The Liberal Party supporters often throw back at us the claim that Labor supported the White Australia Policy, and yes, that's true, but, that was the only thing that Labor, the Protectionists and the Free Traders agreed upon.

Yes, the unions supported it, and essentially the three parties agreed but how they expressed it was different. Alfred Deakin, as Prime Minister, recognised that the Japanese would work for lower wages than the Europeans, and so did the Australian Union Movement.

Amongst the Chinese, immigration and the like was more nuanced than what has been said. There were the wealthier Chinese and the poorer ones (Sydney and Melbourne had Chinese Chambers of Commerce) and amongst some Chinese men who came searching for gold (concern was raised by Europeans because they had so many men and so few women) intended, and did, only stay for a short time and then leave. Some of them, however (okay, Kylie Kwong, as a noted example, had a great-grandfather who came to Darwin with his four wives (all Chinese)) left behind wives in China, and while they were here, married or co-habited with European or Aboriginal women. Some of them, therefore, had a Chinese wife and some kids back in China, and they'd say, cohabit with a Western woman, and have kids in Australia, and some of those would leave their family in Australia to go back to China and see relatives and when they tried to re-enter Australia, because of changes in policy, they couldn't. Companies that had Chinese labor had to stamp on their wares that it was made here with Chinese labor.

Yes, I know that the world had changed by the time Gough Whitlam came to power, and Bob Menzies, despite his Red Terror, didn't let political ideology stop him from doing business with China. And, after the USA and Australia recognised Beijing and Mainland China, and after the death of Mao Zedong, in 1976, in 1979, China opened its doors to the West. In fact, Wham's 1984 song, Freedom, had its video clip filmed in Mainland China as part of a plan to open the country up.