The Australian polity: the worm in the rose.

• Position: Editorial
• Pages: 5(3)

The poem of William Blake, which speaks of the worm in the rose, is applicable to Australia today, where presently the greatest threat to the future security of the country comes from within, not from without.

One cannot be sure what the future may bring, but at present there is no military threat to Australia. Indonesia is a mere paper tiger, and China is occupied with other matters and will be for many decades in the future.

But unfortunately in Australia there are a number of active and influential groups which work persistently against national security. The most important of these groups presently are those who do nothing to encourage the entry of European immigrants but who press for the admission of large numbers of Middle Eastern, and especially Moslem, immigrants instead. These groups, which range from the Uniting Church to Amnesty Australia and substantial sections of the Labor Party, are properly described as left-liberal. They are quick to seize upon any fact that may tend to discredit Australia's mandatory detention of illegal immigrants (such as the recent detention of one Cornelia Rau, who, suffering from mental illness, gave the authorities the false name of Anna Schmidt and claimed to be an illegal immigrant, and...