"The White Australia Policy...I mean The Maternity Services Review"

Gold Cost doula Claire Aslangul wrote the following after hearing the news that the health practitioners bill 2009 had been passed in The Senate and has graciously given me permission to share it:

The White Australia Policy...I mean The Maternity Services Review
How could I get those two Federal government initiatives mixed up?

Well, lets look at the two issues.

The White Australia Policy was a knee-jerk reaction to the "issues" the USA was having with it's negro population and was stimulated by the writings of Charles Pearson, National Life and Character; A Forecast. The governments biggest fear was the uprising of nations of colour, particularly Japan and the control of world finances slipping from the fingers of white men. Anyone wanting to reside in Australia who didn't look "white" had to sit an impassable dictation test.

The Australian Immigration Restriction Act, following Natal and the United States, incorporated a literacy test, in this case, a dictation test, that was so framed as to give Customs Officers maximum flexibility in ensuring that all undesirable immigrants would fail. Applicants could not prepare for this test, which required them to write out, at dictation, any prescribed passage of fifty words in any European language. The American emphasis on understanding the constitution and the importance of education to citizenship had disappeared altogether. In 1908, for example, the following dictation test was given in Western Australia:

"Very many considerations lead to the conclusion that life began on sea, first as single cells, then as groups of cells held together by a secretion of mucilage, then as filaments and tissues. For a very long time low-grade marine organisms are simply hollow cylinders, through which salt water streams’."

The aim in Australia was not to ‘discriminate against illiteracy’, as Cabot Lodge had recommended, but to discriminate against non-whites,

The propaganda sold to the masses was if you can't understand the law, how can you abide by it? We are protecting our citizens by making sure only those that are literate can enter. It wasn't illegal for "coloured folk" to enter Australia, they just had to jump through impossible hoops. Many sighed a sigh of relief and slept soundly in their beds at night knowing the government was there too look after their safety...thanks Mr Deakin!

The Maternity Services Review is probably a knee-jerk reaction by doctors where pesky women are complaining about their birth rapes and choosing to birth outside the system. As of the start of this year OB's are loosing out on the massive pay outs from medicare they have been receiving so in order to reclaim the loss of income they need to raise their patient numbers. Enter the new midwives bill; OB's can control what midwives do and probably claim for the work they do (if in fact they do work with midwives) and women can birth at home in a "collaborative care arrangement".

The Dictation test of the birthing woman will include: No previous c/s, no breech, no multiples, no babies born prior to 37 weeks nor after 42 weeks, no GBS, no GD, no BMI over 25 or under 20. You will be classed as high risk until you can jump through every hoop to prove you are not. There is no choice in which antenatal test you want and which you don't, if you can't prove you are low risk who can anyone trust you to birth your baby.

It will never be illegal to birth your baby at home, but through the processes of BDM it will be almost impossible to do it without some sort of legal implication.

Since when is it ok for the government to decide how, when and where a woman uses her vagina? This is a serious breach of human rights, just like the dictation test.

Today I am ashamed to call myself Australian!

Claire Aslangul

Thank-you Claire, for giving putting the rage, despair and disappointment many Australian families are feeling presently.