Tag: Swan

The former Labor deputy prime minister Wayne Swan has used his final speech to parliament to warn against a resurgence of what he termed “American race-based, dog-whistle politics”, arguing democracies work best when they exhibit moral force. Referring to the resurgence of a partisan debate about border protection, Swan told parliament on Tuesday night he wanted to use his valedictory speech to “reach out” to government MPs about “the divisive tone that’s pervaded this place in the past week”, although he noted the overture was probably pointless. Before then, covert appeals to racism and xenophobia were regarded as unworthy of our country’s elected representatives. Wayne Swan urges Labor to muscle up against rightwing thinktanks Read more “When the [Tampa] was turned back, something else floated into our harbours in its wake: American race-based dog-whistle politics. It’s likely as old as politics itself. We all thought it had died before 2001. But we were wrong.” Swan said this approach had been deployed during the 1988 US presidential election – “a determined strategy to link the black community with violent crime”. Swan’s strident parting shot at his political foes came as Bill Shorten signalled Labor was sanguine about asylum seekers being given medical treatment on Christmas Island if it “makes people well”. The Labor leader also declined to criticise a decision by the government of Nauru to pass laws banning overseas medical transfers based on telehealth referrals. “On Nauru, listen I haven’t seen what the Nauruans have passed, they are a sovereign country.