ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses both Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR) and government strategies, and focuses on the different functions of reconciliation during the Keating and Howard eras. It explores the roles and functions of reconciliation under a Keating administration that embraced the rhetoric of multiculturalism and the need for legitimacy through reconciliation. The chapter focuses on the Howard era which saw a return to an assimilationist agenda and a staunch denial of serious wrongdoing. Australian reconciliation consists of both CAR initiatives and government responses has examined. International capital and migration fundamentally shaped the post-war Australian economy and society perhaps more so than any other advanced capitalist country. Pre-World War II Australian immigration policies had been extremely restrictive. For over a hundred years the policies were based on what became known as the 'White Australia' policy. The Federal Immigration Restriction Act 1901 was designed to permit predominantly Anglo-Celtic immigration so as to minimise 'integration problems'.