Peter Dutton and I probably have many things in common, but one thing is certain; we are both boat people.
In the modern sense at least.
Last week’s fireside chat between the Opposition Leader and conservative shock jock Ray Hadley was successful in triggering a range of follow-up headlines after Mr Dutton described international students seeking to stay longer as, “the modern version of boat arrivals. People have found a weakness in the system, they are exploiting the weakness.”
Given that hundreds of thousands of these students started degrees under the Coalition’s reign and arrived legally via an airport, the attempt to smear international students as ‘modern boat people’ is somewhat surprising. Using this logic, at least 97% of us who can’t claim Indigenous ancestry are a ‘version of boat arrivals’, seeking to cling on to an existence in what was once known as the ‘lucky country’.
I am a relatively ancient version of a boat person, descended on my mother’s side from folks who can be described variously as surviving or bringing in dreadful diseases aboard leaky ships from Europe – triggering an important public health initiative, Victoria’s first quarantine station. So were my ancestors unwelcome, disease-carrying invaders; or law abiding survivors of misfortune who contributed to their new country and community after finally making it ashore? Jumping ashore at a time when European inhabitants were relatively few, labour was scarce and gold was plentiful, it was an easier time to be a boat person, at least once you made it onto Australian shores.
As Mr Dutton has artfully demonstrated, the secret to public engagement – or, in the case of 2GB listeners, public enragement – is clever storytelling.
Education Minister Jason Clare is another master of this art, weaving plotlines relating to his own ascension and his “I have a dream” style aspiration that others will follow from the hills and plains of western Sydney.
Both major parties see major capital in painting a picture of everyday Australians struggling with rent and bills because of an excess of international students – widely expected to be a key theme of election campaigning over the next year as the nation prepares to head back to the polls.
As long as we allow international students to be faceless, nameless, storyless, they will be an easy target for all sides of politics, and our sector will be the poorer for it – literally and figuratively. We know how the parties will attempt to exploit fear around people who are members of our university communities. We have to do better at empowering them to find platforms for their stories if we want any say on what happens next.
