Australische Einwanderungspolitik. Immigration Restriction Act (1901) und Rede des Senators Hoare (24. November 1927).

Immigration Restriction Act[1]

No. 17 of 1901

A N A C T

To place certain restrictions on Immigration and to providefor the removal from the Commonwealth of prohibitedImmigrants. [Assented to 23rd December 1901]

[…]

1. This Act may be cited as the Immigration Restriction Act 1901.

2. In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears,—“Officer” means any officer appointed under this Act, or any Officerof Customs ;“The Minister” means the Minister for External Affairs.3. The immigration into the Commonwealth of the persons described inany of the following paragraphs of this section (herein-after called“prohibited immigrants”) is prohibited, namely:—

(a) Any person who when asked to do so by an officer fails to
write out at dictation and sign in the presence of the
officer a passage of fifty words in length in ab
European language directed by the officer;

(b) any person likely in the opinion of the Minister or of
an officer to become a charge upon the public or upon any
public or charitable institution ;

(c) any idiot or insane person ;

(d) any person suffering from an infectious or contagious disease of
a loathsome or dangerous character ;

(e) any person who has within three years been convicted of an
offence, not being a mere political offence, and has been
sentenced to imprisonment for one year or longer therefor,
and has not received a pardon ;

(f) any prostitute or person living on the prostitution of others ;

5. (1) Any immigrant who evades an officer or who enters theCommonwealth at any place where no officer is stationed may if at any timethereafter he is found within the Commonwealth be asked to comply with the
requirements of paragraph (a) of section three, and shall if he fails to do so
be deemed to be a prohibited immigrant offending against this Act.(2) Any immigrant may at any time within one year after he hasentered the Commonwealth be asked to comply with the requirements of
paragraph (a) of section three, and shall if he fails to do so be deemed to be a
prohibited immigrant offending against this Act.

[…]

7. Every prohibited immigrant entering or found within theCommonwealth in contravention or evasion of this Act shall be guilty of anoffence against this Act, and shall be liable upon summary conviction toimprisonment for not more than six months, and in addition to or substitutionfor such imprisonment shall be liable pursuant to any order of the Minister tobe deported from the Commonwealth.Provided that the imprisonment shall cease for the purpose ofdeportation, or if the offender finds two approved sureties each in the sum ofFifty pounds for his leaving the Commonwealth within one month.8. Any person who is not a British subject either natural-born ornaturalized under a law of the United Kingdom or of the Commonwealth orof a State, and who is convicted of any crime of violence against the person,small be liable, upon the expiration of any term of imprisonment imposed onhim therefore, to be required to write out at dictation and sign in the presenceof an officer a passage of fifty words in length in an European languagedirected by the officer, and if he fails to do so shall be deemed to be aprohibited immigrant and shall be deported from the Commonwealthpursuant to any order of the Minister.

[…]

19. This Act shall not apply to the immigration of Pacific Islandlabourers under the provisions of the Pacific Island Labourers Acts, 1880-1892, of the State of Queensland.

[…]

Rede von Senator Hoare, Labor, South Australia, CPD, Senate, 24 November 1927[2]

“I have said several times in this Senate that if we cannot obtain Britishers in sufficient numbers we should seek Scandinavians, who are used to agriculture and country life generally, and make good hard-working citizens. The Southern European has a standard that is not comparable to ours. He does not make a good citizen, because he leaves Australia as soon as he has made a sufficient amount to make him comfortable in his own country. As a class they are not welcomed by the business man, because they do not spend very much. I am opposed to the migration of Southern Europeans, because it will have a tendency to break down the high standard of living that has been established in Australia.”

[1] http://www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=16, besucht am: 6. Dezember 2006.

[2] CPD, Senate, 24 November 1927, vol. 117, p. 1809, in: Pook, Henry, Building a Dream?: A Social History of Australia in the Twenties, Melbourne 1987, S. 24.