They’re doing it again. The conservative Coalition are playing the race and immigrant card. Here is an Opposition that lost its way, and the only way they see out of the forest is to steal the racist and xenophobic policies of the dreaded One Nation. It is such a cheap trick, appealing to the most basic instincts.
There was a time 80,000 years ago, when we homo sapiens were lurching out of Africa, that strangers meant trouble. We fought for territory, food and mating rights – and we prevailed. But that was a long time ago.
Everyone living in Australia came from somewhere else. Even the First Nations people were immigrants once. Now we live in the most successful multicultural nation on Earth – and a majority of Australians feel pretty good about that.
One Nation used to be pejoratively called One Notion, because their only policy anyone knew about was the notion that they were ‘anti-Asian’. Now they are ‘anti-anyone who doesn’t look like them’.
Angus Taylor is talking about immigrants needing to have ‘Australian values’. Which values does he have in mind? Being as fierce, bigoted and blokey as he is? Blaming the latest arrivals for everything that’s wrong in the world is about as low as Australian politics can go.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
