3 March 1891, Federal Parliament Building, Melbourne, Australasia
John Watson, the new leader of the Federation of Australasian Labour, took the floor. "I think that from this section of the House one may, without presumption, congratulate the Leader of the Opposition upon the speech he has made to-day. It seems to me that he not only stated the position taken up by the majority, well the large majority, of the people of Australia, with clearness, moderation and firmness, and in a way which I think will commend itself to the opinion of the greater number of people.
As far as I am concerned, the objection I have to the mixing of these coloured people with the white people of Australasia, whilst tinged with considerations of an industrial nature, lies in the main in racial contamination. I think we should gauge this matter by those considerations which appeal to our ordinary human weaknesses and prejudices. The question is whether we would desire that our sisters or our brothers should be married into these races to which we object. If these people are not such as we can meet with equality; not such as we can feel that it is no disgrace to intermarry with, to the improvement of the race, we should be foolish in the extreme if we did not exhaust every means of preventing them from coming to this land we have made our own. This should have been done many years ago. The racial aspect of the question, in my opinion, is the larger and more important one, yet the industrial aspect must be considered. There is a good deal in the contention put forward by the honorable member for Melbourne Ports in regard to the conversion of a number of people on the question of coloured immigration, because still immigration flows. We know that a few years ago business men, speaking by and large, looked upon the Chinese or other coloured undesirables as men who could be very well tolerated, because they took the place of labourers, of which we were short, they were cheap as well, yet when it was found that these Orientals possessed all the cunning and acumen necessary to fit them, for conducting business affairs, and that their cheapness of living was carried into business matters as well as into ordinary labouring work, a marked alteration of opinion took place, so far as the competition of the Chinese was concerned. At the present time, we have whole streets which are practically given up to the businesses conducted by Chinese and other coloured aliens. One cannot go into more than five towns of any importance in the country districts without finding two, three, or perhaps half-a-dozen coloured storekeepers doing a thriving business. In each and every avenue of life, we find the competition of the coloured races insidiously creeping in. If we are to maintain the standard of living we think necessary, in order that our people may be brought up with a degree of comfort, with scholastic advantages which will conduce to the improvement and general advancement of the nation, some pause must be made in regard to the extension of the competition of coloured aliens. Another aspect of the question is that in the northern parts of Australia, both on the east and on the west coast, we find that coloured people have gained more than a footing - they have secured control. In Northern Australia, the pearl fisheries are being run with coloured divers. Large numbers of Malays and other coloured aliens, are working as divers upon the pearl-shelling grounds. These men have overrun the State.
Then, on the Capricornia coast, we find that Thursday Island is a coloured settlement containing the most heterogeneous mixture of races it is possible to conceive. We find, too, that the Japanese, Javanese, and various other coloured peoples, have been coming to the mainland of North Capricornia in such numbers as would, I think, be most alarming to the minds of the people if they thoroughly understood how far this immigration is proceeding. Again, in the interior districts of the various States we find Afghans employed, some as camel drivers, some as hawkers, in each instance becoming a menace to the people in the sparsely populated districts. I do not suppose that there is one man who has not read of or experienced the trouble that these coloured hawkers give, especially where women and children are left, unprotected, in the sparsely settled districts. It is common knowledge that they are not only insolent, but actually threatening in their attitude towards women and children unless trade is done with them. All these things go to show the danger that confronts us, and the necessity for some definite action being taken. It is said by some of those who object to legislation of this sort that, while we may be justified in keeping out Chinamen, Japanese, Malays or Afghan, we have no justification for attempting to keep out those related to people already here. I say we have every justification. It is, after all, our future."
"I recognise the member for Glebe."
The Australasian league's Bruce Smith took the floor. "Thank you, Mr Speaker. Now, it appears to me that the foundation of this bill is racial prejudice… the whole thing is a bogy, a scarecrow. I venture to say that a large part of the scare is founded upon a desire to make political capital by appealing to some of the worst instincts of the more credulous of the people. It is no coincidence that the principal objections to non-white immigrants came from trade unions and labour movement. They object to Chinese immigrants not primarily because of their race but because many were 'coolies', that is, indentured labourers recruited in their home country at wages a fraction of our market rates, leaving them to work for less here. They object to Melanesian islanders employed on Capricornian sugar plantations, which pay 12 pounds a year at a time when an unskilled white labourer in Sydney or Melbourne could earn six pounds a fortnight. It appears that the honourable members of Mr Watson's party object to the Chinese, not so much on the ground of the possible contamination of the white race, as because they fear that if they continue to come to Australasia the rate of wages will go down. Their hypocrisy is astounding."
George Dibbs, the instigator of the Immigration Exclusion Acts and Leader of the Opposition Liberal Protectionists, spoke again. "Like the esteemed Leader of the Federation of Australian labour, I am a supporter of such a bill. These was a time that I was in favour of such immigration, but that time has well passed. The apostles of immigration have had their day, witness the fact that their leader sits at home with a broken leg, a leg that apparently is still not suitable to perambulate on, after a full 14 weeks of rest."
"The member for Auckland North".
Te Kana Davis took to his feet. Dibbs personal hatred for Henry Parkes had not allowed him to escape a dig at the Australasia Prime Minister, laid up with a badly broken leg, a hard thing to recover from when one was 76 years of age. " I see not for nothing has the Opposition Leader previously been called a mean spirited man. He has a genius for destruction, for degradation and for confusion, which is what this bill will produce. I look upon the whole of the inhabitants of Asia as my friends. I am perfectly willing that they should be called my friends, and I hope so long as God gives me breath that I shall have the courage to stand up for what I consider to be right for them. I consider that no one who has any time to them will attempt for one moment to despise either the Japanese or the Chinese."
"Now see here....."
The speaker intervened. "I recognise the member for Wilmot".
King O'Malley stood. "I have some experience in this matter from my time in the new world. Despite efforts to shut him out, all sorts of means were tried to exclude John Chinaman, but, you know, he gets there just the same. They cannot shut him out. With all due deference to the Opposition Leader, the proposed educational test is absolutely absurd. It is the sort of thing to make a government look a laughing stock. I know that the right honorable gentleman means well. I know that the Opposition mean well, but they are only human, after all."
Edmund Barton, the coming man in the Liberal Protectionists, chimed in. "While the honorable member is divine I suppose?"
"There is something in that statement, yes.."
The debate was to rage for another three days, before a vote was taken on the 6th March in regards the Immigration Exclusion Bill. To the outrage of the government, it was only on the day of the vote that the opposition refused to grant an automatic pairing for Henry Parkes. The government, reduced to 47 members after losing the Christchurch by election the previous year, was now reduced to 46. Voting as a block and including the support of their minority Te Aka allies, could only muster 49 seats. They were propelled to 50 with the vote of the Independent Member for North Adelaide, John de Camp. The other four independents voted with the opposition, to give a 50 to 50 split, leaving the bill to go to the Protector to break the deadlock.
1888 Australasian election result