In 21st Century Australia, discrimination based on race, creed, gender or sexual preference, age or physical capability is prohibited by law. Most of us regard this as progress, as evidence of Australia’s commitment to basic human rights, an acknowledgement of the cultural benefits of tolerance and diversity. In colonial Australia, British assumptions about race – the inferiority of the Oriental, the inability of ‘whites’ to labour in the searing heat of the tropics – gave way to an economic imperative: populate or … Continue reading