Pauline’s speech may threaten Asian perceptions of Australia

Last month, whilst undertaking some repairs to my house, I met a young man who owns a timber manufacturing business near my home in Perth. His name was Yassa.

He looked ‘Asian’, and was dark skinned. He was possibly a Muslim.

I learned that Yassa was actually from Ethiopia. He came to Australia as a war refugee with his Mum and brother at the age of fifteen. He is now 32, runs this successful timber business including exporting overseas and has two young boys who are addicted to Aussie football.

As I reflected on the maiden senate speech by Pauline Hanson this week and the revitalisation of her One Nation Party, it occurred to me that Australia needs more people like Yassa; not less.

We are an ageing population, so we need immigration to keep our economy growing and to ensure old people like me can be looked after in our latter years. Many of our immigrants not only build businesses, they seek to expand by exporting back to their home region which is good news for Australia’s trade deficit.

In Australia, almost 25% of vegetables are grown by Vietnamese immigrants, and they too, export into Asia. 

The challenge for our new Prime Minister and his government will be how to work with Senator Hanson who finds herself not only back in our parliament but, along with the other independents, in a very powerful position in terms of the balance-of-power in the Senate, and able to strongly influence policy concerning immigration, religion, foreign investment and trade.

To our north-west lays Asia that holds the future of Australia in their hands. Australia is home to some 440,000 foreign students who pay to study here and thus creating one of Australia’s largest export industries. Around 360,000 of these students are from Asia including Indonesia, India and China. Many of their parents will be wondering if their children will still be safe and welcome in Australia under the influence of now powerful politicians such as Pauline Hanson?

Perhaps Ms Hanson will say that her speech was only directed at Muslims and not necessarily Asians per se, and as such all international students are welcome here. Perception is everything however, and in Asia it is that One Nation is about ‘The White Australian’ policy being re-visited. And sadly the extreme elements in our community will seize upon Hanson’s speech and her elevation to senior levels in this nation, to vilify people who even look like Asians including Muslims - and people like Yassa.

As Australia’s resources boom winds down, tourism is another critical area for us to maintain economic growth and our standard of living. Asia – in particular China, Indonesia, Malaysia and India - represents the really big opportunity for our tourism businesses by attracting more Asian holidaymakers to our shores. 

Right now we need Asians to come here in droves to visit us, but having a  powerful voice in Parliament saying ‘Muslims are not welcome’ could have potentially disastrous impacts on this huge but fickle industry that includes hotels, cafes, regional farms and transport businesses.

The path upon which we now head is set to become even more muddy, when combined with the Xenophon Party and Jacqui Lambie, Ms Hanson will also be part of a group that has raised concerns about foreign investment in Australia. 

The concept of foreigners ‘buying up agricultural land’ in Australia – and in any country for that matter – is highly sensitive. But we must be careful as our country, with only 24 million people, has little hope of raising the money we need to build our food growing industries, expanding our economy and to create infrastructure and jobs for our nation.

Investment in Australian business helps us, and brings improved standards of living to our people. We must be careful that we don’t ‘throw the baby out with the bath water’ by presenting our nation as anti-immigration, anti-trade including foreign investment, and anti-free choice of one’s religion.

These are potentially dangerous times for our country; a country that has embraced and grown-up in a multicultural environment. As a very powerful voice in our new parliament many were hoping that Pauline Hanson would choose her words very carefully as people’s lives and freedoms may depend on what she says. Sadly, it wasn’t an encouraging start so we can only hope that perceptions of Australia will not be affected adversely at a time we need all the interest in our country from this huge region to our north.

So is Yassa the type of immigrant we need in Australia? In my view, yes. And is he a Muslim or not? Actually, I didn’t get around to asking. 

And anyway, should it even matter?

Ross B. Taylor is the president of the Perth-based Indonesia Institute (Inc)

@indorosstaylor

September 2016