Jewish leaders here voiced mixed emotions after Australia’s Senate and House of Representatives adopted resolutions condemning racism and reaffirming principles of non-discrimination.
The resolutions, passed late last month after more than seven weeks of divisive public debate, affirmed Australia’s commitment to a non-discriminatory immigration policy and stressed the need to maintain the country “as a culturally diverse, tolerant and open society.”
The resolutions went on to denounce “racial intolerance in any form as incompatible with the kind of society we are and want to be.”
While applauding the move, Australian Jewish leaders felt that more needed to be done.
Diane Shteinman, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said in an interview that she was “relieved that the government [was] finally doing something to try to stem the escalating racist comments in public debate” and welcomed the bipartisan nature of the resolution.
“But we have a long way to go in the healing process, with so much harm done while the debate has been raging,” she added.
Rabbi Brian Fox, the president of the Council of Christians and Jews in Sydney, said in an interview that the resolution was “good, as far as it went,” but added that “the young people of Australia are looking for a clear moral message.”
“I am disappointed that the prime minister cannot bring himself to confront Pauline Hanson directly and name her as a destructive force in Australian life,” Fox added.
The public debate on race, multiculturalism and immigration began in September, when Hanson, a newly elected member of Parliament, attacked Asian immigration to Australia and repeated her hostility toward granting welfare benefits to indigenous Australians.
The issue was prominently featured in the Australian and Asian media, with many observers saying that Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who had not specifically repudiated Hanson’s comments, was in effect supporting racism.
Since Hanson made the comments, Howard, who was himself damagingly identified with opposition to Asian immigration in 1988, has been under intense pressure to publicly dissociate his government from her stance.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
