Finding The Words To Advance Australia Fairly

Editorial - The Age

The Prime Minister must speak unequivocally about why the Sydney race riots cannot be tolerated.

What do we look for in a leader during an "outbreak of domestic discord", as the Prime Minister described this week's riots in Sydney? Should we be satisfied that Mr Howard has played down the existence of racism in Australia, called the violence that has engulfed Cronulla "primarily a law and order issue" and denounced loutish behaviour as "quite unacceptable"?

While there is nothing particularly offensive about these comments, they lack the moral force that the situation requires. This is the time for a leader to make the big speech, a rallying cry for harmony and an appeal for national unity. The problem is not so much with what Mr Howard has said but with what he has failed to say. Consider his response to images of rioters draped in the Australian flag: "I would never condemn people for being proud of the Australian flag. What I condemn is loutish behaviour, criminal behaviour."

This is classic John Howard. Instead of condemning the misuse of the flag — in scenes reminiscent of the ugly race riots in England two decades ago — he has given ambiguous signals to the local louts. (It was many years before Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia" campaign made the Union Jack symbolic of a new definition of Britishness — one that celebrated multiculturalism and allowed the British to again feel pride in their flag). Unlike Mr Blair, who speaks with passion on most subjects affecting his nation, Mr Howard has mastered the art of finding the words that allow him to condemn a situation that huge numbers of Australians find deplorable without alienating some of his core constituents who may warrant repudiation.

It is no surprise that the Prime Minister's response to this latest outbreak of racial violence has been measured. Over the years he has honed his ability to sound reasonable while failing to denounce clear wrongs. This time, while he rightly deplored the rise of "tribalism" among "so-called ethnic gangs" — for this is a serious problem — he was weak in his condemnation of the bottle-wielding, sun-bronzed Aussies, managing only to describe their behaviour as "unacceptable". This was one time when perhaps his much-loved "un-Australian" was the more apt descriptor.

Mr Howard often lacks inspiration when it comes to the issue of race and Australian identity and his latest remarks are consistent with the way he has controlled his public comments even before the Coalition won power in 1996. It is this approach that has invoked the charge that he has continually failed to speak out strongly against racism — that he has been interpreted as giving support to Pauline Hanson's anti-Asian and anti-Aboriginal agenda, as encouraging the fear that ordinary Australians were in danger of losing their backyards if the Wik legislation were passed, and as condoning racist attitudes in the Northern Territory and Western Australia by refusing to override mandatory sentencing laws.

Yet his successful 1996 election campaign was fought on the slogan "For all of us". As a canny politician, he managed to avoid an explicit definition of "us". Yesterday, Mr Howard again talked in vague terms about our national identity and again his call for newcomers to be assimilated failed to inspire. "I don't think Australians want tribalism," he said. "They want us all to be Australians. And that should be the dominant driving force of all post-settlement policies that apply after people have come to this country. And there should be a constant exhortation of all people irrespective of their background to absorb the fundamental values of the Australian community. And they are good values."

Now is the time for our national leader to articulate those values and show how they apply to Australians new and old. If the Prime Minister still believes in the "fair go" and all that this implies, he cannot afford to ignore the dangers inherent in the fact that rubbish bins in the Cronulla-Maroubra area have been plastered with anti-multiculturalism slogans. In the words attributed to Sir Thomas More on trial for treason against King Henry VIII: "Silence gives consent."

The Terror Of Racism

by Michelle Grattan - The Age

While debate has been going on for months about how to fight terrorism, this extraordinary and frightening racial rioting has crept up on the Australian community. Worried about the Muslim community harbouring terrorists, we're suddenly reminded that both the Lebanese and wider Australian communities contain lawless and aggressive thugs who can terrorise ordinary citizens.

This must be seen as the latest blow in what has been a bad year for multiculturalism, a term John Howard recently admitted he didn't particularly like. Howard, anxious to avoid highlighting the glaringly obvious central role of race in the riots, has sounded off-key in trying to explain the most ugly scenes in Australia for years.

"I do not accept that there is underlying racism in this country," he said on Monday.

Most Australians are not racist. But anyone denying the strands of racism that can be — and in this case have been — tapped into is rejecting history and current reality.

Malcolm Thomas, president of the Islamic Council of Victoria, believes Howard is trying to perpetuate a "myth". An element of racism is always there, Thomas says: it bubbles up periodically — "the maturity of the society is to be able to handle it".

One of the most shocking and startling images was of the Anglos wrapped in the Australian flag — a confrontingly nationalistic response to ethnic violence.

Yet Howard, always preoccupied with the Australian symbols, was not galvanised by this sinister side. Rather the opposite. "Look, I would never condemn people for being proud of the Australian flag," he said. It was a totally inappropriate comment on what had been a traducing of the flag, although he did go on to condemn "loutish behaviour, criminal behaviour".

Howard has several reasons for not wanting to get drawn on the race aspect. The race issue has haunted his political life. The Government's border control policy exploited it. On some occasions, on the other hand, he's been burned by it. In the late 1980s, his comment that Asian immigration should be slowed a little got him into huge trouble. His abhorrence of political correctness and a desire not to alienate a section of voters made him slow to attack Pauline Hanson.

The riots also come at an embarrassing time internationally for Howard who, as he left yesterday to attend the East Asian summit, was anxious to play down the implications for Australia's reputation. "Every country has incidents that don't play well overseas," he said. It sounded almost as if he hadn't come to grips with the seriousness of what's happening.

Kim Beazley also kept away from the race side when he insisted on Monday, "This is simply criminal behaviour, and that's all there is to it."

What seemed a blinkered response drew a sharp comment from Labor backbencher Harry Quick, who observed that despite Australia espousing multiculturalism, "deep down we have this fear of people who are different from us". Yesterday Beazley's spokesman said Beazley had no doubt that "hard-core racism was part of the equation" including neo-Nazi elements.

The Cronulla violence is not only about race. The clash between beach boys and those from Sydney's west stretches back a long time. But the introduction of race to an old conflict is especially dangerous when fears about terrorism are putting new strains on relations between ethnic-religious communities and the wider community.

The riots should be a wake-up call to politicians, ethnic leaders, the community, and perhaps to the security organisations. ASIO is watching and listening to terrorist suspects, but what information is it getting about the far-right groups who seemed able to mobilise so many people so quickly?

The immediate reaction has been predictable: the NSW Government has already foreshadowed tougher police powers.

In the longer term, attempted solutions must involve parents, young people, community groups and their leaders and the question of how to promote desirable values and ensure acceptable behaviour.

There are challenges in particular for the leaders of the Lebanese community but questions over how much they can do. Labor federal MP Daryl Melham, of Lebanese extraction, believes the leaders don't speak for youth and it's necessary to drill down to encourage the young people themselves to look to positive role models and throw up good leaders from among their own ranks.

Despite being reluctant to concede overtly what a big part race has played in the riots, Howard has brought race into it when talking about the way forward.

We must, he said, reaffirm the non-discriminatory character of Australia's immigration policy. We also needed to reaffirm our respect for freedom of religion in Australia but also "place greater emphasis on integration of people into the broader community and the avoidance of tribalism within our midst".

Yet much of what has been done this year in the name of the fight against terrorism has made minority communities feel more besieged and isolated, and has not contributed to a better feeling of belonging.

Terrorism doesn't just blow up people and buildings; it destroys tolerance. The riots are not acts of terrorists but to the extent they blow away trust within the community, they have aided its cause.