January 1996. The Urdu-speaking uncles were furious when they received the invitation for a dinner hosted by my small Young Liberal branch. 'You want me to pay money to see that bloody racist Howard?' asked one. 'I will happily give for your branch but not if it means sitting in the same room as that nasty man.'
When we started promoting our Bankstown Young Liberals dinner, John Howard was a shadow minister. In the week before the dinner, he was elevated to Opposition leader. When we showed up to the Chinese restaurant opposite the Bankstown Sports Club (where Paul Keating gave his famous 'True Believers' speech), there were TV and radio news crews everywhere.
The man who a few years earlier had called for a reduction to Asian immigration and an end to multiculturalism was now shaking hands with Australians of Thai, Chinese, Taiwanese, Sri Lankan and Indian (yes, some uncles showed up at the last minute) heritage.
Was it all a façade on Howard's part? David Marr, in his latest Quarterly Essay The White Queen: One Nation & The Politics of Race believes so. Though the essay is ostensibly about Pauline Hanson, much of it deals with the broader issue of race politics. Marr claims Howard cynically used race when it suited his arithmetic calculations of drawing votes from marginal sectors of the electorate.
Hence Howard was happy to have Hanson disendorsed when she was a candidate for a safe ALP seat. But when she surprised everyone with her 20 per cent swing and delivered her first of many ridiculously racist speeches, Howard turned Voltaire and labelled Hanson's maiden speech a triumph for free speech. He refused to condemn her or her followers.
"If there is really a threat of this happening, Muslims might have to get the lawyers for Scientology to represent them."
Marr writes that Howard 'would keep his mouth shut and nudge the Coalition into One Nation territory'. Howard's strategy was to destroy Hanson by mimicking her.
And giving her One Nation Party preferences when it suited. Howard believed this was the only way to save the Coalition in the Queensland State election. The big winners in that ballot were Hanson and Labor. Brisbane voters abandoned the Libs.
This disaster led to pressure on Howard from other powerbrokers such as the NSW and Victorian leaders and then Treasurer Peter Costello to place Hanson last on all subsequent ballots. The practice lasted for two decades until the recent