PM Transcripts

AUSTRALIAN IMMl'IGRATION POLICY
Statement by the Prime Minister, Mr. R. G. Menzies
As some question appears to have arisen here in respect of
the Australian immigration policy, I think it desirable to say'
one or two things in order to clarify the position.
The Australian immigration policy has been steadily maintained
for the last 58 years. It is our national desire to
develop in Australia a homogeneous population in order that we
may avert social difficulties which have arisen in many other
countries. It i-s clearly the right of any nation to determine
its own racial constitution. We have maintained our policy in
respect of people who are actually citizens of other British
Commonwealth countries. I say this so that it may not be
thought that our policy has some specific reference to an
American State or Territory.
So far as I know most nations have policies which determine
the intake of citizens from other countries. So far as Australia
is concerned, I vant to make it quite clear that our policy, to
which the overwhelming majority of Australians are deeply attached
is not based upon any idea of racial superiority. WIe willingly
recognise that citizens of othe-nations possess abilities and
traditions which we sincerely respect and admire. dhen, therefore,
a citizen of some Asian or Oriental country is refused permanent
entry to the Australian community, it is not because we
are assuming to ourselves some superior quality. That would be
untrue, unjust and, ind~ eed, absurd.
But we desire to organise the future of oir cuncountry in our
own way. dJe have witnessed many examples of nations in which a
mixture of races has givon rise to deep prejudices and almost insoluble
social questions. It would appear that in the Hawaiian
Islands various races have been able to live togTether in complete
amity and with mutual advantage. But this is not true everywhere.
The point I want to make is that our immigration policy was
not devised as something with particular application to any one
country. It is broadly devised, of long standing, and not discriminatory
as between one country possessing non-European citizens
and another. From time to time there have been su:, gestions
made that we should introduce some quota system, My Government re
-gards this as impracticable, as introducing possible new discriminations
and as something whiich does not even begin to solve the
problem of population movements, The whole essence of the matter
is that -te desire to buildup our own population, partly by natural
increase and partly by immigration in such a way as to produce
assoon as possible an integrated population of a homogeneous kind.
I should perhaps emphasise that, as was realised by the
Asian Relations Conference at New Delhi in 10,47, it is the prerogative
of every country to decide what shall be the composition
of its population and what persons should be admitted to permanent
citizenship. We receive and welcome many f,, sian visitors w.-hether they
come for business or for travel. le have today approximately
6,000 Asian students attending, our universities, technical colleges,
schools and other educational institutions. It has been
our experience that tL-hese students, in common with many other
Asian visitors, have encountered no feeling of discrimination.
e are in fact a friendly people, not given to making distinctions
among people on grounds of race or religion. But we do not
want to see created in our country minority problems or
prejudices or occasional bitterness such as exist in somte countries
where larg) e numuers of non-Europeans and Europeans live in
separate conmiunities,
HONOLULU. 9th May, 1959.