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As I drove to the Anti-Racism rally on Sunday, the ABC news headline was that there were no riots at Sydney's beaches. This is not as remarkable as it would have seemed on the day after the riot at Cronulla, but how was this achieved? It was achieved at vast cost, in terms of money and our collective dignity. Australians were warned off going to the beach, and for those hardy souls who braved the roadblocks, a number suffered the indignity of being searched simply because of their skin tone. Presumably next weekend, we can again spend a fortune on security, not be allowed out of our homes, not go to the beach and call it another "roaring" success.

NSW legislation, which allows Police to stop free movement between suburbs, was passed at emergency session on the 15th of December in just three hours. The legislation was handed to me approximately ten minutes before it was introduced into the Legislative Assembly, proving that the NSW Government has more in common with the Federal Government than previously thought. Welcome to the 'relaxed and comfortable' Australia achieved by John Howard in the last ten years. Despite having contributed to the climate of fear and suspicion that played a large part in Cronulla's outburst of racist sentiment, John Howard was not on hand. He was overseas telling the sceptical Asians that this was not a racist riot. His record tells a much more accurate story.

John Howard has called refugees as 'queue jumpers'. He has demonised and locked them up in detention camps despite censure from the UN and Amnesty International. This tactic continues, despite huge evidence of mental illness and suicides, as if it is a crime to try to get a better life. He has railed against 'political correctness' as if it is somehow a virtue to be able to use words of prejudice, and dehumanised people that we do not like, so that inhuman measures against them seem totally appropriate. Although there is a constant litany about spreading democracy in Iraq, it has been clear that he has no respect for its very principles. He helped declare war on a country already devastated by ten years of sanctions, and would not even debate this in parliament.

It is a fact that the programs of migrant education have been cut. It is a fact that NALSAS (National Asian Language and Studies in Australian Schools) has been de-funded. It is a fact that new migrants cannot get Medicare or social services, and that affirmative action programs for unemployed youth have been cut.

In NSW, the Liberals have congratulated NSW Government for its 'law and order' response to the Cronulla riot. This would appear to be yet another sign that the gap between them is getting smaller and smaller as they try to outdo each other in the lead up to the 2007 election. I believe that NSW can do better than this downward spiral into a police state, and that the people of NSW must demand a more sensitive handling of these issues. If the major parties won't put their backs into it, we must vote for people who will.

Yrs,
Dr. Arthur Chesterfield-Evans (ACE)