Last week Immigration Minister Peter Dutton made a deliberate and calculated dog-whistle appeal to racism through his demonisation of refugees. For those not familiar with the term “dog whistle” politics, it is political messaging employing coded language that will resonate with a targeted subgroup while seeming fair enough to the wider public.
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It is a tactic much employed by the right wing of Australian politics, often appealing to racism.
John Howard used it to great electoral effect with Tampa.
In its latest electoral iteration Mr Dutton asserted that increasing Australia's intake of "these people" as proposed by Labor and the Greens would involve accepting innumerate and illiterate refugees "who would not be literate in their own language, let alone English".
They would take Australian jobs and languish on the dole and Medicare.
Beats me how they can steal jobs and languish on the dole at the same time, but then again Minister Dutton hardly stands out for the logic or eloquence of his rhetoric.
The comments predictably unleashed a pack of disgusting comments, largely but certainly not exclusively on social media, aimed at belittling refugees and others who were not “true Australians”.
As Get Up explained, “This kind of rank bigotry and stupidity has no place in our politics.”
Not that it seems to worry the PM too much, but then again, it wouldn’t, would it?
For more than 12 hours Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull let this demonisation continue and Mr Dutton's cheap shot go unchallenged by the Coalition.
When Mr Turnbull did eventually respond his comments fell well short of what most would regard as prime ministerial. "We have the most successful multicultural society in the world," he said.
But if Dutton et al continue to stir the racist pot it won’t stay that way for long, now will it? He went on to say that "The reason we are successful is … because we invest an enormous amount of money into resettlement services allowing (refugees) to integrate."
Well yes, and so we should, but we don’t need a PM to add qualifiers like "It's very expensive. We don't begrudge the money but it's important to get it right."
It sounds very grudging to me (another dog whistle?), and leads me and others to ask if we are spending enough. Slashing TAFE programs surely is hardly the way to go.
Three hours later, Mr Turnbull said, in yet another dog whistle, that many refugees had never been employed and/or did not have much education.
"That is no basis for criticising them," he added. He did not concede that Mr Dutton's comments had exactly that effect. It’s time to ditch Dutton.
The Prime Minister's comments are not an adequate repudiation of Mr Dutton's slurs. Mr Turnbull, who used to trade on his humane side, is placing politics above people. Shame on him.
We have a global duty to share the solution to the mass movement of refugees. Asylum seekers are not ‘these people’. They are not political pawns to be sacrificed to appeal to the base instincts of some voters.
As the minister responsible for Australia's treatment of refugees, Mr Dutton has a higher duty to show some respect and bring the nation together, not split it on race grounds. As Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull has an even higher duty of care to all Australians.