Abbott should run a mile from 'Big Australia' policy

If Tony Abbott is to have any chance of winning the next election, he's got to urgently and courageously embrace mainstream Australia on several crucial issues bubbling out from the "big Australia" concept initially welcomed enthusiastically by Kevin Rudd and supported by all sorts of vested interests.

Rudd has since backed away from his initial response, implying that growth is inevitable and not merely a result of government policy, but then flicking the switch to policy in spin mode, he appoints Tony Burke as our first Minister for Population.

The big-Australia concept has been around for years. Malcolm Fraser touted 50 million, Bob Hawke was a big numbers man, while developer Harry Triguboff upped the ante to 100 million. Joe Hockey is believed to lean towards 40 million to 50 million while Hugh Morgan, who used to run Western Mining, is in the 100 million plus club.

Abbott, despite allegedly having some sympathy for this cause, has (luckily for him) not yet declared himself in this context.

Conspiracy theorists who claim that a big Australia is all about big business wanting more people to drink VB and buy consumer goods and newly constructed apartments have some legitimacy. The key factor totally ignored by most MPs, the media, demographers, corporations and all the other big-Australia spruikers is that it's not the numbers but the quality of the intake that counts.

Instead, all Australian governments, in their pursuit of multiculturalism, have bowed to the UN, particularly on the question of refugees, ordinary Australians having been sold out by their elected representatives, most of whom covet a cushy UN job. The UN is funded mainly by the West but is a disgrace. A patriotic Australian government should tell the UN to rack off.

Ownership of Australia legitimately rests with the Aborigines and all those whose ancestors helped lay down its pastoral, industrial and cultural foundations and who served the nation in war. The remaining shareholders are those who have totally assimilated and whose allegiance is solely to that of Australia. Dual citizens are not included in the mix.

The main political parties have never consulted with core Australians on multiculturalism, immigration, refugees or citizenship. Property developers have to jump over mountains of red tape but migrants and refugees are dumped willy-nilly in our suburbs without the slightest consideration of their impact on local residents.

Australia started to change dramatically when Malcolm Fraser gave us the first boatpeople after the Vietnam War, then, against the advice of his Immigration Department, allowed Lebanese Muslim refugees in. Parts of Sydney's western suburbs now bear testimony to that folly.

Abbott and the Howard government kowtowed to the UN on African refugees in 1997. Ethnic ghettoes are embedded in our main cities and provincial centres, encouraged by governments to expand, not to assimilate.

Bob Birrell from Monash University warns that mass uncontrolled immigration risks destroying our traditions and even our common language, a big call but supported by what's happening in many of our suburbs where the arrival of people with little or no English skills is creating tensions.

The 2001 census revealed that the Sydney suburb of Ashfield had only 43 per cent Australian-born whereas in 1982, when I briefly lived there, the only Chinese I saw operated one of the local cafes. Ashfield now has a very large population of Chinese and English is rarely heard.

The Australian Industry Group tells us that four million Australians have poor language, literacy and numeracy skills. Asians, Pacific Islanders, Africans and Middle Easterners can be seen on big construction sites, but with the reluctance to identify ethnicity by the politically correct we will never know the real story about this incredible statistic. Employing locals at the front counters of our offshore embassies, the favouring of ethnic minorities by most politicians, not demanding fluency in English, our limp-wristed citizenship requirements and the granting of temporary and permanent visas that allow the wealthy parents of "students" to buy expensive real estate are all reasons for serious concern.

Overlaying this confusion is the ethnic crime wave sweeping across our nation, where samurai swords and machetes have become part of the media lexicon.

Abbott needs real courage to resist those in his party who pander to ethnic minorities, who demand he be "compassionate" for all sorts of reasons. He needs courage to acknowledge how this nation is changing for all the wrong reasons. If he won't connect with the real owners of Australia, why should they vote for him?