Fed: Illegal immigration dominates talkback callers

AAP General News (Australia)
12-20-2001
Fed: Illegal immigration dominates talkback callers

By Shane Wright

CANBERRA, Dec 20 AAP - Nothing was more important to Australian radio talkback callers
than illegal immigrants in 2001.

A breakdown of the thousands of phonecalls to radio stations by media monitor Rehame
found there were twice as many calls on illegal immigrants, and the government's refugee
policies, than any other single topic.

There were 6,300 calls on illegal immigrants, and another 2,130 on the government's stance.

The second most talked about issue, the September 11 terror attacks, attracted 3,850 calls.

Rehame managing director Peter Maher said until the MS Tampa sailed into Australian
waters in August, the government's goods and services tax had been the most talked about
issue.

But after the Tampa, talkback callers only wanted to talk about illegal immigrants.

"In the three months following the Tampa incident a flood of over 5,000 calls hit the
airwaves, despite the fact many announcers tried to address other issues on their programs,"

he said in a statement.

"This outpouring reflects that the government's response to the Tampa incident gave
licence to many people who did not want more refugees entering the country to say so."

Of the calls on illegal immigrants, 59 per cent were negative with some suggesting
the asylum seekers were likely to be agents of Osama bin Laden.

One talkback caller said: "Asylum seekers should only come in on the condition that
the men are castrated, the women are sterilised and the children be taught Christianity".

The government's stance on illegal immigrants attracted the highest caller approval
rating of a government policy with 45 per cent of callers backing the stance.

After September 11, the GST dropped to the third most talked about issue, with 2,249
callers expressing an opinion.

The collapse of Ansett ranked ahead of the government's decision to send troops to
Afghanistan to take part in the war on terror.

The phenomenon that was Channel 10's Big Brother program made it into the top 10 with
1,112 calls made to radio stations.

Petrol price regulation, which had ranked highly before August, failed to make the
top 10 after the Tampa issue.

AAP sw/daw/ph/br

KEYWORD: TALKBACK

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