Girt By Sea: Australia, the Refugees and the Politics of Fear

In Girt By Sea Mungo MacCallum provides a devastating account of the Howard government's treatment of the refugees as well as delineating the factors in Australian history which have worked towards prejudice and those which have worked against it; ranging from Calwell's postwar immigration policy to the recent revelations of beat-ups and distortions in the 2001 election campaign.

This is a powerful account of how the government played on what was ultimately the race issue. In an essay whic...