"REDUCE IMMIGRATION" In Australia
11/22/2007
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Denis McCormack, who writes about Australian immigration issues in the Social Contract, has a suggestion for the upcoming Australian election at TheIndependentAustralian.com.au/
LET YOUR OPINION ON IMMIGRATION BE KNOWN WHEN CASTING YOUR VOTE

Veteran immigration commentator Denis McCormack has a suggestion on how you can do so painlessly, come the Federal election.

How easy is this for millions of us to do on election day?

  1. With both ballot papers in hand, walk into the privacy of voting booth.
  2. Number the squares as you wish for your valid vote.
  3. In the clear blank space of about 1 cm deep across the top of both ballot papers write
REDUCE IMMIGRATION which can’t obscure your numbered squares and therefore won’t invalidate your vote.
  1. Fold them both, walk out of voting booth, drop them into the respective Reps and Senate ballot boxes on the way out … so easy!
According to my enquiries with the good, helpful folk at the Australian Electoral Commission, it would most certainly be noted by all and sundry at the counting everywhere, and therefore spread naturally into the reportage of mass media on election night if a big % of valid ballot papers for both Reps and Senate had REDUCE IMMIGRATION written across the top of them and no matter who had won Government, all would be on notice.
The point here is that while opposition to increased immigration has bipartisan support among Australians in general, support for increased immigration has bipartisan support among Australia's political class. Opposition to illegal immigration is what won John Howard an earlier election, and while illegal immigration can be a problem for Australia if the government isn't prepared to be firm, (See Nice Guys Get Illegal Immmigrants by John Derbyshire) Australia is defended by a lot of deep water, much deeper than the Rio Grande, which means that illegals can only come by ship.

And after Howard's massive success over blocking boat people, even the left-wing opposition won't allow boat people. [Rudd to turn back boatpeople, By Paul Kelly and Dennis Shanahan, The Australian,November 23, 2007 ] But boat people aren't the problem–numbers are the problem. As Enoch Powell put it 

“[N]umbers are of the essence: the significance and consequences of an alien element introduced into a country or population are profoundly different according to whether that element is 1 per cent or 10 per cent. “
In Australia the numbers have been fairly large, and the elements fairly alien.
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