| Review of: | The Long, Slow Death of White Australia by Gwenda Tavan |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Matthew Jordan |
| Reviewed in: | Australian Journal of Politics and History |
| Date accepted online: | 14/01/2008 |
| Published in print: | Volume 53, Issue 03, Pages 465-504 |
Book Reviews
The dissolution of the White Australia Policy in the 1960s and 1970s and the nation's subsequent rebirth as a multicultural and multi-racial society was one of the most remarkable developments in Australian history in the latter half of the twentieth century. Indeed, an understanding of the motives and processes which brought about this profound ideological shift is necessary in order that Australians can appreciate properly their new identity.
And yet, despite the pioneering work of historians such as H.I. London, A.C. Palfreeman, A.T. Yarwood and Andrew Markus, the unavailability of archival materials showing how the policy was revised and then rejected has until recently hindered the emergence of a more thorough account of White Australia's demise. Even with the opening of the archives, important aspects of the story have remained incomplete. Sean Brawley, one of the first historians to avail themselves of this new material - or parts of it at least - was mainly interested in "global historical explanations". My own PhD thesis (University of Sydney, 2001) was limited to examining the political and foreign policy motives for liberalising White Australia.
Tavan's
Even so, Tavan might have done more to explain why Australian attitudes to race underwent such a remarkable transformation during these years. There are explanations on offer, certainly, but they are peripheral to the main story rather than an integral component of it. The emergence of middle-class professionals, the decline of "bureaucratism" and the rise of a reinvigorated liberalism after Second World War may all be legitimate reasons for the decline of White Australia - although it is worth noting that Barton, Deakin and Reid, those most responsible for the introduction of the White Australia Policy, were professionals and liberals and that during the period under question it was the bureaucrats and not the politicians who took the initiative in seeking change. But even if they are valid reasons, Tavan never shows how these ideas and developments influenced the thinking of Australians and led to reform. As explanations, that is, they exist in isolation from the story being told.
Tavan is on much firmer ground when she examines the role of foreign policy considerations in the reappraisal of White Australia. She argues convincingly that changes in Australia's post-war relationship with Asian nations, criticism of the policy from the Department of External Affairs in the 1950s and the appointment of Heydon, the career diplomat, as Secretary of Immigration in 1961 all contributed to a sense that White Australia had become an embarrassing anachronism. But even here Tavan does not do enough to show how these geopolitical pressures actually influenced the thinking of policy-makers and Australians generally. These pressures were clearly important to those "caught in the frontline of Asian criticism" (p. 86) and to those at home who were conscious of "the broad forces affecting Australia and the rest of the world" (p. 115), but how did these concerns manifest themselves in proposals for change? And, even more importantly, how did they affect the old racial absolutes and thereby bring about a change in Australian attitudes? Tavan is content to leave these vital questions unanswered, perhaps assuming that calls for change based on geopolitical arguments must have involved a corresponding change in attitudes.
Having said that, this book is required reading for anyone interested in the gradual dissolution of the policy after the Second World War. Its overly descriptive treatment of the subject is perhaps understandable given the complexity of the topic and its many intersecting sub-themes. This deficiency is amply balanced by the quality of presentation and the easy narrative style. Tavan is to be congratulated for providing a sound basis for further research into this most important of subjects.