December 3, 1901: The "White Australia Policy"

"Australia for the Australians"

December 3, 1901: The new Parliament of Australia passes the Immigration Restriction Act 1901. It becomes the basis of what became known as "The White Australia Policy."

It was a set of racial policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origins from immigrating to Australia, in order to create a "White/British" ideal, focused on Anglo-Celtic peoples, but not exclusively. The main focus of exclusion was on Asians, primarily Chinese, and Pacific Islanders, as these were, geographically, the people most likely to immigrate there.

Competition in the gold fields between European and Chinese miners, and labor union opposition to the importation of Pacific Islanders into the sugar plantations of Queensland, reinforced demands to eliminate or minimize low-wage immigration from Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Soon after Australia became a federation on January 1, 1901, the federal government of Prime Minister Edmund Barton passed the Restriction Act. It was drafted by Alfred Deakin, who went on to succeed Barton as Prime Minister.

The key feature of this legislation was the dictation test, which was used to bar non-White immigrants from entry. Subsequent acts further strengthened the policy. These policies effectively gave British migrants preference over all others through the first half of the 20th Century.

It also led to "the Stolen Generations," from 1905 to 1967, when the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent were removed from their families by the Australian federal and State government agencies and church missions, under acts of their respective parliaments. Similar policies were enacted by the federal governments of America and Canada, toward their indigenous peoples.

During World War II, Prime Minister John Curtin reinforced the policy, saying, "This country shall remain forever the home of the descendants of those, people who came here in peace in order to establish in the South Seas an outpost of the British race."

Governments progressively dismantled such policies between 1949 and 1975, when the government of Prime Minister Edward Gough Whitlam removed the last racial elements of Australia's immigration laws.

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December 3, 1901 was a Tuesday. This was also the day that King C. Gillette patented the safety razor. I have a separate entry for that event.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. And basketball and hockey were still all-amateur. So there were no scores on this historic day.