Re: National Identity

I’m far to honest for that Gumbud, no room for honest men in politics. As my old Native American friend with Irish blood in him Tom O’ Hawk used to say “Big white chiefs speak with forked tongues” and Native Americans found that out the hard way.

Re: National Identity

yes but my old mate "big chief smokin billy" used to say - hot coffee always on the boil 'round here!

Re: National Identity

incorrect post!!

Re: National Identity

Sorry but what you are missing the point that most of it is uninhabitable - almost the entire population lives in the coastal towns - plus migrants and refugees also want to live in the major cities, not the outback. You can't plonk refugees and asylum seekers in those vast areas you mention and even when they are placed in smaller towns they almost always drift off to the bigger cities where there are more of their own countrymen and more work.

I think you would be extremely surprised if you visited Melbourne or Sydney. Both are more Asian than Australian. My partner and I often find we are the only white people on a full tram or train coach. Many are second and third generation who moved here in the early colonial era, many are students and many are more recent migrants. I can assure you that they are very noticeable. Some suburbs of Melbourne are almost entirely Asian and the shopping mall is made up almost entirely of of Asian shops.

wikipedia: At the 2011 Census 2.4 million Australians declared that they had an Asian ancestral background. This represents about 12% of all responses.

It would be a much bigger number by now.

Re: National Identity

Very interesting post and surprising

Re: National Identity

There was a bit of a clue in the names of the two Australians shot in Indonesia - Myuran Sukumaran (Sri Lankan ancestry) and Andrew Chan (Chinese ancestry)

Hurstville, Ryde and St Leonards in Sydney have a large Chinese population (not to mention Chinatown) while Cabramatta a large Vietnamese population but with time they move out, like all immigrants, into the general population. Their children are very Australian especially the Vietnamese having been here for a generation.

Australia has a long history of Asian immigration, in fact the white Australia policy was formulated because of the Chinese miners during the gold rush and the resulting Eureka Stockade (not to mention the NSW Labor leader's comment "Two Wongs don't make a white" in the 1940s - to be fair it was taken out of context)

At the moment Chinese now noticeably run a very large proportion of the food establishments (rather like the Greek and Italians before them) and are the majority traders at the Parklea, Flemington and Paddy's markets with the Lebanese a close second.

Buddhism is the fastest growing religion in this country.

Nothing to be feared just another wave of immigration and no doubt a different mob will follow them.



The local Vietnamese bakery on Christmas Day morning.

Re: National Identity

That explains your stance on immigration Bruce our experience is different and the fastest growing religion can be scary when they are extremists, also many are not here to live and create businesses they come to do the low paid jobs forcing many who would normally do those jobs to end up on benefit and those of us who still have a job to do it for lower and lower wages.

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And they have the points system in place ......

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all over the world the extreme poor try to emigrate to the so called rich countries of Europe, australasia or the Americas - who gets in depends uponn each immigration policy/reguation. An old Chinese friend of mine got in easily with his wife and three kids because he had plenty of money!

the European regulations about immigration seem quiet ridiculous - poor country immigrants can swamp the richer ECU nations - perhaps it has been ordained!!