WEBVTT - The Howard Effect: Who Belongs 0:00:02.279 --> 0:00:06.279 For the first time Australia has recognized the legal existence 0:00:06.320 --> 0:00:10.559 of Aborigines prior to white settlement. The case is a 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.160 moral victory as well as having great significance for land rights. 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:17.960 When the High Court handed down its Marbo decision, a 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.520 cracked opened the legal fiction at the heart of the nation. 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.280 Terr nullius was gone. 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:26.400 European settlement of Australia was based on the premise of 0:00:26.680 --> 0:00:30.520 terror nullius, which basically means no person's land. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:32.639 Now, more than two. 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.160 Centuries later, the High Court has recognized there were people 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.800 here and their descendants have rights. 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:43.560 For John Howard, then in opposition, it provided an opportunity. 0:00:44.280 --> 0:00:46.680 He framed the moment not as a correction but as 0:00:46.680 --> 0:00:50.760 a threat. A story was spun to suburban and regional Australia. 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:56.520 Your backyard, your lease, your livelihood was suddenly all under threat. 0:00:56.720 --> 0:00:59.400 Today the High Court in Canberra ruled the Merryan people 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:03.560 are entitled to possession, occupation, use and enjoyment of the island, 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:06.240 effectively recognizing their native title. 0:01:07.120 --> 0:01:10.240 Then came Wick, a ruling that said native title who 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:14.240 coexists with past releases, not override them, not seize them, 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:19.960 but sit alongside them. It was legally cautious but politically explosive, 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:22.720 and Howard stepped into that space. 0:01:24.000 --> 0:01:27.559 Good evening tonight, I'd like to talk to you about 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.480 striking a bare and decent balance in this very difficult 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.000 debate about Wick or native title. 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:40.200 You all know, author and political commentator Amy Rymkus has 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:43.520 spent months tracing the threads of Howard's legacy, not just 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:46.640 the policies, but the narratives that made them possible. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:53.920 So he used the Marbo decision to essentially say that 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:58.800 white Australia, your rights are under attack. And then there 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.360 was a High Court decision known as Wick and this 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.280 did not change the dial so you know, Indigenous scholars 0:02:06.320 --> 0:02:09.960 and people who custodians of the land. For them, it 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.280 was quite a conservative ruling because it was the status quo. 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:15.040 It was something they'd known all along. 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.920 Yeah, absolutely that you know that their native title existed, 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:22.440 but it was essentially powerless in the eyes of the law. 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.680 You can't interfere with or bit what would be regarded 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:30.239 by farmers as a normal day to day operation and 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:31.440 development of their problem. 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:36.799 And John Howard took that in the place that Australia 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.240 was at at that particular point with Pauline Hanson running 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:43.880 around claiming Indigenous people were getting free houses and free 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.760 education and more in Center Link benefits and all of 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:52.000 this other bullshit. He took that around that same time 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:56.400 to say that the wik decision essentially meant that about 0:02:56.440 --> 0:03:00.359 seventy percent of Australia was now up for grad apps. 0:03:01.120 --> 0:03:03.480 Let me just show to show your viewers that this 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.600 shows seventy eight percent of the land mass of Australia 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.320 colored brown on this map. 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:14.400 And he went on national television and he held up 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:17.720 a map that had been shaded and said, all of 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.440 this is now potentially in doubt. 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:24.639 Now the Labor Party and the Democrats are effectively saying 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.359 that the Aboriginal people of Australia should have the potential 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:32.240 right of veto over further development of seventy eight percent 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.080 of the land mass of Australia. 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:39.920 And it was a huge flash point for Australian cultural 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:47.480 relations because suddenly people were scared that Indigenous people could 0:03:47.480 --> 0:03:51.280 come and claim their backyard. And it was never true. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:54.520 It's not what the High Court said. There was no 0:03:55.000 --> 0:03:59.440 element of truth or respectability in it. But John Howard 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.440 used the resulting Scare campaign, which he was inflaming to 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.240 essentially try to crack down on any type of Indigenous 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:12.640 reconciliation or growing Indigenous rights beyond what he. 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:13.360 Was comfortable with. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.120 For John Howard, the real battle was over the nation's conscience. 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:22.440 He dismissed what he called the black arm Band view 0:04:22.440 --> 0:04:25.280 of history and described the violence and dispossession of the 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:29.800 past as mere blemishes on an otherwise proud national story, 0:04:31.000 --> 0:04:34.479 who refused to apologize to the stolen generations, rejecting the 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.320 idea that the nation owed a moral debt. In its place, 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:46.560 he chose pride over reckoning and ideology over truth. I'm 0:04:46.640 --> 0:04:51.120 Daniel James and you're listening to seven Am. This is 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:54.599 The Howard Effect, a three part series from seven AM 0:04:54.680 --> 0:05:02.760 marking thirty years since John Howard's assent The Power Episode three, 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:04.080 Who Belongs? 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.920 So About a year after John Howard's election, he went 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:19.279 to the Reconciliation Convention, which had been put in place 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:21.880 while Paul Keating was still Prime Minister. 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.360 Can I introduce to you the Prime Minister of Australia, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:28.120 the Honorable John. 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:31.280 Howard, And he wanted them to know that there was 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.600 a new leader in town, and that this new leader 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:39.240 had a very different idea about Australia's history and what 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.760 reconciliation actually meant, and what he believed it to mean 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.200 was that white Australia did not have anything to reconcile. 0:05:47.080 --> 0:05:51.400 In facing the realities of the past. However, we must 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:56.760 not join those who would portray Australia's history since seventeen 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:00.280 eighty eight as little more than a disgraceful record thought 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:05.080 of imperialism, exploitation and racism. 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.560 And as the speech went on, Howard began feeding off 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.760 the reaction from his audience and he became even more belligerent. 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:18.839 Such a portrayal is a gross distortion, and it deliberately 0:06:18.920 --> 0:06:23.000 neglects the overall story of great Australian achievement that is 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:26.040 there in our history to be told. And such an 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:30.520 approach will be repudiated by the overwhelming majority of Australians 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:34.160 who are proud of what this country has achieved, although 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:38.120 inevitably acknowledging the blemishes in its past history. 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.880 So he essentially described you know, murder, displacement, the forced 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:47.600 removal of Indigenous people, enslavement as a blemish, and at 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.160 least one hundred delegates in the room for that convention 0:06:51.440 --> 0:06:54.760 turned their backs on John Howard in what was another 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:59.000 famous moment from that particular period. And John Howard probably 0:06:59.000 --> 0:07:02.080 could not have been happier that they did that, because 0:07:02.120 --> 0:07:05.720 to him, he immediately knew how he could weaponize this 0:07:05.920 --> 0:07:09.240 and show White Australia all of these battlers that he 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:12.320 had panicked into thinking that their backyards and their homes 0:07:12.360 --> 0:07:15.080 were now at risk of being you know, taken from 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.880 Native title, that Indigenous Australians were being so unreasonable by 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:23.200 this very common sense approach of just getting on with 0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:24.680 it and just moving on. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.200 What was he so resistant to the idea of an 0:07:28.240 --> 0:07:32.000 apology to the stolen generations and the overall use of 0:07:32.320 --> 0:07:34.000 language when it came to reconciliation. 0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:37.000 Part of the reason he was so resistant to an 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.800 apology was because he was worried about legal consequences that 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:43.920 if he had said sorry on behalf of the nation, 0:07:44.400 --> 0:07:47.640 that that would open up the nation to compensation claims. 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.840 And John Howard did not believe that, you know, anyone 0:07:50.920 --> 0:07:55.680 deserved compensation for what had happened with previous generations, so 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.800 he didn't want to say sorry for that. But he 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.120 also didn't want to say sorry because he did not 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:06.760 believe that modern Australians had to accept responsibility for something 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.160 that the settlers and colonalist did, even if they had 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.320 benefited from that, even if it was their direct ancestors, 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.480 Even if it meant that white Australians were ahead in 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.920 almost every measure of a success, you know, from health 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.120 to monetary to education. That was not the fault of 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:27.280 a relaxed and comfortable Australia, and so they should be 0:08:27.360 --> 0:08:28.400 able to just move on. 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:32.600 This black armband view of our past reflects a belief, 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.959 but most Australian history since seventeen eighty eight has been 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:43.680 little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism, 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.520 and other forms of discrimination. 0:08:46.360 --> 0:08:49.880 When delegates turned their backs on Ing at the Reconciliation Convention, 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.200 it became a defining image, but politically it worked in 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.320 his favor. He cast himself as the voice of common 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:01.480 sense and stability and his critics as unreasonable and divisive. 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:06.679 In doing so, he reframed reconciliation as excess and resistance 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:08.360 to it as patriotism. 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:13.680 National identity very much became white identity, and we saw that, 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:17.440 you know, not just in how we treated indigenous Australians, 0:09:17.480 --> 0:09:22.840 but also multiculturalism. He started building the Anzac legacy, the 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:28.160 White and Zach legacy as being part of Australia's national identity. 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:34.440 And Zach evokes the individual spirit that is such a 0:09:34.559 --> 0:09:40.080 deep path of our national character, the freedom and individuality 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:44.880 we were prepared to fight for then and are prepared 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:46.320 to fight for still. 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:52.720 He really framed Australia's identity around cultural sporting moments like 0:09:52.760 --> 0:09:55.720 the Australian cricket team and Don Bradman. 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.240 His contribution to Australian sport and Australia in life was math. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:07.959 Even my own dealings with him were memorable and the 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:11.400 ones that I regarded as a real privilege. 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.360 He made Australia Day a celebration of our colonial history. 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:20.200 So previous to nineteen ninety four, Australia Day wasn't a 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.320 national holiday. There were different holidays in the States, but 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:26.440 it was usually the Monday or the Friday closest to 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.880 the twenty sixth. But Howard is the reason why suddenly 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:32.880 everybody had flags waving from their cars and it was 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:35.240 like this big we go and have a barbecue by 0:10:35.280 --> 0:10:37.800 the beach and we drape ourselves in the Australian flag 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.040 and we talk about how bloody great it is to 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.640 be an Australian, and what he meant by that was 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:44.080 a white Australian. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:51.920 Listen, Australia, is your chance to say thanks for beaches, Lamington, Drives, 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:54.600 Kylie and our democratic right to give. 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:55.520 You dead arms. 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.000 And the idea was that if you wanted to partake. 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:03.840 As being an Australian, no matter what color or ethnicity 0:11:03.920 --> 0:11:07.880 you were, that that is how you celebrated being an Australian. 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:11.839 You could not acknowledge what was happening for Indigenous Australia, 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.880 You could not acknowledge different cultures. There was one way 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.120 to be an Australian, and Howard made sure that it 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.359 was the dominant way in terms of how Conservatives discussed 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:25.160 this particular culture. 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:31.480 War coming up. How nine to eleven supercharged the politics 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:44.240 of division and reinvigorated or flailing John Howard. Two months 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.000 out from the two thousand and one election, the Coalition 0:11:47.120 --> 0:11:50.040 was trailing in the polls and John Howard was in 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.720 Washington when the plane struck on nine to eleven. 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:57.800 This justin you were looking at obviously a very disturbing 0:11:57.840 --> 0:12:00.040 live shot there that is the World Trade Center, and 0:12:00.160 --> 0:12:02.520 we have unconfirmed reports this morning. 0:12:02.520 --> 0:12:05.360 That a plane has crashed into one of the towers. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:07.920 From his hotel near the White House, he watched the 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.200 towers fall and television and saw smoke rising from the 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:15.559 Pentagon affet was he a mere five kilometers away. Associated 0:12:15.559 --> 0:12:18.600 prasses reporting that a plane It was a plane that 0:12:18.679 --> 0:12:22.720 crashed out the Pentagon and the Pentagon is being evacuated. 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:25.079 There is a line in that moment of global shock. 0:12:25.800 --> 0:12:31.360 Howard found the frame that would define the campaign security, borders, strength, 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.959 and the politics of who Australians could trust and who 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:35.640 they should fear. 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:41.000 The terrible events of the eleventh of September have cast 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:44.840 a paul over the civilized world. They've forced all of 0:12:44.920 --> 0:12:47.800 us to think about what we believe in and what 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.320 we stand for, and they oblige in nations such as 0:12:51.320 --> 0:12:54.960 Australia with a great tradition of freedom and commitment to 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.520 the rights of men and women to work with other 0:12:57.800 --> 0:12:58.840 like minded nations. 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:05.920 Howard used nine to eleven to really turbocharged xenophobia in Australia, 0:13:05.960 --> 0:13:10.480 to really set up border control. All of the terror 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.679 laws that were put in place essentially about controlling people 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:18.280 and protest and all the rest of it, and he 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:22.120 essentially used it to start being like Australia is going 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:24.280 to be strong on its borders. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.680 National security is therefore about a proper response to terrorism. 0:13:30.080 --> 0:13:33.679 It's also about having a far sighted, strong, well thought 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:38.559 out defense policy. It is also about having an uncompromising 0:13:38.679 --> 0:13:42.080 view about the fundamental right of this country to protect 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:43.080 its borders. 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.160 Around the same time came the Tampa. 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.880 When the Tampa first sailed into Australian waters after rescuing 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:56.960 more than four hundred Muslim asylum seekers, no one could 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.520 have predicted the dramatic sea change ahead. 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.440 How It set the essays to board the Norwegian freighter 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:06.640 carrying the rescued asylum seekers and stop at docking, and 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.240 the images of armed soldiers storming the deck were beamed 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:11.640 into Australian lound rooms. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.800 A diplomatic standoff is continuing over the fate of four 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.520 hundred and thirty eight asylum seekers stranded off Christmas Island, 0:14:19.800 --> 0:14:23.240 both Australia and Indonesia refusing to take them in. 0:14:24.000 --> 0:14:26.920 A month later, asylum seekers were accused of throwing their 0:14:27.000 --> 0:14:31.720 children overboard, a claim later proven false. As Howard tightened 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.600 the border, hardened the language and once again seized control 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:39.720 of the national story. The dehumanization of those seeking asylum 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:42.480 in this country has been a feature of our politics 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:43.400 ever since. 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:49.800 This was the lie that asylum seekers were deliberately throwing 0:14:49.840 --> 0:14:55.360 their children into the ocean to have Australian authorities except them. 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.600 I don't want in Australian people who would throw their 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:00.440 own children into the sea. 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:01.640 I didn't there's. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.480 Something to mean compatible between somebody who claims to be 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:08.080 a refugee and somebody who would throw their own child 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.320 into the sea. It offends the natural instinct of protection. 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.800 And that was just told to the Australian people as fact. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.200 And then it came out after the two thousand and 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.200 four election that the government knew that that wasn't true. 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:21.840 That the boat that they were. 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:26.080 On was sinking and taking on water and nobody was 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.120 throwing their children into the ocean. It was the boat 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:29.960 was sinking. 0:15:31.480 --> 0:15:34.480 It was a claim that went largely unchallenged until the 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:37.240 Minister for Defense, Peter Reese, sat down for an interview 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:41.280 with ABC's Virginia Trioldi. He had pictures, he claimed, where 0:15:41.360 --> 0:15:43.600 proof parents were throwing their children overboard. 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:46.920 Mister Ruth, there's nothing in this photo that indicates these 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:48.560 people either jumped or were thrown. 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.760 You're now questioning the veracity of what is being said. 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.640 Those photos are produced as evidence of the fact that 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:58.080 there were people in the water. These photos show, absolutely, 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:03.840 without question whatsoever, that there were children in the water. Yes, 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.240 let me, let me just answer one thing at a time, 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:10.960 because people are making exaggerated and very unfair claims. 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:12.080 To moving a question onto something else. 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:13.240 The question was always answering. 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:17.440 Now I'm answering the question. I'm answering it fully. 0:16:18.200 --> 0:16:20.640 And Howard was like, oh, look, I didn't know for 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:23.720 sure that that was actually what was happening, so people 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:25.600 kind of believed what they wanted to believe. 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.640 I was subsequently informed in writing that the incident had 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.680 occurred without any qualifications. I had every reason to believe that. 0:16:33.760 --> 0:16:37.000 I still have every reason too, irrespective of what is 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:37.600 on the video. 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:41.600 And I don't think people who don't know about it, 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.760 or haven't read about it, or weren't there understand what 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:52.440 a flashpoint Tampa was when Australia said no to asylum 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.760 seekers wanting to come in on a freighter who had 0:16:56.920 --> 0:17:01.120 rescued them from almost certain death in the we. 0:17:01.200 --> 0:17:04.600 Will decide who comes to this country and the circumstances 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:05.400 in which they come. 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:09.280 And then they changed laws to mean that if they 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:13.399 landed on Christmas Islands or other jurisdictions, that that was 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:14.360 not Australia. 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:19.520 Under our interpretation of the international law applicable, it is 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.480 appropriate that they be returned to Indonesia. It's certainly a 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:25.360 message to the world that we are not a country 0:17:25.400 --> 0:17:26.520 of easy destination. 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:32.760 And then they created the offshore mandatory detention system where 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:37.880 Australia turned its back on international obligations and essentially went, 0:17:38.000 --> 0:17:39.959 if you came here and you don't go through our 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:44.280 proper processes, then we will lock you up indefinitely forever 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.440 on an island that we're paying over a billion dollars for. 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:59.240 Australia really started finding domestic political currency in turning away 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:04.280 refuge gees, you know, migrants, asylum seekers in a way 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.119 that they had not been able to do essentially since 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:11.680 the White Australia policy was put in place. And it 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:16.200 became like, you know, we needed to question whether Muslims 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:21.919 and Arab Australians had Australian values, whether they shared you know, 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.280 our common national story and our common values. And it 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:32.080 became the way that mainstream Australia would treat Muslims and 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:34.560 anybody who was of Middle Eastern descent. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:41.440 In that atmosphere, fear amplified, borders, calcified belonging became policed 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:46.280 by the commentariat and political class. The national mood was brutal. 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:51.159 Suspicion had been normalized, difference cast as a threat. It 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.800 was the perfect storm in which something like Crenell look 0:18:53.800 --> 0:19:04.639 good at night. To protect this, those celebrities grievance stressed 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:08.400 up as patriotism. Violence framed his defense of Australian values 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:14.359 in a way of life. Hill was he playing to 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:17.160 when he rejected the notion that the Kronella riots were 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:18.040 indeed racist. 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.480 He was playing to these battlers. He was playing to 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.040 Howard's Middle Australia. He was playing to the white people 0:19:25.119 --> 0:19:28.080 he wanted to keep relaxed and comfortable. And he was 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:32.320 playing to migrant communities who felt like they had assimilated 0:19:32.440 --> 0:19:36.119 into Australia and were suddenly watching people come in and 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:38.600 not have to make the same sacrifices that they did. 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.439 And he was helped along by a labor party that 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:45.000 was almost completely nobbled by that point in being able 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.119 to push back against these culture wars that Howard was 0:19:48.640 --> 0:19:52.320 pushing along. That they also wouldn't talk about it being 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:57.399 race related. You know, Howard focused on law and order. 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:02.479 I do not accept that there is underlying racism in 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:03.640 this country. 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:06.120 And Kim Beasley, the labor leader at the time, essentially 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.159 echoed that, and then that became the narrative that this 0:20:09.359 --> 0:20:12.560 was not a race riot, just criminal behavior. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:13.560 That's what this is. 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.560 Australian multiculturalism is alive and. 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.639 Will even though people were holding up signs that were 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:25.000 absolutely racist, and text messages and flyers had gone out 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.080 which which proved that there was racial intent for a 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.520 bunch of people who turned up to Cronulla Beach on 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:32.200 that day. 0:20:32.680 --> 0:20:35.080 All stoked by people like Alan Jones as well. 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:38.240 Absolutely, and you know many many in the media. 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:38.560 At the time. 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:42.000 Talkback radio has been singled out for much of the blame, 0:20:42.040 --> 0:20:46.080 including Twogb's Alan Jones. By reading out on it some 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.560 of the emails and text messages urging people to quote 0:20:49.640 --> 0:20:52.040 support the leb and wog bashing day. 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:53.760 I suggest you is to invite one of the biker 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.160 gangs to be present in numbers at Cronella railway station. 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:59.280 When the Lebanese thugs arrived. We worth the price of 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.920 admision to watch these cowards scurry back onto the train 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:04.720 for the return trip to their lairs. 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:08.800 The week before Cronulla, there was a violent incident at 0:21:08.840 --> 0:21:14.040 Sydney's Southern Beaches. Two volunteer surfly sabers were hospitalized after 0:21:14.080 --> 0:21:16.920 being attacked by a group of young men described as 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:21.119 being of Middle Eastern appearance. The attack was serious, but 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.399 was also isolated. In parts of the media and on 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.639 talkback radio, it was recast as proof of a broader 0:21:27.640 --> 0:21:31.760 cultural threat, with race four grounded and grievance stoked. 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:34.159 Sitting there in your studio, I wish you could visualize 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:36.760 North Cronolla Beach. It's not just a few Middle Eastern 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:37.720 bastards of a weekend. 0:21:37.720 --> 0:21:39.840 Its spous Cronulla's a very long. 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:41.879 Beach and it's taken to be taken over by these scum. 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:46.800 By the time crowds gathered at Cronulla, that grievance had 0:21:46.800 --> 0:21:49.160 become weaponized, so it just became. 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.640 A massive flashpoint, which Howard still still to this day, 0:21:54.080 --> 0:22:00.520 does not recognize as racial tensions in Australia don't. 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:02.960 Go back. 0:22:07.960 --> 0:22:11.639 Even today he does not think that Australia has any 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:16.800 problems with racism, while also openly saying that he has 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:21.240 massive problems with multiculturalism, but he's never been comfortable with it. 0:22:23.240 --> 0:22:26.919 Multiculturalism is a concept that I've always had a bit 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.760 of trouble with. I take the view that if people 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:34.160 were to immigrate with a country, it's on the basis 0:22:34.240 --> 0:22:38.359 that they adopt the values and the practices and the 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.080 standards of that country, and in return, they're entitled to 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:46.760 have the host citizenry respect. 0:22:47.680 --> 0:22:50.520 His politics when it came to a solemn sech policy 0:22:50.520 --> 0:22:54.720 and immigration was very very successful for him. How did 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:57.840 it shape our overall politics going forward? 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:02.119 Well, we're still talking about boat people, which is something 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:06.919 that you know, John Howard absolutely created and pushed along. 0:23:07.640 --> 0:23:11.960 At the same time that John Howard was demonizing migrants, 0:23:12.000 --> 0:23:17.080 particularly asylum seekers and refugees, he had increased the number 0:23:17.119 --> 0:23:21.640 of temporary migrants to Australia and that's documented. 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:25.280 And he did that to fill labor shortages. 0:23:25.040 --> 0:23:28.439 And because it's cheaper labor, it's not usually union labor, 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.359 and it also increases consumers. So it ticked all of 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.919 his you know, economic conservative boxes. But he had to 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:39.159 find a way to still demonize that class, and the 0:23:39.160 --> 0:23:41.360 way that he did it was pointing to the most 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:45.600 vulnerable in the cohort, refugees and asylum seekers and essentially 0:23:45.640 --> 0:23:48.440 just saying that these people are taking your houses, taking 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.760 your jobs, taking your welfare. And now we have a 0:23:51.800 --> 0:23:55.240 new opposition leader in Angus Taylor who's basing his entire 0:23:55.280 --> 0:24:00.719 premise on wanting to protect Australian values and protect Australia's 0:24:00.800 --> 0:24:03.760 way of life, which again is just a signal to 0:24:03.920 --> 0:24:06.760 people who are worried about migration that Angus Taylor is 0:24:06.760 --> 0:24:09.359 going to start cracking down in line with what Pauline 0:24:09.359 --> 0:24:10.320 Hanson is offering. 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:15.520 We need an immigration policy that raises the standards, reduces 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:18.399 the numbers because the standards have been too low and 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:22.439 the numbers have been too high, and importantly shuts the 0:24:22.520 --> 0:24:25.560 door to people who want to bring hate and violence 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:28.240 to our shores from another place. 0:24:28.920 --> 0:24:32.359 What Howard understood, perhaps better than any other Australian Prime minister, 0:24:33.000 --> 0:24:37.320 was that politics is about story, who belongs, who threatens, 0:24:37.600 --> 0:24:42.080 who works hard, who gets ahead. He didn't just win elections, 0:24:42.480 --> 0:24:46.720 he redrew the emotional map of the country. We are 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:50.119 still speaking his language. We still reduce human lives to 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:53.600 both people. Still treat borders has more urgent than belonging, 0:24:53.920 --> 0:24:58.520 still cast housing, welfare and migration as zero sum contest 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:04.679 between battlers and outsiders. Even when governments change, the Howard 0:25:04.760 --> 0:25:09.560