WI: Fiji part of Australia
- Thread starter vega
- Start date
shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
Well, one result would be that Fiji is now part of Australia.
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Yeah I agree with above, it's not gonna happen before the end of the White Australian Policy. By the time the White Australia ended, it was too late.
Also, as Fiji was a separate colony with it's own identity, I doubt they'd be cool with Australia just going 'Mine!'. Just look at New Zealand and why they aren't Australian, and you'll see why Fiji wouldn't join the Federation. Unless a relaxation of the White Policy occurs early, which is unlikely, and Australia begins to pick up Britain's slack in the Pacific, more unlikely, Fiji will just be Fiji.
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Yeah I agree with above, it's not gonna happen before the end of the White Australian Policy. By the time the White Australia ended, it was too late.
Also, as Fiji was a separate colony with it's own identity, I doubt they'd be cool with Australia just going 'Mine!'. Just look at New Zealand and why they aren't Australian, and you'll see why Fiji wouldn't join the Federation. Unless a relaxation of the White Policy occurs early, which is unlikely, and Australia begins to pick up Britain's slack in the Pacific, more unlikely, Fiji will just be Fiji.
^^Actually, Fiji was part of the original Federal Council of Australasia, (what preceded federation as Australia), which had every current Australian State except New South Wales. So it would be one of the founding states.
The White Australian policy was more about the economy than anything else, at least originally. It may still happen as OTL, even.
The White Australian policy was more about the economy than anything else, at least originally. It may still happen as OTL, even.
Guys, the White Australia Policy was an immigration policy. And it was put in place after Federation. The federation of the six separate colonies, each with their own identity. Try to have an idea of what you're talking about before you say it.
Anyway, on the subject of the White Australia Policy, that's interesting because I've just looked it up and apparently Fiji's economy depended quite a lot on indentured Indian labourers working in the sugarcane fields until the year 1916. Therefore, if Fiji was an Australian state they may very well oppose the Immigration Restriction Act as a threat to business (which is why the Free Trade Party was its strongest opponent in OTL). The Act will still pass (given that it passed overwhelmingly in OTL), but perhaps by a smaller margin.
By the way, regarding population: in 1901, Fiji had a population of 120,124 people. That would make it the smallest state, after Tasmania which had 172,475.
Queensland opposed it for the same reason. Fiji was, of course, part of the original constitutional convention, as was New Zealand. It's certainly quite possible that it could have occurred at the time, the distances involved when only sea travel was an option were part of the failure to proceed at the time.
I imagine the "situation" in Fiji with Indian labourers would be given a blind eye type treatment, resulting in OTL population and demographics later on.
However, if the White Australia Policy somehow impacted Indian settlement/work in Fiji, then you could end up with a more ethnic Fijian/East Asian sort of state.
If they're already indentured labourers then the obvious solution would be to simply add a couple of clauses in their contracts which say that they have to stay in Fiji for the duration and once it's expired they have to return home without any right of staying. These conditions, the economic angle, and that it's not on the mainland would I think be perhaps enough to get a limited exemption from the White Australia Policy for Fiji.
Except that Queensland also relied upon indentured Pacific Islanders for their sugarcane industry, and they all got deported.
And one reason why Labour (spelled with a U at the time) supported the White Australia Policy so strongly at the time was because of the "dey turk er jerbs" thing. Makes an exemption unlikely.
Yes, interestingly enough with a second state in support, I wonder if that would have gotten up.
Cook
Banned
I would think it more likely to enter as a territory rather than a state. Something like the transfer of Papua from British to Australian control in 1905 or the later transfer of the Cocos Islands.
The White Australia Policy did not apply to Australian States north of the Tropic of Capricorn, nor to the overseas territories.
The sailing time Fiji-to-Melbourne was shorter than Perth-to-Melbourne, and for most of the year, less unpleasant (travel by ship across The Bight, particularly east to west, is not pleasant). Western Australia, for its part, was a very reluctant signatory to Federation; in addition to the very great distances involved, the new Federation intended to impose import tariffs to promote the growth of a local manufacturing base, while W.A.'s economy was based on primary produce and mining, and needed imports from overseas to remain cheap.
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shiftygiant
Gone Fishin'
Huh, I didn't know Fiji was part of the Federation. Learn something new everyday. Question is, how do you keep it in the Federation?
I didn't know that. In light of that, it's even more bizarre to me that Western Australia was basically bullied into joining in with Federation while New Zealand and Fiji were able to stay separate. You'd think that people who actually did politics and governing for a job would have a better understanding than "Well, these colonies are all on the same mainland, so naturally they'd all be better off linked together, right?", wouldn't you?
Cook
Banned
Your question should be: how do you get New South Wales to join the Federation of Australasia?
And that makes it a Pre-1900 discussion.
Cook
Banned
Not really, Western Australia at the time the richest state per capita; the new Commonwealth needed the goldfields to finance growth projects, and was going to have them, with or without Perth's agreement. The Maundering Wear and goldfields pipeline was built in part to bind Kalgoorlie/Coolgardie permanently to the West and prevent the formation of a separate goldfields state.
What was most surprising was New Zealand's decision to opt out; they'd been involved in the federation conferences from the start, well before West. Australia became involved, and the Constitution was written with them in mind.