‘I am, you are, we are un-Australian’: National identity, political discourse and use of the term ‘un-Australian’ in Federal Parliament

Abstract

The term ‘un-Australian’ has long been a rhetorical device used in Australian politics and media to identify ‘in-’ and ‘out-groups’ within our society. Australia’s journey to develop a cohesive national identity, or ‘ingroup’, following waves of colonial settlement and migration was utilised by political actors to formulate a sense of ‘Australianness’ that could trump the national, ethnic, or religious ties that its various citizens held. This article therefore seeks to uncover what meanings the term ‘un-Australian’ possesses in our political parlance, if its usage reflects that contention that Australian identity is partially based in an otherisation of non-white nationals and if the term’s connotations are influenced by a speaker’s political affiliation. A random sampling of 50 uses of ‘un-Australian’ in Parliament between 1 May 2000 and 1 May 2020 were coded for this essay. Ultimately, this data reveals that while frequency of the term ‘un-Australian’ does not increase with a speaker’s political conservatism, there is some evidence to suggest that such political actors use the term with more xenophobic or racist connotations. Moreover, an unforeseen correlation between gender and frequency was observed, suggesting that women parliamentarians are less likely to employ the term ‘unAustralian’, possibly due to their own experiences of ‘otherisation’. While no single meaning of ‘unAustralian’ was revealed, it is perhaps the breadth and non-specificity of the term that is most thought-provoking, suggesting that it may simply be a catch-all pejorative used by political actors seeking to present themselves as Australia’s patriotic defenders.