As the world debates the totally tragic and distressing refugee crisis at the UN’s refugee summit, Australians are having their own say about one kind of immigrant – and it’s really not very nice.
An Essential Research Poll of 1000 people has found that 49 per cent of Australians would support a ban on Muslim immigration – and it was tri-partisan. More than one third of Greens voters (34 per cent) support the proposed ban, while 60 per cent of Liberal voters and 40 per cent of Labor voters agreed.
These results even surprised the polling company – so much so that they conducted the same poll twice to make sure it wasn’t some “rogue” outcome.
And the results continued: of the supporters, 40 per cent claimed Muslims “do not integrate into Australian society”, 27 per cent cited “terrorist threat”, and 22 per cent said “They do not share our values”.
Maybe it’s a fear fallout from Senator Pauline Hanson’s maiden speech last week in which she predicted that “Australia is in danger of being swamped by Muslims” – if you’re not up to speed with the immigration facts, that can sound scary.
But if that’s the case, why are people not only listening to her bigoted rant but also buying in to and believing what she is saying? Also, if that is the case, does this mean Senator Hanson’s narrow and at times bigoted views are no longer on the edges of accepted society but becoming accepted and mainstream?
Peter Lewis, executive director of the company that conducted this poll, talks about how muzzling the purveyors of panic like Hanson isn’t the answer.
Summising his opinion piece in The Guardian, it seems he believes that when typical, normally tolerant Aussies tick a “ban Muslim immigration” box, they’re basically showing a deep sense of unease about everything – and a supporting a ban is something they can understand and see results from rather than in the other areas that are making them unhappy like job security, income distribution and an unfair tax system.
He says insulting Hanson supporters and trying to change how they “feel” is not the answer but instead, if I’m getting what he said, is to find out what really is causing people to feel so threatened.
In the meantime, does it not seem shocking that what’s been dubbed “Hansonism” is becoming more broadly accepted and mainstream? People are feeling comfortable enough to share and support the senator’s views through their social media accounts and quote her during dinner party debates.
Surely if these normally kind and tolerant Australians thought about the “Muslim issue” on a human-by-human basis, they would not tick that box.
