Mike Mitchell <m.mitch@exemail.com.au> wrote:
On 25/09/2011 12:01 PM, Jason White wrote:
According to ALP polling, a certain proportion (10%)? of voters are overtly xenophobic. A much larger proportion has xenophobic tendencies that can be exploited by the Coalition - these include people who voted for the ALP in the last election but who could switch their votes partly or entirely in response to this issue.
I'm not so sure that the Coalition attracts a more xenophobic follower than the ALP. Traditionally, including the Howard government, the Coalition, and its conservative predecessor, have adopted a more liberal approach to immigration. Although the driving force has not always been altruistic. A _terrific_ example of almost ALP xenophobia going on at the moment is the Qantas engineers industrial action. They have not said a word about the Qantas aircraft being maintained by Americans and British maintenance staff at other destinations but those "strange" Asian types!? I think they'd like to kill 'em.
I thought their official position was that they alone could maintain aircraft to the highest standards, so that any out-sourcing whatsoever would necessarily jeopardize safety. It's a convenient view for them to hold, of course. As to whether Labor or the Coalision attracts more xenophobic voters, I'll leave it for survey results, if there are any, to establish.