Anti-Australian sentiment
Encyclopedia
Anti-Australian sentiment, Australophobia, or Anti-Australianism, is a hostility towards or disapproval of the culture
, history
, and/or people of Australia
. The term indicates a broad-ranging animosity, rather than hostility confined to specific issues (such as opposition to recent Australian government
policies); however, specific issues may eventually give rise to broader hostility.
While Australia enjoys friendly, often sports-based, rivalries with other nations — such as the United Kingdom
and New Zealand
— the term "Anti-Australianism" refers to a deeper sentiment.
In terms of the country's image overseas, modern Australia's origins as a British
penal colony
have proved particularly difficult to shake off. However, the most significant wave of immigration — in relative or proportional terms — was that of free, non-convict immigrants who arrived during the Australian gold rushes
of the 1850s
. Between 1850 and 1861, the European population increased from 400,000 to 1.2 million. Moreover, the largest wave of immigration, in terms of absolute numbers, occurred after 1947.
ethnic origins, who are decidedly members of a western culture
.
By comparison, Indonesia
, separated from Australia by about 200 kilometres of sea at the closest point, is the most populous Islamic
nation in the world. Proximity, combined with great cultural differences, is a major cause of friction. Modern Australia's origins and culture evoke unpleasant echoes of colonialism
in neighbouring countries, where the populations were dominated by Europeans, for centuries in some cases.
There is also a perception that Australia does not respect its neighbours' sovereignty
. For example, criticism in the Australian media
of human rights
abuses in neighbouring countries is often interpreted by them as attempts to meddle in their internal affairs. This perception was heightened by a 2004 incident in which Prime Minister John Howard
stated his willingness to embark on preemptive strikes
against terrorists in neighbouring countries, after the Australian embassy in Jakarta was attacked by a truck-bomb by an Islamic terrorist organisation.
, with close military ties dating back to the Pacific War
of WWII
. Since then, Australia has fought alongside the US in Korea
, Vietnam
, the 1990–1991 and 2003 Iraq invasions
, and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan
. Although Australian contingents have been much smaller than their US counterparts, they have included a high proportion of special forces
troops, making them more significant than their size would otherwise suggest.
While the reliability of Australia's support has improved its standing with the US, it has caused hostility elsewhere: critics of the association have portrayed it as an extension of American
imperialism
; Australia is viewed by some as a US puppet
in the predominantly Asian region. Thus, Australia has attracted hostility not only for its own actions in such wars, but also for its closeness to the US, with anti-American sentiment feeding anti-Australian sentiment by association.
This phenomenon is strong among Islamist and nationalist groups in South-East Asia. Because of Australia's proximity to Malaysia and Indonesia, it makes a convenient surrogate for anti-American hostility, although there are several other causes for friction between Australia and these countries.
A 1999 Bulletin
article described John Howard
as the US's "deputy sheriff
" in the Asia-Pacific
region. This was a label which Howard initially partially accepted, though he later attempted to repudiate it; nevertheless, it has become a popular catchphrase among his detractors, adding to the perception of Australia as an extension of the US.
, and the subsequent independence process. While the Australian government long avoided commenting on the Indonesian occupation, some pro-independence East Timorese used Australia as a base, and drew a great deal of sympathy from the Australian public. Following the demise of the Suharto regime in 1998, Canberra
moved to supporting self-determination for the territory, which prompted the new President, Jusuf Habibie
, to raise the possibility of independence for East Timor in early 1999.
Many Indonesians saw this move as hypocritical, as the Whitlam
government knew in advance about Indonesian plans to invade and annex East Timor in November 1975; it may even have actively encouraged these plans . Subsequent to the invasion, Australia was the only country in the world to acknowledge Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor.
In fact, Prime Minister John Howard
had always supported Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, even when in opposition, criticising Labor
governments for not being close enough to Indonesia and placing too much importance on human rights and East Timor. In a letter to President Habibie in December 1998, he wrote, "I want to emphasise that Australia's support for Indonesia's sovereignty is unchanged. It has been a longstanding Australian position that the interests of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor are best served by East Timor remaining part of Indonesia." He added that, "The successful implementation of an autonomy package with a built-in review mechanism would allow time to convince the East Timorese of the benefits of autonomy within the Indonesian republic."
Many Indonesian nationalists also believed that Australia was attempting to weaken its neighbour by supporting independence movements in West Papua and Aceh
, although Australia has moved to reinforce its support for Indonesia's integrity since East Timor's independence.
During the referendum process, and especially after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, the region was plunged into violence as anti-independence militia embarked on a scorched earth campaign; at least some of the anti-independence groups were armed, trained, and funded by elements of the Indonesian military. Australia led a United Nations
peacekeeping force to quell this violence; some took the arrival of Australian troops in what they thought of as Indonesian territory as a further insult to Indonesia.
In one incident during the peacekeeping mission, Australian and Indonesian patrols came into conflict near the East Timorese border, with a small number of Indonesian soldiers killed; it appears confusion caused by differing maps led both groups to believe they were on their own side of the border, and the other was intruding. Australian troops within East Timor also reported seeing Kopassus
(Indonesian special forces) troops attempting to scout their positions. Such incidents further fuelled tensions between Australia and Indonesia.
Ironically anti-Australian feelings in East Timor also run high. Australia's motives for involvement in East Timor have also been questioned by the East Timorese themselves, especially in connection to the division of revenue from the Timor Gap
oil reserves — an arrangement that is currently highly favourable to Australia. Many East Timorese, including the political leaders; and indeed some Australians — see this state of affairs as exploitative and unfair, especially since East Timor desperately needs money to further its development and has few other valuable resources.
, in 2004, appears to have been targeted specifically at Australians, although the victims were chiefly Indonesian.
Australian girls, some as young as 14, were told "you deserve [to be raped] because you are Australian" when they were gang raped by up to 25 Middle Eastern men. Australians were also attacked in the retalition to the 2005 Cronulla riots. In one incident Middle Eastern men ran shouting "get the Aussie dogs... get the Aussie sluts" and then stabbed an Australian man five times snapping the knife off in his back. In a similar incident a man was attacked with a pole while after a Middle Eastern youth asked him "What nationality are you?" - the youth then shouted, "Fucking Aussie" as he attacked the man with the pole.
played a large role in this. Also, the fate of Indigenous Australians
has been a source of harsh criticism abroad and often domestically as well - specifically the accounts of the Stolen Generation
and the Tasmanian Aborigines
.
In more recent times the Tampa Boat Crisis
and Children Overboard affairs are seen as evidence of racism
continuing in their immigration policy. The incidents were shown as indicating Australians may have white supremacist views, even though Australia has a relatively large number of East Asia
n immigrants.
The mandatory detention in Australia of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by illegal means (that is, without visas) is widely criticized by other nations and by many Australians themselves. Institutions such as Woomera Detention Centre are often compared to prison
s or even concentration camps. The Australian government has received much criticism regarding this policy. Australians seeing the detention policy as unnecessary are divided into two camps: one group believes the detainees should be included in the Australian community, while the other group believes that the detainees should be promptly sent back to their point of origin.
stereotypically portray Anglo-Celtic Australian
s as wild, uncouth, boorish, uncultured, agrestic, sport-obsessed, alcoholic layabouts obsessed with consuming beer
— especially successful export products such as Fosters
and XXXX
(which are often, incorrectly, assumed to be the most popular beers on the Australian market, in fact Victoria Bitter
is more popular in Australia than both Fosters and XXXX). While some Australians (deliberately or otherwise) conform to such stereotypes, both at home and abroad, many Australians are deeply offended by such perceptions. They point to statistics showing that Australia has lower rates of alcohol
consumption than many countries, higher productivity
, high rates of attendance at cultural and arts events/facilities, and a very high degree of urbanisation.
In spite of — or some might say because of — the many ties between the United Kingdom
and Australia (including a large number of Australian expatriate
s in the United Kingdom
, and vice versa) some British cultural conservatives
dislike the supposed vulgarity and/or bad examples for young British people, demonstrated by Australian popular culture
. The most common targets of such discontent are Australian soap opera
s shown on British television
, such as Neighbours
and Home and Away
. Ironically, such programs are often far more popular in the UK, where they sometimes attract many millions of viewers, than in Australia. The relationship between New Zealand and Australia is also an example of a love-hate relationship.
Culture of Australia
The culture of Australia is essentially a Western culture influenced by the unique geography of the Australian continent and by the diverse input of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and various waves of multi-ethnic migration which followed the British colonisation of Australia...
, history
History of Australia
The History of Australia refers to the history of the area and people of Commonwealth of Australia and its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Aboriginal Australians are believed to have first arrived on the Australian mainland by boat from the Indonesian archipelago between 40,000 to...
, and/or people of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The term indicates a broad-ranging animosity, rather than hostility confined to specific issues (such as opposition to recent Australian government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
policies); however, specific issues may eventually give rise to broader hostility.
While Australia enjoys friendly, often sports-based, rivalries with other nations — such as the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
— the term "Anti-Australianism" refers to a deeper sentiment.
In terms of the country's image overseas, modern Australia's origins as a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
penal colony
Penal colony
A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...
have proved particularly difficult to shake off. However, the most significant wave of immigration — in relative or proportional terms — was that of free, non-convict immigrants who arrived during the Australian gold rushes
Australian gold rushes
The Australian gold rush started in 1851 when prospector Edward Hammond Hargraves claimed the discovery of payable gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, at a site Edward Hargraves called Ophir.Eight months later, gold was found in Victoria...
of the 1850s
1850s
- Wars :* Crimean war fought between Imperial Russia and an alliance consisting of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Second French Empire, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Ottoman Empire...
. Between 1850 and 1861, the European population increased from 400,000 to 1.2 million. Moreover, the largest wave of immigration, in terms of absolute numbers, occurred after 1947.
Geography and history
Geography and history play an important part in anti-Australianism. In spite of its location near South East Asia, Australia is predominantly populated by people of EuropeanEuropean
European may mean:* A person or attribute of the continent of Europe* A citizen or attribute of or from the European Union** See also: Citizenship of the European Union* A person from a European ethnic group, or descended from one:** European American...
ethnic origins, who are decidedly members of a western culture
Western culture
Western culture, sometimes equated with Western civilization or European civilization, refers to cultures of European origin and is used very broadly to refer to a heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, religious beliefs, political systems, and specific artifacts and...
.
By comparison, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, separated from Australia by about 200 kilometres of sea at the closest point, is the most populous Islamic
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
nation in the world. Proximity, combined with great cultural differences, is a major cause of friction. Modern Australia's origins and culture evoke unpleasant echoes of colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
in neighbouring countries, where the populations were dominated by Europeans, for centuries in some cases.
There is also a perception that Australia does not respect its neighbours' sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
. For example, criticism in the Australian media
News media
The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...
of human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
abuses in neighbouring countries is often interpreted by them as attempts to meddle in their internal affairs. This perception was heightened by a 2004 incident in which Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
stated his willingness to embark on preemptive strikes
Preemptive war
A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived inevitable offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending war before that threat materializes. It is a war which preemptively 'breaks the peace'. The term: 'preemptive war' is...
against terrorists in neighbouring countries, after the Australian embassy in Jakarta was attacked by a truck-bomb by an Islamic terrorist organisation.
Ties to the United States
Australia has long been a military ally of the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with close military ties dating back to the Pacific War
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
of WWII
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Since then, Australia has fought alongside the US in Korea
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, the 1990–1991 and 2003 Iraq invasions
Gulf War (disambiguation)
The Gulf War was a war against Iraq by a U.S.-led coalition, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.Gulf War or Persian Gulf War may also refer to:* Anglo-Iraqi War * Iran–Iraq War...
, and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
. Although Australian contingents have been much smaller than their US counterparts, they have included a high proportion of special forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
troops, making them more significant than their size would otherwise suggest.
While the reliability of Australia's support has improved its standing with the US, it has caused hostility elsewhere: critics of the association have portrayed it as an extension of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
; Australia is viewed by some as a US puppet
Puppet state
A puppet state is a nominal sovereign of a state who is de facto controlled by a foreign power. The term refers to a government controlled by the government of another country like a puppeteer controls the strings of a marionette...
in the predominantly Asian region. Thus, Australia has attracted hostility not only for its own actions in such wars, but also for its closeness to the US, with anti-American sentiment feeding anti-Australian sentiment by association.
This phenomenon is strong among Islamist and nationalist groups in South-East Asia. Because of Australia's proximity to Malaysia and Indonesia, it makes a convenient surrogate for anti-American hostility, although there are several other causes for friction between Australia and these countries.
A 1999 Bulletin
The Bulletin
The Bulletin was an Australian weekly magazine that was published in Sydney from 1880 until January 2008. It was influential in Australian culture and politics from about 1890 until World War I, the period when it was identified with the "Bulletin school" of Australian literature. Its influence...
article described John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
as the US's "deputy sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
" in the Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific or Asia Pacific is the part of the world in or near the Western Pacific Ocean...
region. This was a label which Howard initially partially accepted, though he later attempted to repudiate it; nevertheless, it has become a popular catchphrase among his detractors, adding to the perception of Australia as an extension of the US.
East Timor
A particular point of contention was Indonesia's occupation of East TimorEast Timor
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, commonly known as East Timor , is a state in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor...
, and the subsequent independence process. While the Australian government long avoided commenting on the Indonesian occupation, some pro-independence East Timorese used Australia as a base, and drew a great deal of sympathy from the Australian public. Following the demise of the Suharto regime in 1998, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
moved to supporting self-determination for the territory, which prompted the new President, Jusuf Habibie
Jusuf Habibie
Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie , also known B. J. Habibie, was the third and shortest-serving President of Indonesia, serving from 1998 to 1999.-Early life and career:...
, to raise the possibility of independence for East Timor in early 1999.
Many Indonesians saw this move as hypocritical, as the Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
government knew in advance about Indonesian plans to invade and annex East Timor in November 1975; it may even have actively encouraged these plans . Subsequent to the invasion, Australia was the only country in the world to acknowledge Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor.
In fact, Prime Minister John Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
had always supported Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, even when in opposition, criticising Labor
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
governments for not being close enough to Indonesia and placing too much importance on human rights and East Timor. In a letter to President Habibie in December 1998, he wrote, "I want to emphasise that Australia's support for Indonesia's sovereignty is unchanged. It has been a longstanding Australian position that the interests of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor are best served by East Timor remaining part of Indonesia." He added that, "The successful implementation of an autonomy package with a built-in review mechanism would allow time to convince the East Timorese of the benefits of autonomy within the Indonesian republic."
Many Indonesian nationalists also believed that Australia was attempting to weaken its neighbour by supporting independence movements in West Papua and Aceh
Aceh
Aceh is a special region of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Daerah Istimewa Aceh , Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam and Aceh . Past spellings of its name include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin...
, although Australia has moved to reinforce its support for Indonesia's integrity since East Timor's independence.
During the referendum process, and especially after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, the region was plunged into violence as anti-independence militia embarked on a scorched earth campaign; at least some of the anti-independence groups were armed, trained, and funded by elements of the Indonesian military. Australia led a United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
peacekeeping force to quell this violence; some took the arrival of Australian troops in what they thought of as Indonesian territory as a further insult to Indonesia.
In one incident during the peacekeeping mission, Australian and Indonesian patrols came into conflict near the East Timorese border, with a small number of Indonesian soldiers killed; it appears confusion caused by differing maps led both groups to believe they were on their own side of the border, and the other was intruding. Australian troops within East Timor also reported seeing Kopassus
Kopassus
Kopassus is an Indonesian Army special forces group that conducts special operations missions for the Indonesian government, such as direct action, unconventional warfare, sabotage, counter-insurgency, counter-terrorism, and intelligence gathering.Kopassus was founded on April 16, 1952...
(Indonesian special forces) troops attempting to scout their positions. Such incidents further fuelled tensions between Australia and Indonesia.
Ironically anti-Australian feelings in East Timor also run high. Australia's motives for involvement in East Timor have also been questioned by the East Timorese themselves, especially in connection to the division of revenue from the Timor Gap
Timor Gap
The Timor Gap is often used to refer to an area of ocean between Timor, Indonesia and Australia. In actuality, it refers to a gap in a seabed boundary which Australia and Indonesia negotiated in 1972 – the part of the line they could not define because, Portugal, who governed East Timor, declined...
oil reserves — an arrangement that is currently highly favourable to Australia. Many East Timorese, including the political leaders; and indeed some Australians — see this state of affairs as exploitative and unfair, especially since East Timor desperately needs money to further its development and has few other valuable resources.
Attacks on Australians
While it is now believed that the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing targeted Westerners in general, the fact that many of the victims were Australian, and the subsequent heavy involvement of Australian police and intelligence authorities in the investigation, added to perceptions of an anti-Australian motive. By comparison, the much less deadly bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta2004 Jakarta embassy bombing
The 2004 Australian embassy bombing took place on 9 September 2004 in Jakarta, Indonesia.A one-tonne car bomb, which was packed into a small Daihatsu delivery van, exploded outside the Australian embassy at Kuningan District, South Jakarta, at about 10:30 local time , killing 9 people including...
, in 2004, appears to have been targeted specifically at Australians, although the victims were chiefly Indonesian.
Australian girls, some as young as 14, were told "you deserve [to be raped] because you are Australian" when they were gang raped by up to 25 Middle Eastern men. Australians were also attacked in the retalition to the 2005 Cronulla riots. In one incident Middle Eastern men ran shouting "get the Aussie dogs... get the Aussie sluts" and then stabbed an Australian man five times snapping the knife off in his back. In a similar incident a man was attacked with a pole while after a Middle Eastern youth asked him "What nationality are you?" - the youth then shouted, "Fucking Aussie" as he attacked the man with the pole.
Australian domestic policies
Australia has at times faced hostility for being deemed unusually racist. The White Australia PolicyWhite Australia policy
The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia. From origins at Federation in 1901, the polices were progressively dismantled between 1949-1973....
played a large role in this. Also, the fate of Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
has been a source of harsh criticism abroad and often domestically as well - specifically the accounts of the Stolen Generation
Stolen Generation
The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by the Australian Federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments...
and the Tasmanian Aborigines
Tasmanian Aborigines
The Tasmanian Aborigines were the indigenous people of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Before British colonisation in 1803, there were an estimated 3,000–15,000 Parlevar. A number of historians point to introduced disease as the major cause of the destruction of the full-blooded...
.
In more recent times the Tampa Boat Crisis
MS Tampa
MS Tampa may refer to:, a diesel-powered ship in round-the-world cargo service for the American Pioneer Line; commissioned as USS Orvetta for the United States Navy during World War II, a Norwegian cargo ship built in 1984; involved in the Tampa affair in 2001...
and Children Overboard affairs are seen as evidence of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
continuing in their immigration policy. The incidents were shown as indicating Australians may have white supremacist views, even though Australia has a relatively large number of East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
n immigrants.
The mandatory detention in Australia of asylum seekers who arrive in Australia by illegal means (that is, without visas) is widely criticized by other nations and by many Australians themselves. Institutions such as Woomera Detention Centre are often compared to prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
s or even concentration camps. The Australian government has received much criticism regarding this policy. Australians seeing the detention policy as unnecessary are divided into two camps: one group believes the detainees should be included in the Australian community, while the other group believes that the detainees should be promptly sent back to their point of origin.
Stereotypes
Sometimes, global mass mediaMass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
stereotypically portray Anglo-Celtic Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australian
Anglo-Celtic Australian are citizens of Australia with British and/or Irish ancestral origins.-Demography:From the beginning of the colonial era until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of settlers were British or Irish...
s as wild, uncouth, boorish, uncultured, agrestic, sport-obsessed, alcoholic layabouts obsessed with consuming beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
— especially successful export products such as Fosters
Fosters
Fosters or Foster's may refer to:* Foster's Lager, an Australian beer* Foster's Group, an Australian brewer and distributor* Fosters Freeze, a chain of fast-food restaurants in California...
and XXXX
XXXX
XXXX is a brand of Australian beer brewed in Milton, Brisbane by Queensland brewers, Castlemaine Perkins. It enjoys wide popularity in the state of Queensland, where it is commonly found on-tap in pubs and bars....
(which are often, incorrectly, assumed to be the most popular beers on the Australian market, in fact Victoria Bitter
Victoria Bitter
Victoria Bitter is one of the many iconic beers manufactured in the Australian state of Victoria. VB currently maintains the highest market share of all beer sold in Australia, both on tap and packaged...
is more popular in Australia than both Fosters and XXXX). While some Australians (deliberately or otherwise) conform to such stereotypes, both at home and abroad, many Australians are deeply offended by such perceptions. They point to statistics showing that Australia has lower rates of alcohol
Alcohol
In chemistry, an alcohol is an organic compound in which the hydroxy functional group is bound to a carbon atom. In particular, this carbon center should be saturated, having single bonds to three other atoms....
consumption than many countries, higher productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...
, high rates of attendance at cultural and arts events/facilities, and a very high degree of urbanisation.
In spite of — or some might say because of — the many ties between the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Australia (including a large number of Australian expatriate
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...
s in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and vice versa) some British cultural conservatives
Cultural conservatism
Cultural conservatism is described as the preservation of the heritage of one nation, or of a shared culture that is not defined by national boundaries. Other variants of cultural conservatism are concerned with culture attached to a given language such as Arabic.The shared culture may be as...
dislike the supposed vulgarity and/or bad examples for young British people, demonstrated by Australian popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. The most common targets of such discontent are Australian soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
s shown on British television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, such as Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...
and Home and Away
Home and Away
Home and Away is an Australian soap opera that has been produced in Sydney since July 1987 and is airing on the Seven Network since 17 January 1988. It is the second-longest-running drama and most popular soap opera on Australian television...
. Ironically, such programs are often far more popular in the UK, where they sometimes attract many millions of viewers, than in Australia. The relationship between New Zealand and Australia is also an example of a love-hate relationship.