? How long will they be the fall guys for the wider immigrant community? For it is wildly strange as it is true, that in Australia, it is politically correct to be repugnantly racist against someone who has arrived here on a fishing boat, but not by Qantas. It is socially acceptable to vent jaundiced frustration with the wider immigrant community onto ‘queue jumpers’. Will a hatred for other modes of transport transpire?
Could the focus of this irrational hatred spread towards Indians? It tragically has, evidenced by the atrocious attacks on students, but not to its terrifying potential because we are enjoying prosperity. They are happy for Indians to do the jobs they don’t covet. Until of course, severe recession strikes and suddenly Indians will be taking all the jobs from ‘Fair dinkum Aussie fellas’. Because the message has not reached Australians who do not have the foggiest clue how much their economy is supported by the vast numbers that arrive here annually. The robust property market is heavily underpinned by the thousands resettling here. Indians make up an unusually high proportion of the new property buyers in the outer suburbs of the country’s metros. Shamefully, it must also be noted that the goras have become addicted to the cheap labour that Indian migrants offer in the convenience store and taxi industries. Ten years ago, the Premier of Victoria reportedly begged the Immigration Department to stop checking Indian drivers’ working hours because all the taxis had disappeared.
But don’t worry. In less than a generation you’ll own the 711 and a fleet of taxis, which makes a very important point. The Australian is not entrepreneurial. In the fast shrinking world of globalization, the Australian laid back attitude will simply not cut the mustard. Coal and gold are finite resources. They need the relentless energy of a Punjabi boy who could sell a television to someone who is legally blind, and then sell a stereo to their half deaf sister. Any of you who have conducted business in Sadar Bazaar will know an Australian would lose his shirt before he sipped his first morning latte.
The next general election will be a blood bath. Will Gillard, still petrified from her brush with political death, succumb and follow the German Chancellor by declaring the multicultural society a disaster, and then heighten the Indian proof fence around this island? Would she win the votes of individuals who would fail miserably to settle in their own country if they themselves were subjected to the very point system that they devised?
To do so would be disingenuous as India’s criminally undervalued talent pool is cheap and easy. For Australia is the only country in the world that suffers a brain drain from experts refusing to leave.
