Anti-Australian sentiment
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Anti-Australian sentiment, or Anti-Australianism, is a hostility towards or disapproval of the culture, history, and/or people of Australia. The term indicates a broad-ranging animosity, rather than hostility confined to specific issues (e.g. opposition to recent Australian government policies); however, specific issues may eventually give rise to broader hostility.
Australians are often said to be one of the most widely-travelled and best-liked peoples in the world, even among former foes (such as Japan, Germany and Turkey). While Australia enjoys friendly, often sports-based rivalries with other nations — such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand — some differences are more bitter.
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Geography and history
Geography and history play an important part in anti-Australianism. In spite of its location near South East Asia, Australia is predominantly populated by people of European ethnic origins, who are decidedly members of a western culture.
By comparison, Indonesia, separated from Australia by about 200 kilometres of sea at the closest point, is the most populous Islamic nation in the world. Proximity, combined with great cultural differences, is a major cause of frictions. Modern Australia's origins and culture evokes unpleasant echoes of colonialism in neighbouring countries, where the population was dominated by Europeans for centuries in some cases.
There is also a perception that Australia does not respect its neighbours' sovereignty. For example, criticism in the Australian media of human rights abuses in neighbouring countries is often interpreted as attempt to meddle in their internal affairs. And in 2004 Prime Minister John Howard stated his willingness to embark on preemptive strikes against terrorists in neighbouring countries.
Ties to the United States
Australia has long been a military ally of the United States. Close military ties date back to the Pacific_War of WWII. Since then, Australia has fought alongside the US in Korea, Vietnam, the 1990-1991 and 2003 Persian Gulf Wars, and the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. Although Australian contingents have been much smaller than their US counterparts, they have included a high proportion of special forces troops, making them more significant than their size would suggest.
While the reliability of Australia's support has improved its standing with the US, it has caused hostility elsewhere; Australia's detractors have portrayed it as an extension of American imperialism. Thus, Australia has attracted hostility not only for its own actions in such wars, but also for its closeness to the US, with anti-American sentiment feeding anti-Australian sentiment by association.
This phenomenon is strong among Islamist and nationalist groups in South-East Asia. Because of Australia's proximity to Malaysia and Indonesia - and because it has less military and economic power than the US - it makes an convenient surrogate for anti-American hostility, although there are several other causes for frictions between Australia and these countries.
A 1999 Bulletin article described John Howard as the US's "deputy sheriff" in Asia, a label which Howard initially accepted. While he later attempted to repudiate it, it became a popular catchcry among his detractors, adding to the damaging perception of Australia as an extension of the US.
East Timor
A particular point of contention was Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, and the subsequent independence process. While Australian government long avoided commenting on the Indonesian occupation, some pro-independence groups used Australia as a political base, and drew a great deal of sympathy from the Australian population. Eventually, growing concern about human rights abuses among voters forced Australian government to break its silence and support the independence referendum.
Many Indonesians see this move as hypocritical, as the Whitlam government knew in advance about Indonesian plans to annex East Timor in November 1975; it may even have actively encouraged these plans [1] (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/sep2000/timo-s18.shtml). Subsequent to the invasion, Australia was the only country in the world to acknowledge Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor. Many Indonesians also believe that Australia is attempting to weaken its neighbour by supporting separatist movements in East Timor and Aceh, although Australia has moved to reinforce its support for Indonesia's integrity after East Timor's independence.
Australia's motives for involvement in East Timor have also been questioned by the East Timorese themselves, especially in connection to the division of revenue from the Timor Gap oil reserves - an arrangement that is currently highly favourable to Australia. Many East Timorese, and indeed some Australians, see this state of affairs as exploitative and unfair, especially since East Timor desperately needs money to further its development and has few other valuable resources.
During the referendum process, and especially after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence, the region was plunged into violence as anti-independence militia embarked on a scorched earth campaign; at least some of the anti-independence groups were armed, trained, and funded by elements of the Indonesian military. Australia led a United Nations peacekeeping force to quell this violence; some took the arrival of Australian troops in what they thought of as Indonesian territory as a further insult to Indonesia.
In one incident during the peacekeeping mission, Australian and Indonesian patrols came into conflict near the East Timorese border, with two (?) Indonesian soldiers killed; it appears confusion caused by differing maps led both groups to believe they were on their own side of the border, and the other was intruding. Australian troops within East Timor also reported seeing Kopassus (Indonesian special forces) troops attempting to scout their positions. Such incidents further fuelled tensions between Australia and Indonesia.
Attacks on Australians
While it is now believed that the 2002 Bali terrorist bombing targeted westerners in general, the fact that most of the victims were Australian, and the subsequent heavy involvement of Australian police and intelligence authorities in the investigation, added to perceptions of an anti-Australian motive. By comparison, the much less deadly bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, in 2004, appears to have been targeted specifically at Australians, although the victims were chiefly Indonesian.
Some xenophobia among Australians in regard to Indonesians — manifested, for example, in beliefs that Indonesians wish to annex Australian territory and that Australia should acquire weapons of mass destruction, to alleviate the risk — is also a factor in tensions between the two countries.
Australian domestic policies
Some people view the Tampa Boat Crisis and Children Overboard affair as evidence of racism by Australians and white supremacist views, even though Australia has a relatively large number of East Asian immigrants. Some people in Norway see the Royal Australian Navy and its intrusion onboard the freighter Tampa as an act of war.
The detention in Australia of asylum seekers, in institutions like Woomera Detention Centre is often seen by other nationalities, and by many Australians themselves, as a form of prison or concentration camp. Many people decry the Australian government for such actions. Australians seeing the detention policy as unnecessary are divided into two camps: one believes the detainees should be included in the Australian community, the other group believes that the detainees should be promptly sent back to their point of origin.
Stereotypes
Modern Australia's origins as a British penal colony have proved difficult to shake off in terms of the country's image overseas, especially considering that the most numerically significant wave of immigration came during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s.
Partly as a result of this founding myth, negative stereotypes in mass-produced media, often stereotype Australians as a nation of wild, uncouth, boorish, uncultured, rural, sport-obsessed, alcoholic layabouts obsessed with consuming beer — especially successful export products such as Fosters and XXXX (which are often, incorrectly, assumed to be the most popular beers on the Australian market). While some Australians, deliberately or otherwise, conform to such stereotypes, both at home and abroad, many Australians are deeply offended by such views. They point to statistics showing that Australian have lower rates of alcohol consumption than many countries, longer working hours, higher productivity, high rates of attendance at cultural and arts events/facilities, and a very high degree of urbanisation.
In spite of — or some might say because of — the many ties between the United Kingdom and Australia, including a large number of Australian expatriates in the United Kingdom, some British conservatives dislike Australia, due to a supposed bad influence on young people, from Australian popular culture. The prime examples are said to be Australian soap operas shown on British television, such as Neighbours and Home and Away. Ironically, such programs are often far more popular in the UK, where they sometimes attract many millions of viewers, than in Australia.