The easiest way to silence some poor unsuspecting citizen from saying anything is by calling him a racist. Mind you, it's never racist when dreadful things are said about Anglo-Saxons, but that's another story.
We read today that NSW is supposed be the most racist state in Australia. There's going to be a conference starting in Sydney on Tuesday called Rights, Reconciliation, Respect and Responsibility. And this report will be released there - the first results of a so-called study, Challenging Racism - the Anti-Racism Research Project.
And we're told that high rates of migration meant that on average New South Wales was the least tolerant of all the States and Territories.
So you object to migration and you're a racist?
No matter that you might be worried about where they're going to live or where they're going to work, or are they going to claim welfare, or will they adequately assimilate, or where's the infrastructure to support them - all legitimate concerns.
No - protest against immigration and you must be racist.
If you say that Australia is weakened by ethnic groups sticking to their old ways, then you're racist.
So when people were surveyed for this report they said that Australia was weakened by ethnic groups sticking to their old ways. And the reality is Australia is so weakened.
The report found that a high rate of migration concentrated in Sydney meant a higher rate of encounters with different cultures. Well, most Australians would say that's no bad thing.
But when they find that these people don't respect Australia -its customs, its flag, its way of life - when they choose not to work or fail to assimilate, then it's not racist to say what the hell are you doing here?
Australians legitimately feel if you come to Australia and you make that choice, you should work hard to fit in with what you find. But once a poor taxpaying Australian opens his mouth and complains, there's some survey or other to find that we're racist.
And then good old Camden is immediately mentioned.
Because people at Camden object to an Islamic school when hardly any Muslims live in the area, or people at Bass Hill turn up on Saturday to protest against the construction of a 1200-student complex, a Muslim college, on former Bass High School land, then they're racist.
Presumably they're not entitled to protest. Presumably they're meant to roll over.
And when at the protest on Saturday some people saw two Muslim men filming proceedings and got anxious, as you would, then I suppose that's also racist.
Then of course the two Muslim men said they felt absolutely intimidated. Well, I wonder did any of the people protesting feel intimidated? That's why they were protesting.
They were protesting because they fear a lack of integration, a failure to assimilate, a unwillingness to fit in.
Presumably they'll form the basis of the next study which will tell us that we're not tolerant, that we won't accommodate diverse cultures, that we're not an accepting country.
This stuff is designed to prevent Australians from saying what they really feel.
The reality is, Australians are a very tolerant people.
But when people arrive from overseas and by their behaviour, their language or their attitude start telling Australians how Australians should live their life and how their country should be run, then Australians - as would any other sovereign nation - get a little bit dirty. And they express their anger.
That's not racism. That's called defending your own patch.
And if Australians aren't entitled to do that, we may as well just put up the white flag.
