[Editor: This chapter is part of The White Australia Policy: The Rise and Fall of Australia’s Racial Ideology (2025).]
Opponents of the White Australia Policy
Although low in numbers in the early days of Australia, there were various people who were opposed to the White Australia Policy.
In the first Australian parliament, Norman Cameron, a Free Trader who was a Member of the House of Representatives, was one of the few parliamentarians who opposed a white Australia. During the parliamentary debates in 1901 regarding the Immigration Restriction Bill, he said:
“I cannot understand why some of the most intelligent and well educated members of this House should have stated that they also are in favour of a white Australia, and that rather than not have a white Australia, they would sever the link which now binds us to old England.
… I have always held that it is a physical impossibility to thoroughly develop this country, and especially the tropical portions of it, without the assistance of coolie or other alien labour.
… the Northern Territory contains some of the most valuable land in Australia, within the tropics, but this cannot be developed without coloured labour.
… I would like to ask honorable members what treatment the Chinese have received from the English people as a race? I say without fear of contradiction that no race on the face of this earth has been treated in a more shameful manner than have the Chinese. They are about the most conservative race in the world, and up to late years they had no desire whatever for any intercourse with what they called the outer barbarians, but they were forced at the point of the bayonet to admit Englishmen and other Europeans into China. Now if we compel them to admit our people into their land, why in the name of justice should we refuse to receive them here?
… I say most emphatically that we are responsible to a certain extent for forcing an entrance into China, and that we should, in a spirit of fair play, allow the Chinese to come into Australia in reasonable numbers. I am not prepared to see any large invasion, but I do not think we should take up this cry of a white Australia — more particularly when we know that if we abandon England we shall not be in a position to maintain it. We should show a spirit of fair play, and extend to the Chinese the same privileges that we have exacted from them.
… In speaking on behalf of the Chinese, I am actuated simply and solely by a spirit of fair play, and if I were going to China I would ask no more from the Chinese than I would be prepared as an individual to give them when they come here. It appears that two thirds of the honorable members of this House really object to the Chinese, not so much on the ground of the possible contamination of the white race, as because they fear that if they are allowed to come into Australia the rate of wages will go down.
… In my opinion the treatment the Chinese and the various alien races have received, and are going to receive if the people of this Commonwealth can prevail upon England to agree to this Bill, is unworthy of the so-called white race of Australia.”[1]
In 1934 the Red Star (later known as The Workers Star), a newspaper published by the Perth branch of the Communist Party, demanded the defeat of those who supported a white Australia, saying:
“Down with “White Australia” chauvinists! Drive them from the workers’ ranks. Build a united front of all workers against the Capitalists!
Raise the slogan of Marx and Engels — “Workers of all lands, unite!””[2]
The 13 April 1934 issue of the Red Star referred to the Policy as “the criminal White Australia policy”.[3]
The Communist Party of Australia said that the term “White Australia Policy” was offensive, and raised the spectre of war emanating from the insulted peoples of Asia. The CPA called for a quota system, based upon the one used in the USA at the time.
On 14 June 1945 the Communist Party’s newspaper, Tribune, included an article by Lance Sharkey, President of the Australian Communist Party, in which he wrote:
“It is a fact that the term “White Australia” is offensive to the colored races.
… Tomorrow, China, India, Indonesia and other Asiatic countries containing half the world’s population will not only be fully independent but because of their huge population and resources numbered in the ranks of the Great Powers.
… Can 7,0000,000 Australians needlessly offend these mighty races who are also our nearest neighbors? … the “White Australia” slogan is most dangerous above all to the Australian people themselves.
Quotas should be struck similar to the policy of the US which does not offend the national susceptibilities of our colored allies”.[4]
On 21 September 1945 The Workers Star (formerly known as Red Star), a newspaper published by the Perth branch of the Communist Party, and edited by Graham Alcorn, gave its opinion on the issue of a white Australia:
“The White Australia policy, of course, makes for friction between Australians and our near neighbours the Indonesians, Chinese, the Indians — in all about 900,000,000 Pacific neighbours, because it infers that they are an inferior race.
… Racial discrimination can do nothing but harm to Australia. The White Australia policy must go. We must associate with our colored allies in the peace as in war as equals.”[5]
Paddy Troy, who was the Chairman of the WA State Committee of the Australian Communist Party (and a Communist electoral candidate, and the Vigilance Officer of the Coastal Docks, Rivers and Harbors Union), said in June 1945:
“What is needed is not a White Australia policy but a sound immigration policy with a system of quota controls.
… The Communist Party recognises the need for immigration control. We do not want the uncontrolled immigration into Australia of more people from any country than we can absorb, which could threaten Australian standards of living”.[6]
Paddy Troy also stated, in August 1945:
“In the Pacific in particular this country needs a well-developed foreign policy. We need a good neighbour policy that will help the striving of oppressed peoples towards independence and freedom.
… This does not mean that Australia must admit uncontrolled numbers of immigrants
… An immigration policy based on the quota system similar to that of America is what the Communist Party is advocating.”[7]
Lance Sharkey, President of the Australian Communist Party, wrote in 1947:
“We have the so-called White Australia Policy which is an offence in the eyes of the colored majority of the earth’s inhabitants.
It aims at the exclusion of colored peoples on the ground of “racial purity.”
The Communist Party and the labor movement generally, on economic grounds, is against the swamping of this country with immigrants, no matter from where they come. But the phrase “White Australia” should be dropped and a quota of immigrants from colored countries allowed entry as in America.”[8]
In 1948 The Workers Star confirmed the policy of having immigration quotas, stating:
“The White Australia policy should be replaced by a quota system of immigration with no discrimination on grounds of race or color.”[9]
In 1947 the Right Rev. E. H. Burgmann, the Anglican Bishop of Goulburn, gave his view that Australia was “part of the Oriental world” (i.e. part of the Asian world), and should therefore orient itself towards an Asian future. Burgmann wrote:
“We have to remind ourselves that geographically we are Oriental, we are not European. We are an island just off the south-east coast of Asia, and are part of the Oriental world. There our fate is set. We are there geographically and there we will stay. We are not bound up with the fate of Europe, but with the fate of Asia.
… I could imagine a much finer race existing in Australia in a thousand years if their colour was the colour that so many Australians seek to attain on the beaches. Why cannot we get that colour by a gradual infiltration of other colours into the blood stream and so into the skin texture? That would be the healthier way to do it, if we could overcome the prejudices that lie between.”[10]
References:
[1] Commonwealth of Australia, “Parliamentary Debates: House of Representatives: Official Hansard”, 1901 no. 37, 12 September 1901, p. 4837-4840
Caroline L. Cameron, “Donald Norman Cameron (1851–1931)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
“Norman Cameron”, Wikipedia
[2] “A.W.U. bureaucrats’ chauvinism: Preparation for fascism and war”, Red Star, (Perth, WA), The Red Star (Perth, WA), 23 February 1934, p. 4
[3] “Solidarity expressed: Ingham workers support Kalgoorlie riot victims”, Red Star, (Perth, WA), 13 April 1934, p. 3
[4] L. L. Sharkey, “A reply to Mr. Beasley”, Tribune (Auburn, NSW), 14 June 1945, p. 5
L. L. Sharkey, “A New International”, Tribune (Auburn, NSW), 7 June 1945, p. 5 [“By L. L. Sharkey, President of the Australian Communist Party”]
Stuart Macintyre, “Lance Sharkey (1898–1967)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
““Lance” Sharkey 1898-1967”, Marxists Internet Archive [the Communist Party of Australia: “the Australian Communist Party (as it styled itself from 1944 to 1951)”]
“Lance Sharkey”, Wikipedia
“Communist Party of Australia”, Wikipedia [“known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951”]
[5] “Race bar motion is foredoomed”, The Workers Star, (Perth, WA), 21 September 1945, p. 4
“Communist Party of Australia”, The Pilbara Aboriginal Strike [re Graham Alcorn as editor]
[6] “Quota system for immigrants”, The Workers Star (Perth, WA), 29 June 1945, p. 6 [Paddy Troy: State Chairman, Vigilance Officer]
See also: “For 20 years he’s fought the battles of the workers”, The Workers Star (Perth, WA), 3 August 1945, p. 6 [Paddy Troy]
“Quota system for immigrants”, The Workers Star (Perth, WA), 29 June 1945, p. 6 [Paddy Troy: State Chairman, Vigilance Officer]
Stuart Macintyre, “Patrick Laurence (Paddy) Troy (1908–1978)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
“Paddy Troy”, Wikipedia
[7] ““White Aust” dangerous”, The Workers Star (Perth, WA), 3 August 1945, p. 2 [P. L. Troy]
[8] “Race poison is growing threat to democracy”, The Workers Star (Perth, WA), 28 February 1947, p. 3 [by “L. L. Sharkey, President, Australian Communist Party”]
[9] “Time to revise White Australia”, The Workers Star, (Perth, WA), 25 June 1948, p. 2
[10] A White Australia, Australian Institute of Political Science, 1947, p. 206, cited in: F. K. Crowley (editor), Modern Australia in D
ocuments: 1939-1970 (vol. 2), Melbourne (Vic.): Wren Publishing, 1973, pp. 137-138
See also: Frank Crowley (editor), Modern Australia: 1939-1970 (A Documentary History of Australia, vol. 5), West Melbourne (Vic.): Thomas Nelson Australia, 1973, pp. 137-138
“A White Australia : Australia’s population problem / by W.D. Borrie … [et al.]” [NLA catalogue entry], National Library of Australia
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