Page 137 - On Not Speaking Chinese Living Between Asia and the West

7

RACIAL/SPATIAL ANXIETY

‘Asia’ in the psycho-geography of
Australian whiteness

Pauline Hanson is known for representing herself as ‘only a fish and chip shop lady’
speaking for ‘the Australian people’. But for her not all people living in Australia
belong to ‘the Australian people’. In her infamous maiden speech, which she
delivered in the Federal Parliament in August 1996, she singled out two groups
as targets for her resentment and hostility: Aboriginal people and ‘Asians’. On
Aborigines, she said among others:

I am fed up with being told, ‘This is our land’. Well, where the hell do I
go? I was born here, and so were my parents and children. I will work
beside anyone and they will be my equal but I draw the line when told
I must pay and continue paying for something that happened over 200
years ago. Like most Australians, I worked for my land; no-one gave it
to me.
(Hanson 1997a: 4)

About ‘Asians’, she had this to say:
I believe we are in danger of being swamped by Asians. Between 1984 and
1995, 40% of all migrants coming into this country were of Asian origin.
They have their own culture and religion, form ghettos and do not
assimilate. Of course, I will be called racist but, if I can invite whom
I want into my home, then I should have the right to have a say in who
comes into my country.
(ibid.: 7)
The juxtaposition of these two comments illuminates a crucial strand in the
worldview of Hansonism: a claim of ownership of the Australian land, and a strident
sense of entitlement adhering to that ownership. In presenting herself as the rightful
proprietor of this country, Hanson does two things. First, she disavows the impli-
cations of Aboriginal dispossession which formed a founding moment of the
creation of modern Australia with the arrival of the British in 1788. Second, as
the ‘hostess’, she claims the right to act as a gatekeeper for any newcomers,

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