The Penal Politics of Hatred

Abstract

Gail Mason, Director, Sydney Institute of Criminology Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, Australia delivered the 2009 J.V. Barry Memorial Lecture on the penal politics of hatred. On the 31 May this year, between 2000 and 5000 students, led by the Federation of Indian Students in Australia, rallied in the CBD in Melbourne.The anger of these international students has been sparked by concerns that they are being specifically targeted for robberies, assaults and other forms of attack. The perception has been that these incidents are not random and cannot be attributed to the kind of bad luck that comes with living in a modern metropolis. Rather, the ire of these international students has been raised by the belief that there is something more insidious behind the violence experienced by members of their community. The claim that comes across loudly and clearly from these rallies is that it is prejudice and racism that lie behind the attacks or, even more specifically, some kind of anti-Indian sentiment. These protests have also managed to convey the message that many international students, not just from India, are deeply dissatisfied with the conditions under which they study, work and live while in Australia. The extent to which these claims are an accurate representation of the problem is not a question I address in this lecture. Instead, I am interested in the kinds of responses that these claims have generated. The issues themselves have attracted extensive media attention both in Australia and India and, in terms of the latter, this coverage has been fiercely critical of the problem of racism in Australia. This, in turn, has led to comment and action at the highest level of government. Julia Gillard and John Brumby are just two Federal and State politicians who have already visited India in an attempt to reduce the fallout to Australia's international education industry. We have also seen a concerted and targeted policing response, the establishment of a hot-line for victims, a Senate inquiry into the welfare of international students and a number of other governmental initiatives in the migration, education and employment sectors.