Foreign Minister Penny Wong recently told an audience at King’s College in London that we should hear uncomfortable stories rather than stay ‘sheltered in narrower versions of our countries’ histories’. Taking Wong’s advice in the context of the Australian Labor Party’s virtue signalling over ‘the Voice’, it seems timely to recall the uncomfortable truths of Labor’s historical support for the White Australia policy.

At Federation, the first Australian government formed with the support of the Australian Labor Party, which insisted on maintaining Australia’s British identity and restricting non-white immigration.