ALP Banking on Islamic Bigotry

How Labor created a new foreign policy

This is ominous for friends of Israel - and for those who do not want Australia divided by tribes and faiths: 

AFTER Julia Gillard had announced on Tuesday afternoon that Australia would abstain from a UN General Assembly vote on state observer status for the Palestinians, two things happened.

Our most important ally, the US, decided to make its “disappointment” clear to the Australian ambassador in Washington, Kim Beazley, and the Prime Minister’s “special emissary to the Jewish community”, Bruce Wolpe, was fingered as having an inordinate influence on Ms Gillard, who had intended to vote against the UN motion.

During the previous 48 hours Gillard had been defied by her cabinet, rolled by caucus, abandoned by key supporters in the NSW ALP Right, put her leadership on the line and was accused of giving too much access and influence to Melbourne Jewish business leaders through Wolpe, a Jew, a former Fairfax executive and US Democrat adviser, and her special business and Jewish affairs adviser.

It was no small matter for Gillard to defy advice from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the strongly held view of Foreign Minister Bob Carr, previous policy positions, lobbying from Bob Hawke and his foreign minister Gareth Evans, most of her backbench colleagues and the “demographically challenged” NSW Right, including her staunchest cabinet supporter from that faction, Water Minister Tony Burke…

The opposition to Gillard cut across factional boundaries and went beyond supporters of former prime minister Kevin Rudd. The success of the party in rolling the Prime Minister will have reverberations into the election year and has diminished her authority…

After Gillard insisted the cabinet had to agree to her minority position and demanded “cabinet solidarity”, there was a bemused and sullen response, with Carr ringing backbenchers to foment rebellion and government whip Joel Fitzgibbon defying the Prime Minister’s request to lock in the Right behind her.

Fitzgibbon yesterday said that if Australia had adopted the Prime Minister’s initial position it would have looked like Australia was acting as a puppet of the US.

Carr informed Gillard minutes before Tuesday’s Labor caucus meeting that she needed to change her position or face a humiliating defeat that would undermine her authority. Gillard conceded and backed a compromise of abstention.

In the face of Gillard’s initial demand for support, cabinet ministers began to complain there was no real explanation for the position, arguing the US was not overly exercised,many Labor seats were affected by Middle Eastern populations, Christian and Muslim, and there was a policy argument for sending Israel a message “as a friend”.

The word “Christian” seems to have been added only recently to the narrative, almost certainly for cover. I suspect the spin of Bob Carr.

UPDATE

The “demographically challenged” Tony Burke is the member for Watson:

At 11.9%, the 2006 Census showed Watson to have the second [actually fourth at the time, second now] highest percentage of Islamic residents in the country.

Margin: 9.1 per cent.

Then there’s the seat of Reid, held by Labor’s John Murphy:

According to the 2006 census, 18.1% of the population of Reid are Muslim, a figure which represents the highest proportion in the country.

Margin: 2.7 per cent.

The 2006 census ranked the seats with the high proportions of Muslim voters: 

But with so many boats since and high birth rates, those proportions have changed. From theFinancial Review today:

Islamic voters are set to play a crucial role in a swag of key federal seats, with Muslims comprising more than 20 per cent of the total population in the western Sydney electorates of Blaxland and Watson.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2011 census showed that people who identified as Islamic constituted 23 per cent of voters in Blaxland and 20 per cent in Watson, seats held by Minister for Home Affairs Jason Clare and Environment Minister Tony Burke respectively.

Calwell, in Victoria, has 16 per cent Muslim voters, and is held by Labor. Reid’s Muslim vote is said to have dropped to 10 per cent, the same as Werriwa, held by Labor with a 6.8 per cent margin. Parramatta and Barton both have 9 per cent Muslim minorities, as does Wills in Melbourne.

Add that to this:

NSW has become federal Labor’s worst blackspot, and the government would lose more than 10 seats - predominantly in western Sydney and some held by ministers - if an election was held soon...

The seats that could fall include McMahon, held by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen, and Watson, held by Environment Minister Tony Burke.

Other seats include Parramatta, Barton, Reid, Werriwa, Fowler, Banks and Greenway, which, one source said, would be ‘’gone by 10 past six on election night’’.

Match those Labor seats against local government authorities with the highest proportion of Muslim residents, and note the countries of origin: 

Via the ANU’s James Jupp, a warning:

A post-election warning note for NSW Labor was sounded by the Lebanese Muslim leadership at a mass rally at Lakemba mosque, celebrating the end of Ramadan. They threatened to run Muslim independents in appropriate seats because Labor had neglected them.

And - hey presto - we have a new foreign policy. 

UPDATE

Reader Justin:

Watson’s boundaries shifted further north & further west in the last distribution (prior to the 2010 election). That would account for quite a lot of the growth in the Muslim percentage in the electorate as areas like Earlwood and Kingsgrove have become part of Barton.

I was a schoolteacher at Canley Vale HS in '06 when I was disturbed by undercurrents in a classroom conversation among my year 7's. It sounded like the polynesian boys were pestering a european girl for sex. They were saying everyone had sex all the time. It was normal. The girl put up her hand and noting I wasn't married, asked if I had had sex. I said no. She said she hadn't either. I said "good." The boys were outraged "Sir! Don't put yourself down. Be honest." "How is that putting myself down?" "Are you lying" "I have no problem with lying. It is a very personal question. But it isn't a mature view of sex to say that adults do it all the time"

Thing is my then head teacher had been involved in getting a student killed by neglect and wanted to smear me. They had targeted my students to get at me and I wanted the girl to have access to the counsellor. But I couldn't refer the child without getting past my head teacher. So I asked them to refer the student. They asked why. I gave salient points. They asked if they should speak to the student. I said "no, I think the student has issues they should discuss with the counsellor." "How about we send a circular to their other teachers asking if there are concerns?" I accepted that. The next day, Head Teacher was acting Deputy Principal and they summonsed the student to the Deputy's office for an interview. They then called me on a party line and asked me to repeat what had happened. I mentioned the incident and she asked for more detail. I listed the antecedent behaviours and the HT said "She had forgotten but now she is nodding she remembered." I hadn't realised HT was on a party line.

I immediately went to the Principal to report what had happened. He expressed concern about my classroom conversation. Then, when I was at the print room, HT lead the student to me and made them apologise .. and shake hands .. for the antecedent behaviour. The student was left in my classroom for the rest of the year, never saw the counsellor and the following year enrolled in a private all girls school.

Subsequently, I involved the minister of education over the gross abuse of that student and other stunts my head teacher had pulled. The minister (ALP, Della Bosca) didn't see a problem and so I resigned to speak out. Press didn't have to report it, and although I have clean hands, I have never in the years since been able to get work in my profession.

This is what gets back to the article and Islamic peoples. Jews have been a soft touch for extremists of the left and right for over a hundred years. Many might say that it has been much longer than that. But Islamic anti semitism has largely been at the colonial instigation of the Russian Tsars, Nazi warlords and Soviet Union then China. During that time the average Islamic person was a villager in the third world. But more recently the average Islamic person has become someone with middle class aspirations. They will grow resistant and hostile to those who have taken them for granted and exploited them so shamelessly and destructively. The argument employed by ALP advisors to abstain from the UN vote instead of voting against Palestine against Israel, effectively supporting anti semitics, won't necessarily gain the support of Islamic peoples who don't like to be exploited as bigots. The question remains, when will Islamic pride replace dumb bigotry? The ALP are banking it won't before the next election

The lesson to be learned from my not getting a job over the years while my abusers have been promoted may not be lost on the ALP who have banked on this issue, hoping that by not taking a stand they will retain their positions. Certainly Gillard's position was not one of belief, but advice. She seems comfortable being rolled by bigots.