Episode #32
32. A Gross Piece of Chicanery: Australia's Dictation Test
What do a watercolour entitled "Advance Australia", an American jazz band and the Purple Wiggle all have in common? For over the first half a century of its existence there resided at the heart of the administration of the immigration policy of the Commonwealth of Australia, a legal trick. Known at first as the Education Test and thereafter as the Dictation Test, this was a bogus quiz for which a prospective entrant into Australia was set up to fail. The purpose of this pretence was to bar entry into Australia of ‘undesirables’ without revealing too crudely the overwhelmingly racial reasons for these prohibitions. Such a gap between word and intent naturally caused confusion and misunderstanding at the time of its first implementation, including among those whose job it was to administer this test. This confusion, as well as varying degrees of dismay, shame and contempt continued throughout the more than 50 years the Dictation Test remained on the statute books, both in Australia and internationally. Here we explain some of these issues and how Australia remains influenced by this tool of the White Australia Project. The book this poscast is based on: Australia’s Dictation Test: The Test it was a Crime to Fail (Brill, 2021) Feel free to ask questions at: chidestudypress@gmail.com Please check out our publications at - https://chidestudypresscom.wordpress.com/the-bookstore For more on Chinese Australian history check out Chinese Australian History in 88 Objects - https://chinozhistory.org/index.php/suggest-an-object/ Also have a look at: Scattered Legacy - https://www.scatteredlegacy.org.au/
