Peta Credlin, former chief of staff to Tony Abbott when he was Prime Minister of Australia wrote a piece in The Australian on May 2 titled: Nation’s foreign policy is being driven by minority influence. You can read the piece here.
She starts in a tone very ominous for migrants who have called Australia home saying:
In a new and disturbing first, immigrant communities are now driving Australia’s foreign policy in ways that are at odds with the national interest.
Peta’s main gripe is against the activism of those Muslim Australians who are protesting ‘For Palestine (and Anti-Israel’). She believes the Albanese government is changing Australia’s policy towards the Middle East under pressure from those Muslim activists.
She discusses three Muslim websites – “Muslim Votes Matter”, “My Vote Matters” and “The Muslim Vote” and goes on to discuss in detail what she claims they are preaching.
Peta also speaks about 32 federal electorates being with a sizeable Muslim population and 30 of those being currently held by the ALP.
Her thesis seems to be encapsulated in this paragraph:
Harnessing religious solidarity with Marxist militant minority tactics, and cleverly pitched to culturally adrift adolescents and young adults, the aim is to have the 4 per cent of voters who are Muslim change the national position, not just on Palestine but “on a broad range of issues … which resonate most with the Australian Muslim community”.
In a completely foolish and illogical stretch, she includes the Australian Indian community in her piece as another example of minority throwing its weight around. If she had employed even an iota of sense and reason, she would not have clubbed the Indian community from Victoria in that piece. Peta writes:
Muslim leaders and community organisations are not the only recent immigrant groups seeking to change Australian government policy and, sometimes, foster grievances against broader Australian society. A decade or so back, the local Indian community felt not enough was being done to protect Indian students against attacks by gangs.
Notice the construct Peta employs using her journalistic liberty to malign the Australian Indian community – A decade or so back, the local Indian community felt not enough was being done to protect Indian students against attacks by gangs.
Is Peta Credlin trying to suggest that the Australian Indian community was faking the narrative in an attempt to use their minority influence?
It was a fact those students were being attacked by gangs, at times completely out of the blue, gatecrashing and uninvited.
To me Peta’s story suggests that when the Indian international students were being targeted by violent gangs and thugs back in 2007-2009, the community’s calls to local authorities to ensure their safety – were a ‘luxury’ it was NOT entitled to in Peta’s Australia.
Peta, after all is a political creature, thus failed to see the world of difference in the two scenarios. There were serious problems at the time and those problems were HERE, in Australia. Those students were lawfully here in Australia, studying, paying full fees and making their contribution to Australia.
They were all here because they were promised Australia was safe place to study.
The Australian Indian community was well within its rights to call upon the federal and state governments of the day to act and ensure safety of the vulnerable international students from India.
Those students had every right to feel safe in Australia and as their local hosts, the Australian Indian community had a duty of care to add to their calls for safety.
The Australian Indians, irrespective of their cast creed, language and religious differences, pull far above their weight in making a fruitful and meaningful contribution to their adopted country, Australia.
Peta concludes her piece arguing the migration numbers are too high and not enough is being done to make migrants joining ‘Team Australia’ (a Tony Abbott vintage construct). She warns, “…we’re at risk of importing all the troubles of the wider world…”.
India, of late, has had its fair share of controversies. Where have the Australian Indians set up encampments, or disrupted normal lives of Australians protesting on those on either side?
A comment on Peta’s piece by Lynne D reads:
Perhaps someone needs to remind our present government that we have approximately 3.2% of our population who adhere to the Islamic faith and 2.9% who are from India. Are they really prepared to ceded our Australian values to demands by some of those from these communities, people that we have granted asylum too or those that have come to our country for a better lifestyle, who are now demanding that WE must change ! If Mr Albanese is prepared to sell our country’s values out for a few extra seats , then Australia is lost .
And another one from Robert M, advocating for migrants to be kicked out, says:
Don’t new migrants have to swear allegiance to Australia? If they’ve broken their vow kick them out.
I am aghast that Peta, who once ran Australia as chief of staff for the then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, has painted the hard-working Australian Indians in such a bad light.
Not sure if she would agree, I think Peta Credlin should apologize to the Australian Indian community.
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