Dog whistle politics and winning the debate on asylum seekers

Dog whistle politics and winning the debate on asylum seekers

Kellie Tranter 17 June 2014, 4:00pm 49

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(Image via honisoit.com)

Through using cynical dog whistle politics, the
Australian people have been manipulated into supporting a costly and
inhumane offshore refugee detention policy, writes Kellie Tranter, who presents a way forward.



The theme for this week's Refugee Week 2014 is ‘Restoring Hope’.



The reason we need to restore hope is that it has been destroyed by
government policies. It’s therefore important to understand what the
government is doing and why.



As Berkeley law professor, Ian Haney Lopez, the author of Dog Whistle Politics, correctly points out:

Dog whistle politics doesn’t come out of some desire to hurt
minorities. It comes out of a desire to win votes. It’s racism as a
strategy. It’s cold, it’s calculating, it’s considered, it’s the
decision to achieve one’s own ends, here winning votes, by stirring
racial animosity….public racism has evolved. The way in which racism,
the way in which racial divisions are stoked in public discourse has
changed. And now it operates on two levels. On one level, it allows
plausible deniability. This isn’t really about race, it’s just about
welfare…And on another, there’s a subtext, an underground message which
can be piercingly loud, and that is: minorities are threatening us.

The Federal Government is spending $8
million per year on spin, that translates into a multi-million dollar
media advertising campaign because of the extent of the media coverage
given to it.



As a polling issue, the Government relies heavily on this issue —
both to get elected and then to maintain support. That’s why they have
to stick to the hard line needed to maintain popular perception that
their policy is working. They will also rely on the same perception to
get re-elected.



Ramping up the issue was easy. They knew people have a degree of
innate racism and fear for their own security territorially and
economically. Those concerns are allayed only through exposure to
individuals from other nations and informed understanding.



But people are always interested in what they perceive to be a threat
to their own interests. Perhaps that’s why, by and large, there has
been silence from the public about the colossal expenditure on
offshore detention centres but public outrage about comparatively minor
proposed cuts to welfare which involve direct personal consequences.







Relative cost per person for 12 months in detention 2013 (Source: Department of Finance)



Would any Australian seriously contest the closure of offshore
detention centres if the money this saved was immediately redirected and
equally distributed among pensioners, single parents, the disadvantaged
and to improve education and health?



So the Government knows that a perceived threat is a great voting
issue. What the Government needs to do is show how effective they are by
eliminating the problem of the boats arriving on our shores, but they
also need to perpetuate the fear by saying that the threat is always
going to be there and you need them to contain it.



By creating an Australian border force,
politicising the Navy and involving at least six separate government
departments, the government is creating a perception that they are the
ones to effectively deal with a problem which plays on that fear.  The
fear is neutralised as long as the government maintains its stance. And
it is all cleverly portrayed as a service to society.



Curiously, in July 2012, a poll confirmed
that 78% of Australians believed that politicians were playing politics
about the welfare of asylum seekers rather than being genuinely
concerned about them. Unfortunately, playing politics about an issue
doesn’t mean the issue isn’t a legitimate popular concern — and you can
increase that concern by playing politics about the issue.



What’s the issue? It’s the collaboration of the Australian public.



This month a Lowy Institute poll confirmed
that more than 70% of Australians support the Abbott Government’s
Sovereign Borders Policy, 60% of voters say asylum seekers should be
processed offshore and nearly half of the population identify asylum
seekers coming to Australia by boat as a critical threat.

Scott Morrison in Nauru TV news report | World news

The polls probably correctly reflect the overall level of popular
support for what the Government is doing. That level of popular support,
in turn, probably reflects the popular perception of refugees as a
threat, either from the general feeling that any refugees are invading
one’s space or for the more specific perception of refugees as
threatening a person’s economic well-being in a country where the screws seem to be tightening for the average person and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen.



Our Government’s approach has historical precedents.



The use of symbolism, like stop the boats billboards and posters, the dehumanisation of asylum seekers by reducing them to numbers,
the deployment of the navy, the polarisation of groups, the stripping
away of culture and identity, and the severance of all human connection
is a poisonous brew that can only end badly. What it ultimately invites
is a silent permission for inhumane acts.



Unfortunately the legal system can’t effectively deal with this issue.



Legal experts have continued to highlight that Australia has no
constitutionally enshrined Bill of Rights; that many important
international treaties have been signed but not been implemented in
Australian law through legislation; that Australian Courts can only enforce obligations under domestic, not international, law; that it is difficult to get a ruling that the Government has breached the Refugee Convention as there is no treaty body and one state would have to pursue a case against another in the International Court of Justice; and, as Professor Gillian Triggs points out,
the common law can always be overridden by contrary and unambiguous
legislation passed by Parliament and the courts are powerless if
Parliament passes legislation that breaches fundamental freedoms.



So this is not a problem that the legal system can properly address.
The only way it can be addressed is by changing the level of popular
support for the fundamentally inhumane policies currently supported by
70% of the Australian population.



Changing the current popular consensus won’t occur by confrontation.



Part of the process of reducing this misplaced support
non-confrontationally is understanding why people hold their views or
beliefs, acknowledging that people have a right to hold different views
on different subjects and then endeavouring to change those views.



Sometimes, that can be done logically, but in this sort of situation
it almost certainly can’t be done by logical argument alone.





What I think is required is, firstly, putting up simple objective
facts about the situation; secondly, putting up logical
counter-arguments as an alternative viewpoint rather than the correct or
only way of properly seeing things; and, thirdly, by focusing on
arguments or approaches that create internal conflict or doubt in
persons who hold those views. For example, by focusing on the sense of
justice and morality that most people claim to have.



Winning the argument and changing the current trajectory has to be
done carefully, and unfortunately will be a long term process. There is
no instant fix. And regrettably it’s not something that our legal system
can fix.



Public protests and meetings certainly are helpful in showing
governments and other citizens concern our concern about inhumane
policies and their dire personal consequences for the people affected by
them. But, as I’ve said, I think we all need to work towards gently
persuading that majority of Australians who support these policies that
their fears are unfounded, that they have been manipulated by dog whistle politics,
and that their innate sense of humanity and fairness is a far better
guide to how people – these real, individual people and their families –
should be treated than the draconian policies of our current
Government.



Kellie Tranter is a lawyer and human rights activist. You can follow her on Twitter @KellieTranter. Find out more about Refugee Week here.





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