The absurd Labor “Australia First” ad-bashing goes on today:
ACTU secretary Sally McManus joins chorus of condemnation of Bill Shorten and his “Australians First’’ Labor Party ad for its lack of cultural diversity.
“I think it was a really silly and a wrong ad,’’ she told ABC radio. “It didn’t represent what Australia is and I think Bill has apologised for it and withdrawn the ad and that is a good thing.
“I honestly don’t know what they were thinking, I certainly know that from what I have heard and what I have read that Bill didn’t sign off on it and I am really glad they have withdrawn it.”
The controversial advertising campaign has exposed divisions at the top of the Labor Party, with former leadership rival Anthony Albanese attacking it as a “shocker” as the ALP withdrew the ad.
Mr Albanese — who unsuccessfully ran against Mr Shorten for the leadership in 2013 — described the ad as a “shocker”, and warned Labor headquarters it should never have been “produced” or “shown”. “It’s not the sort of ad that I want my party to be promoting,” the left-wing heavyweight said. “I think anyone who sees it will know exactly what’s wrong with it.”
Diversity Council Australia chief executive Lisa Annese said it was a “terrible oversight” to try to represent the Australian community in a way that “wasn’t at all representative”. “I can’t imagine how you wouldn’t notice the lack of diversity in that group, but it demonstrates that if people see themselves, they just assume everyone else is like them,” she said.
Here it is:
I like to think of myself as colour agnostic. That is, I don’t notice colour or ethnicity when making a judgement about someone. That would be racist.
But, given the wowsers running wild on this subject I really don’t have much choice but to put colour first so here goes. There are twelve people in that ad (other than Racist Bill). One of them has Asian appearance and one looks Italian (or Greek maybe?). Everyone else is pretty white (as well as unemployed and unhappy about it)!
The ethnic mix of Australia is below:
At the 2011 census residents were asked to describe their ancestry, in which up to two could be nominated. Proportionate to the Australian resident population, the most commonly nominated ancestries were:
- English (36.1%)
- Australian (35.4%)
- Irish (10.4%)
- Scottish (8.9%)
- Italian (4.6%)
- German (4.5%)
- Chinese (4.3%)
- Indigenous Australians (3.0%)
- Indian (2.1%)
- Greek (1.9%)
- Dutch (1.4%)
- Filipino (0.99%)
- Vietnamese (0.98%)
- Lebanese (0.90%)
- Polish (0.75%)
- Maltese (0.72%)
- Māori (0.62%)
- Croatian (0.56%)
- Welsh (0.50%)
- French (0.49%)
- Sri Lankan (0.46%)
- Jewish (0.43%)
At the 2011 census, 53.7% of people had both parents born in Australia and 34.3% of people had both parents born overseas.
It has probably tilted a little more “Asian” in the past few years but that’s latest data so there you go.
It still looks to me like the ad got the representative mix right with one “Asian” and one “Mediterranean”. I hate to tell you but Australia is actually white!
Congratulations to all wowsers involved for, the first time I can remember, making me focus on race as central to the judgement of others.
