About this record

Control or Colour Bar? A proposal for change in Australia’s immigration policy was a 32-page document written by the University of Melbourne’s Immigration Reform Group. It was published in 1960 and revised and reprinted in 1962.

Educational value

• The Immigration Reform Group was established in 1960 by students and academic staff from the University of Melbourne. It began as a study group focused on researching and debating non-European immigration. The group published Control or Colour Bar? to inform the public about the benefits of Asian immigration, and to highlight the damage that the White Australia policy was causing to Australia’s relationship with its Asian neighbours. Approximately 8000 copies of the pamphlet were sold at three shillings apiece.
• Control or Colour Bar? argued that immigration should not be based on skin colour, and that Australia had a moral obligation to open its doors to Asia. It also highlighted the economic benefits of stronger relationships within the region. The Immigration Reform Group proposed the adoption of quotas for Asian immigration, rather than the then policy of preventing such immigration entirely.
• A number of members of the Immigration Reform Group had spent time in Asia, where they observed Asian hostility to Australia’s immigration policies. This was one important aspect of the group’s challenge to the Australian Government’s standpoint.
• Between 1951 and 1964, an increase in the number of Asian students studying in Australia on temporary visas also helped to improve cultural understanding. Approximately 5500 Asian students spent time in Australia during this period, and this direct contact led to a shift in many Australians’ perceptions of their near neighbours.
• The Immigration Reform Group was one of many associations around the country that criticised the White Australia policy. Australian public attitudes to the policy were changing rapidly: by 1959 an opinion poll showed that only 34 per cent of Australians supported it, down from 61 per cent in 1954. These associations questioned long-held views and sparked debate about Australia’s position on immigration.
• The Immigration Reform Group also lobbied the government by writing letters to members of parliament and holding public lectures. At the time, Control or Colour Bar? received considerable media attention. Although significant change did not occur until the 1970s, the Immigration Reform Group and other like-minded associations contributed to changing attitudes within Australia and created public pressure for reform.
• In 1973 the Labor government, under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, announced that a future immigration policy would not discriminate against potential migrants on the basis of race, colour or nationality. This signalled the end of the White Australia policy. A formal policy of integration replaced assimilation, and the term ‘multiculturalism’ was adopted to describe the government’s new policy of accepting and celebrating cultural diversity and pluralism. This marked a significant shift away from the predominantly British cultural focus that had existed since the arrival of the First Fleet.