Far-right rise from migrant push: senator
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May 20, 2008

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A PUSH to increase migration among low-skilled workers could resuscitate parties such as One Nation or lead to the rise of a far-right force akin to the British National Party, an incoming Labor senator has warned.

Doug Cameron, the former national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, who enters the senate on July 1, made his remarks in a private address in the Blue Mountains at the weekend.

In the speech, obtained by the Herald, Mr Cameron said this was "a debate of significant consequence for the nation".

Mr Cameron confirmed his comments yesterday, saying he had been troubled by the gains the British National Party had made in recent elections.

"I watch the British political scene closely and one of the problems with the free movement of labour has been animosity created if people come in and take jobs at lower rates to local workers," he said. "We have to be very careful. We have a history of handling this issue very well but it could create problems."

Two weeks ago the British National Party won its first seat on the London Assembly, garnering 5.3 per cent of the vote. A BBC analysis also found the party, which has links to neo-fascist groups, had had 56 councillors elected across Britain, many carried into office on a backlash against immigration.

In his speech, Mr Cameron also cited research by Chris Dent, whose book, East Asia Regionalism, identified three key concerns in countries that imported guest labour, including "pressures upon social cohesion, demand for public services and other aspects of the country's social infrastructure".

Mr Cameron also said unskilled immigrant workers sometimes nudged locals out of the blue-collar labour market, suppressed wages and suffered exploitation by employers, often within their own communities.

He said proposals to bring in temporary Chinese labour for national infrastructure projects could undermine efforts to develop engineering and construction skills in young Australians

But businesses have rejected Mr Cameron's comments as alarmist, pointing to continuing chronic skills shortages.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's chief executive, Peter Anderson, said increased immigration would not unleash resentment in the community if it were "done on a logical and orderly basis".

Mr Anderson said few companies would base their business models on informal economies that use cheap, transitory labour, such as those in Europe and the United States.

"Very few employers would see scope for the creation of a migrant labour force to the exclusion of local workers," he said. "It would be probably be more costly. We need to bring in people who can adapt, with long-term language skills. Business prefers a stable labour force."

A leading Australian expert on immigration, Professor Bob Birrell of Monash University, gave qualified support to Mr Cameron's claim. "Labor appears to be pursuing higher immigration without fear of a backlash. But I suspect there will be some public reaction and there is no question in my mind this stuff [resentment] could be rekindled."

I think if you read certain authors on some sites you could say Cameron was right.

In my experience it will be the lefty unions who will cause the biggest eruption of fear.  Leftys are the worst racists - the White Australia policy was a Liebor initiative.  In fact the birth of the Liebor Party was due to the fear of the little yellow people.

Listen to the unions today.  They are the ones most opposed to the 457 visa program.

neferti - i'm sure not all young folk want to go to uni or drive a 4X4.

I remember our first house, we got furniture that other people had thrown out.

Its seems that immigration solves all Australias problem, if we can get enough immigrants to move here, perhaps it will end global warming as well, and dont forget the drought, lucky that they dont drink or shower, eh cuz.

Racism is pretty much by definition a right wing thing.

mantra wrote on May 20^th, 2008 at 10:07pm:


No, the Liebor Party was formed by the unions to fight migration and the White Australia Policy was implemented at the urging of the fledgling Liebor Party in 1901 - the very first federal government coalition - with the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 which was modelled on South African legislation.

Racism has always been the province of the leftard.  

It was Menzies who started to dismantle the policy in fact.

Bringing in 300,000 migrants has nothing to do with racism - it is all to do with how this country can cope with so many additional people.  This well written letter was in the SMH today and it says it all.

Quote:

Very helpful neferti.   According to Wikipedia - the Protectionist Party under the leadership of Sir Edmund Barton instigated the White Australia Policy.  After that - the major players in the Party split themselves up between the Liberals and the ALP.

Looks like the blame can be laid equally on both parties.