Opinion | Tolerance is over-rated

Not one of us had a vote, although our media hammered a single message at us: Don’t vote for Trump.

Had we a vote, Donald Trump might well have done quite well, as he did in his own country. In Pauline Hanson’s words, a great many of us have had it up to here with tolerance.

I am reminded of the delegation of Christian Greeks who, when Malcolm Fraser was prime minister, asked his immigration minister to enable the Maronite Christians being persecuted by Lebanese Muslims to come to Australia.

In due course, they made further representations. Australia was bringing in Muslim Lebanese instead of the persecuted Christians. “We can’t discriminate,” they were told.

Tony Abbott, when he was prime minister, proposed that the humanitarian intake from the Middle East be focused on Christians and other persecuted minorities, a decision that was immediately reversed when Malcolm Turnbull became prime minister. 

A great many people along with Pauline, would also appear to have had it up to here with tolerance, the Immigration Minister Peter Dutton among them, and understandably so.

Australian-born Muslims are fighting with the terrorist armies in Syria. Terrorist incidents here are frequent. Criminal activity is leaving dead bodies in the streets. And nobody says anything, for fear of being accused of bigotry, as Dutton has been.

Well, what if the intense coverage in Australia of the presidential elections is crystalising opinion? What if a consequence of the universal condemnation here of President-elect Trump is to polarise Australian opinion? What if the election to the State parliament of a Hunter, Shooter and Fisher candidate is more than a straw in the wind?

This is no longer a country which is safe, where young people can get work, find partners, have kids and bring them up to expect a good life.