The End of the White Australia Policy in the Australian Labor Party; a discursive analysis with reference to postcolonialism and whiteness theory.

Abstract

Labor leaders ended their commitment to a White Australia in response to the experience of the Second World War and societal changes brought about by post-war non-British migration. Previous scholarship erroneously credits the ‘baby-boomer’ generation and the ‘middle-classing’ of the ALP. Changing the policy did not mean abandoning the Australian national project or ceding control of the spaces and bodies of the nation to non-white people. Immigration would continue to be controlled to preserve working conditions and democracy. The Whitlam Government’s move toward non-racial civic nationalism proscribed racial discrimination but was productive of discourses of white Australian nationalism.