Talk about spiralling down. The initial shock of Donald Trump's election win has already yielded to a second-wave effect in Australia, with policymakers adjusting their stances, toughening their rhetoric and playing to prejudices once discredited.
An atmospheric change in Australia's political discourse, on both sides of the aisle, is palpable. It is as if the anti-immigration grievance expressed through Brexit has now been turbocharged through Trumpism, prompting Australian political leaders, somewhat jarringly, to get with the program.
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PM's strong words for Shorten
Bill Shorten has revealed his plan to put Australian workers first but Malcolm Turnbull says it's hypocritical and opportunistic. Courtesy ABC News 24.
That program is nationalism and the path there is always the same: go low.
Succumbing to the lure of a "friendly" conservative barracker, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, whose job it is to promote multiculturalism, has told Andrew Bolt that Malcolm Fraser erred in the 1970s by allowing so many people into the country from certain places.
This, he hinted, explained second-generation migrants wanting to become foreign fighters for ISIS and other fanatical variants.
Dutton also slammed state governments for weak law enforcement as he issued the thinly veiled threat of a more discriminatory immigration policy to keep out certain highly identifiable minorities – mainly the Sudanese.
Pauline Hanson's gauche cork-popping following Trump's victory last week was as tasteless as her mantra of Australia for Australians. But surprising it was not.
What has surprised is Labor's frank Australia-first jingoism which emerged this week. In addition to a new crackdown on 457 skilled migrant visas, Bill Shorten had doubled-down by the end of the week', warning that more than a million working visas are currently on issue in Australia. The subtext is "that's an awful lot of Aussie jobs going to foreigners".
Malcolm Turnbull's proud refrain that Australia is the most successful multicultural nation on earth is now being undermined by his own ministers and others in the Parliament. This is no small matter. If national security is the first responsibility of government, then national unity and social cohesion – with all that these entail – must surely come close behind.
As the UN's special rapporteur on human rights of migrants noted on Friday concluding a visit to Australia, "language matters".
"Politicians who have engaged in this negative discourse seem to have given permission to many to act in xenophobic ways and allow for the rise of nationalist populist voices," he said.
Besides, national security and national unity are entwined. Demonising sections of the community based on colour and religion is not a recipe for the strengthening of Australia, but the opposite. Just ask security agencies that rely heavily on good relations, and inter-community trust, for intelligence.