"Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear."
Naomi Klein

Australians are richer, freer, healthier, better educated and safer than any community in the history of humanity, which makes logical that the politics of fear work much better on us than the politics of hope - we have a lot to lose and not much left to gain.

Historically, our national fears have often been focused on immigration. Starting with the population boom during the gold rush years, which was the first time immigrants included people from anywhere other than Britain, we have wept and wailed and wrung our hands over how the {insert racial pejorative here} are going to Ruin Our Way of Life.

There's no actual basis for this fear, other than the atavistic and irrationally human fear of something different. Since 1851 Chinese gold rush workers, German wine makers, Eastern European miners, Pacific Islanders in the sugar cane districts, post war Jewish and Southern European refugees, Chinese, Vietnamese, Timorese, Serbs, Indonesians, Sri Lankans, Lebanese, Iraqi and Africans have all made their way to Australia seeking a better life. Each wave of immigration has been received with suspicion, hostility and doomsday prophecies. Despite this, once they’ve had time to settle in and hang some pictures, they only thing they’ve done for Australia is increase our economic prosperity and give us a whole new range of exciting restaurants. Our Way of Life gets better and better with each generation.

The only immigration that did any damage at all to the existing population was the first one in 1788, when English colonisation devastated the Aboriginal population beyond recovery.

Politicians, however, know that, in the absence of giving us anything more to hope for, the only way to get any traction is to give us something to be fearful of.

Union Thugs, the Big End of Town, Great Big New Taxes, Reds under the Beds, Crime On Our Street, Gay Destruction of Our Marriages and, of course, Boat People have all been used by both sides of politics to whip up fear before an election. The truth is that none of these things are actually serious problems in Australia; none of them have ever Destroyed Our Way of Life. Immigration has done nothing but benefit Australia.

The focus of immigration fear onto the tiny portion that are asylum seekers arriving by boat is even more irrational. The 6,800 (0.0003% of our population) boat arrivals in 2010 couldn’t even make a ripple in our Way of Life. The concocted fear of asylum seekers, the political rhetoric that polarises debate and incites anger, the cynical manipulation of ignorance for political gain might have more effect; but only if we continue to let it.

First Dog on the Moon was right. Let them come. We'll be alright. We always have been.

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