This article is an instalment in a new series, “Peter Dutton is racist”, on Dutton’s history of racism and the role racism has played on both sides of politics since the 1970s.
While John Howard is denounced by progressives for his demonisation of refugees and exploitation of border security issues in the wake of 9/11, the fact is he also ran a huge immigration intake. The Howard government inherited a migration program of below 100,000 permanent arrivals a year in 1996; in 2007 nearly 200,000 people permanently arrived. Across the life of the Howard government, nearly 1.48
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