following year also marked immigration from
Pacific Islands, Japan, and Malaysia to work in
sugar plantations and pearl industry (Mence et al
2017).
Nonetheless, even with a quite high number of
immigrants, Britain claimed that it still wanted to
make Australia a cultural and political frontier for
Britain. Therefore, Britain did restrict immigrants
who were not British to settle in Australia. This was
particularly evident in a speech from James Stephen
who worked as a Head of Colonial Office in London
(1841 in Soutphommasane 2015) that stated English
race shall not be mixed with any lower caste. This
was transferred to public place, and eventually
caused a series of race riots, particularly targeting
Chinese people who came during the gold rush.
Soutphommasane (2015) wrote that race riots
erupted in goldfields, such as Hanging Rock (1852),
Bendigo (1854), and Buckland River (1857). The
anti-Chinese immigration argued that it would bring
unfair competition to the European workers.
Nevertheless, the reason was not only economic but
also in terms of race, the Chinese were regarded as
beneath the English. The Chinese were pictured as
uncivilized, so they were unable to mix with English
and the white people who were pictured as racially
superior (Soutphommasane 2015). The belief that
white men were far more superior than other races
were evident in media, particularly in The Bulletin
which was Australia's first newspaper. The
newspaper published that other races could not be
Australians, and political liberty only belonged to
the white people (Soutphommasane 2015).
When Australia became a federation in 1901, the
issue of immigration remained important for the
parliament. The belief that white race was superior
than the other races still resonated which was
evident in three important laws on immigration.
These three were Immigration Restriction Act,
Pacific Island Labourers Act, and Naturalization
Act. These three laws represented what is now called
as White Australia Policy. Immigration Restriction
Act was a law that prohibited the entry of people
who failed their Dictation Test. According to Jones
(2017), a Dictation Test is a test in which a person
would be asked to write 50 words in various
European languages. Further, in 1905, the law was
amended and gave the officers who conducted the
test more power to exclude undesired people (Jones
2017). Pacific Island Labourers Act was an act that
intended to prohibit people from Pacific Islands
entering Australia from 1904 onwards. The people
from Pacific Islands who had already entered
Australia were forcibly repatriated (Federal Register
of Legislation 2018). Naturalization Act was a law
that stated naturalization could not be done on
people from Asia, Africa, and Islands of the Pacific.
Further, non-Europeans could not bring their
children or spouses to Australia (Mence et al 2017).
These laws were seen quite effective, seeing that
people were reluctant to migrate to Australia.
According to Jones (2017), only 2,000 people took
the Dictation Test from 1901 until 1958.
Australia started to change its attitudes towards
immigration in 1958, but this was because Australia
needed more labors to reconstruct Australia's
economy after being attacked by Japan in World
War II. Further, Australia had also sacrificed its
people at a high number that reached 4 million
people (Jupp 2007). The term 'populate or perish'
was created by Arthur Calwell to address this
problem. Australia started to open its doors, but the
numbers of people who entered were still dominated
by British and followed by people from Europe who
were displaced. The White Australia Policy was
officially dismantled in 1973, and Australia was
seen ready to accept more immigrants that were
categorized as highly skilled. However, White
Australia as a mindset remained intact. Jupp (2007)
noted that this was evident in public support for
Pauline Hansen when she gave her first speech in
Parliament in 1996. Hanson believed that Australia
is being swamped by Asians and refused the policy
of multiculturalism which was evident in her speech
(Sydney Morning Herald 2016). Her party, One
Nation, won nearly 23 per cent of the vote. Jupp
(2007) also noted that her party was doing great in
New South Wales and in federal election in which
her party received one million votes for the Senate.
When the Tampa Affairs happened in 2001, Prime
Minister Howard refused to receive the refugees and
received public support which enabled him to
become prime minister again.
Until now, Australia remains committed to its
refusal on irregular immigration including refugees
and endorsed a refugee settlement programs as close
as possible to the refugee's home country (Foreign
Policy White Paper 2017). This strong position has
been defended by Australia, who claimed that they
are not obligated to accept refugees for resettlement.
Today, Australia's immigration policy is focused on
people who are experienced and highly qualified to
work in Australia (Department of Home Affairs
2018).