Outrage over anti-immigration leaflet
Rosie Lewis
The Sydney Morning Herald
January 22, 2010

ANTI-IMMIGRATION leaflets posted in letterboxes in the inner-west have outraged ethnic community leaders and a senior Federal Government official.

The leaflets read: ”600,000 immigrants arrived in the last 4 years. That’s more than Tasmania. More than Aborigines. More than Newcastle. More than we need.”

They are part of a campaign led by an anonymous group identified only by a triangular design in the bottom right corner of the leaflet.

The chairman of the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia, Pino Migliorino, questioned the leaflet’s intentions. “It’s really interesting that in the lead-up to Australia Day you get such vagrant behaviour … It’s a day that’s supposed to unite us and it becomes a day that can manipulate.”

Mr Migliorino said the nation’s leaders should stand up for migrants. “The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister need to take the front foot and show they appreciate migration … What we need to do is actively seek to lessen the incidence of racist violence.”

But the parliamentary secretary for Multicultural Affairs, Laurie Ferguson, said the Government supported immigrants. “The Prime Minister recently announced … a belief in Australia having a larger population.”

Mr Ferguson said the information on the leaflet misrepresented the attitudes of Australians.

The chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of NSW, Stepan Kerkyasharian, said Australia Day should be about celebration, not racism. A recent survey by the Scanlan Foundation found 60 per cent of people supported the migration level.

Note:

A story regarding the silly leaflet in question was written by Ebs and published in the Life in Chippendale blog on Monday, January 11.

The leaflet, as noted by Life in Chippendale, is the second in a possible series, the first being distributed in November 2009.

Both leaflets have been distributed in the vicinity of Humanist House, which for the past eight years has hosted meetings of a fascist group. These meetings, conducted under various names and in various guises, were suspended only a few weeks ago, after public protests in October and November, and some turmoil within the group which owns and manages the building: the NSW Humanist Society. While there has been one article (The Sydney Morning Herald, November 15, 2009) in the press about this issue, the real story is the campaign of fascist infiltration of the Society, and the election of a range of colourful characters on to its Committee of Management…