In 1963, Arthur Calwell published Labor’s Role in Modern Society, his 190-page treatise on his political party and Australian politics.

In it, he described exactly what we see happening today.

This will not be an attempt to cast Calwell as some sort of heroic prophet. The former immigration minister and leader of the Labor party, known as the architect of Australia’s postwar immigration framework, was racist. He harboured racist views against Asians and other people of colour, tried to extend the White Australia policy for as long as he could and, even after politics, continued to rage against non-European immigration and people.

If there was one thing Calwell did understand intimately, it was structural power and the politics that dictated it. He wrote of the Labor Party as being a “duality”:”

“It is a political party in the accepted meaning of the term; but, at the same time, whether in power or out of power, it is a mass movement. It is always a propagandist movement seeking to change society in accordance with its policy. This gives the Labor Party a continuity which no other party possesses, a continuity of purpose which persists whether it is in power or not. For the conservative parties, possession of power is an end in itself, because conservative........

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