By Lisa Macdonald
Independent MP Pauline Hanson's inaugural speech to parliament on September 10 should disgust and anger, but not surprise, us. In less than 2500 words, Hanson painted a vision for Australia that includes: the introduction of 12 months' compulsory national service for young people; the repudiation of all treaties signed with the UN and the cessation of all foreign aid; and the repeal of the Family Law Act.
The centrepiece of Hanson's speech is a vicious diatribe against Aboriginal people and immigrants. She argues that "a type of reverse racism is applied to mainstream Australians by those who promote political correctness and those who control the various taxpayer funded 'industries' that flourish ... servicing Aboriginals, multi-culturalists and a host of other minority groups".
Making full use of parliamentary privilege, which allows MPs to spew prejudice and misinformation without any accountability, Hanson states: "Present governments are encouraging separatism in Australia by providing opportunities, land, moneys and facilities available only to Aborigines". She then calls for the abolition of ATSIC, claiming that "Anyone with a criminal record can, and does, hold a position with ATSIC".
Hanson's attack on immigrants is no less disgusting. "We are in danger of being swamped by Asians", she says, who "have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not assimilate". And it's not just Asians: "Japan, India, Burma, Ceylon and every new African nation are fiercely anti-white ... do we want or need any of these people here?"
Hanson's other basic theme is nationalism. She claims to speak for "most Australians" who "want our immigration policy radically reviewed and that of multiculturalism abolished".
Hanson traces her views back to former Labor Prime Minister Arthur Calwell. In fact, while she expresses them more explicitly, Hanson's ideas are fundamentally no different from those of key politicians, past and present, in both major parties.
Hanson's ranting fuels the myth that the former Labor government granted too many special privileges to minority groups. This is rubbish; while the ALP has been forced by its traditional base to be less overt than the Coalition in its racist agenda, it has directly contributed to the escalating backlash against people of colour.
After 13 years of Labor, Aboriginal people are still the most incarcerated, sick, homeless, landless, poor, murdered and discriminated against in Australia. And the ALP's rhetoric about multiculturalism did nothing to improve the actual quality of life or extend the rights of non-English speaking background migrants. On the contrary, Labor's political control and demobilisation of the trade union movement (last year the ACTU campaigned publicly for a freezing of immigration) has left the targets of racism isolated, disorganised and disarmed.
Far from leaving it to the "extremists" in politics, both John Howard and former Paul Keating joined the anti-"political correctness" chorus during the federal election campaign. The main function of the "political correctness" charge is to turn the spotlight away from the persistent gross inequalities in this society. We're meant to believe, for example, that racism is no longer a serious problem, so that we don't resist those who are deliberately stepping it up.
When large numbers of people are suffering, it is easy to create scapegoats. Attention can thereby be diverted from the real cause of mass suffering — big business's drive to reduce wages and cut public spending. But however much working people are suffering, the fact is that anglo-Australians are generally suffering less than Aborigines and the majority of non-English speaking background migrants.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics' National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Survey, released on September 17, reveals that 38% of Aboriginal people are (officially) unemployed (53% of 20-24 year olds in NSW); more than 25% of Aborigines in NSW worry about going without food; in NSW, 11% have no income whatsoever and 57% are mainly reliant on government assistance.
Despite this reality, mass disaffection with "politics as usual" creates a hearing for extreme right-wing populists like Hanson, who appeal to the disaffection amongst the most impoverished and desperate layers of the population. So the racism and national chauvinism in Hanson's speech are accompanied by calls for a fairer go for the little person. She rails against unemployment, high interest rates and declining real wages.
While demagogically denouncing big business's and the banks' crimes against the people, however, Hanson and other right-wing populists serve capitalism. They divert popular anger and frustration at capitalism's austerity drive away from the system and onto other Â鶹´«Ã½ of the oppressed. They destroy and replace sentiments of class solidarity with national chauvinism.
In pushing race hatred, bigotry and inequality, Hanson and the journalists promoting her are doing some of the filthy political work that keeps working people divided and strengthens capitalism's ability to attack them.
Unfortunately, racism is not an anomaly in this society. While it was partly held in check by the progressive social movements of the 1970s, racism was certainly not eliminated. The racist decision makers and opinion formers in this country are not confined to parliament: they sit on the boards of the large corporations that devastate the lands of indigenous people and pay migrant women $1 per hour to labour in sweatshops; they run the police force and prison system; and they have their own newspapers, TV shows and radio talkback programs.
This "fish and chip shop lady", promoted by powerful voices as a little Aussie battler with the "courage to speak the truth", is in fact a classic example of proto-fascist politics. Unless the trade unions and other social movements begin to take action in defence of Aborigines, migrants and all working women and men, she will also be a harbinger of things to come.