Date: Thu, 29 Aug 1996 10:24:28 +0000
Subject: Re: nationhood


    Hi Cath,
         I knew that there was something disturbing me about what Howard
  said, I think you've put your finger on it. I have heard Howard described as
  'viscerally racist' and that statement needs unpacking. One of the 
  extraordinary things, to my mind, about this new coalition government is that
  in cultural terms -- though not, I think, in economic terms -- to Menzies
  rather than to Fraser. There is a 'Neighbours' nostalgic feel for the '50s
  about their attitudes to the Australian population. Multiculturalism is
  being recast as a threat to the unity/identity of the Australian nation. The
  attack on Land Rights legislation seems to me to be part of a broader agenda
  which understands attempts to develop a public Aboriginal cultural/political
  identity as yet another threat to the national integrety of Australia. I 
  think that Howard's statement at the opening was yet another example of his
  (petit)bourgeios anglo-celtic -- middle-Australia, if you like -- 
  understanding of national identity. Although it was true for all western
  nation-states, it was, perhaps,, most obvious in Australia that the discourse
  of race patrolled the construction of a nationally homogeneous population.
  This was the purpose of the White Australia Policy. Remember that the 
  Immigration Restriction Act was, notoriously, the first Act passed by the 
  new federal government in 1901.
            Jon                                                    (Stratton)


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