As one Redditor recently put it: "Is showering more hygienic than bathing because you aren't sitting in a bunch of butthole and foot soup?"

The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 formally established the white Australia policy as a cornerstone of Australian society, linking Australian identity to whiteness. By restricting non-British migration to Australia, it deliberately shaped Australias demographic composition to create a homogeneously white society founded on British values. For more than five decades, non-white and non-British immigrants, along with seasonal workers such as miners and pearl divers, faced systematic exclusion, marginalization, prejudice, and increasingly strict immigration policies. The dismantling of the White Australia Policy in the 1970s contributed to the development of the multicultural society that Australia is known for today.The Immigration Restriction ActDutch migrants on board the ship SIBAJAK arriving in Port Melbourne, Australia, 1954. Source: National Museum of AustraliaFor more than five decades, the Immigration Restriction Act served the Commonwealth of Australias fundamental government policy and the cornerstone of the so-called white Australia policy. It came into law on December 23, 1901, and was one of the first laws passed by the new Commonwealth Parliament. It was part of a broader set of laws introduced in 1901 aimed at limiting and, if possible, eliminating immigration from China, Korea, and the South Sea Islands (South Sea Islanders were formerly referred to as Kanakas), as well as Japan.In contrast, the Act encouraged immigration from European countries with predominantly British values. As a result, the Immigration Restriction Act played a significant role in developing and establishing a racially insulated white, European-based society, a society whose stability was perceived to depend on the exclusion of non-white individuals.British steamship leaving Princes Pier, Liverpool, for Australia, published on the Illustrated London News, August 28, 1852. Source: National Museum of AustraliaThe law defined a prohibited immigrant, that is, an immigrant who would not be allowed into Australia, as any person who when asked to do so by an officer fails to write out at dictation and sign in the presence of the officer a passage of fifty words in length in a European language directed by the officer. In other words, the Act required that every non-white, non-European immigrant undertake a dictation test in a European language, at the officers discretion.Similar Dictation Tests had already been implemented in Tasmania, New South Wales, and Western Australia in the late 1890s. After 1905, the test could be administered in any prescribed language. According to the Museum of Australian Democracy, the Dictation Test was administered 805 times in 1902-03 with 46 people passing and 554 times in 1904-09 with only six people successful. After 1909 no person passed the Dictation Test and people who failed were refused entry or deported.Whiteness and British ValuesChinese workers on the Australian goldfields. Source: Museum of History NSWThe passage of the Immigration Restriction Act marked the culmination of years of what, by todays standards, would be considered a series of racist measures aimed at curbing non-white immigration. The Chinese, much like Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, were seen as outsiders, as an obstacle to economic development, particularly in the Northern Territories. Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929), the appointed Special Commissioner and Chief Protector of Aborigines in the Northern Territory since 1912, imposed restrictions on Chinese and Asian workers based on his own personal class hierarchy.As Russell McGregor notes in his book Imagined Destinies, at the bottom of the scale were the Aboriginals, the objects of protection, on whom there was no question that regulation and control should be strict and comprehensive. Spencer once declared that, while Aboriginal people needed protection, in Darwin, the Chinese are a great curse here, because they get hold of the natives and give them opium and sundry vile concoctions that they call whiskey.The Mongolian Octopus cartoon, published in The Bulletin on August 21, 1886. Source: National Museum of AustraliaAccording to Spencer, both Aboriginal people and Chinese immigrants shared a tendency toward moral decay and depravity. He believed that, unlike Europeans or Australians of European descent, they lacked moral values and therefore constituted a curse that threatened to corrupt white Australia. His ideas were paternalistic and racist but they were widely accepted by thousands of people in early 20th century Australia.The Immigration Restriction Act was not unique within the political landscape of the Australian colonies. Long before the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia on January 1, 1901, the colonies had enacted a series of restrictive laws as early as the 1860s to limit Chinese immigration, and later, following the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, to restrict Japanese and South Asian immigrants as well.Gold Washing, Fitzroy Bar, Ophir Diggings, painting by George Angas, 1851. Source: National Museum of AustraliaThe Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 paved the way for additional legislation aimed at creating opportunities solely for white immigrants. The infamous Pacific Islander Labourers Act, for instance, sought to restrict South Sea Pacific Islanders, who were either denied entry except with a license or deported if found on Australian soil after December 31, 1906. Section 16(1) of the Post and Telegraph Act mandated the hiring of exclusively white workers to transport mail to and from Australia. Two years later, the Parliament passed the Naturalization Act 1903, which has since been repealed, preventing non-European immigrants from becoming naturalized British subjects.Miners and Pearl DiversJapanese pearl divers in Broome, 1914. Source: National Museum of AustraliaIn a campaign speech delivered in 1903, Alfred Deakin (1856-1919), who would become Australias second Prime Minister that same year, declared that due to the Immigration Restriction Act and the Dictation Test, of the 31,000 individuals who entered Australia that year, 28,000 were Europeans. He noted, of the remainder, many of the colored persons came to Australia to engage on pearling vessels. The arrangement we have made is that they land only to sign their articles. A guarantee is taken from those who bring them that, when their time is up, they shall leave the country. By this means they never really enter Australia. They merely fish in our waters or just outside them.Brass White Australia protection badge, 1906. Source: National Museum of AustraliaThe white Australia policy was a direct response to widespread concerns that Asian laborers were stealing employment opportunities from white Australians, therefore undermining the stability of white Australia. This feeling was particularly influenced by the widespread anti-Chinese sentiment among European miners during the Gold Rush.South Sea Islander women working on a sugarcane plantation near Cairns, Queensland, 1895. Source: National Museum of AustraliaIn the mid-1850s, the Gold Rush marked a new era in Australian history, politics, and demographics. Starting in 1851, European workers flocked to Australia, followed closely by a notable wave of Chinese immigrants. Between the 1850s and 1860s, approximately 40,000 Chinese workers from Southern China migrated to Australia, to Sydney and Melbourne, via Hong Kong. The majority of these migrants were men, and by 1861, they constituted 3.3% of the total population.Over the years that followed, many Asian migrants relocated from the remote goldfields to rapidly developing cities like Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne. At the same time, underpaid South Sea Islanders were extensively employed on sugarcane plantations in Queensland, many of whom had been forcibly taken from their homes in the Pacifica practice known as blackbirding.Cygnet Bay Pearls. Source: National Museum of AustraliaMeanwhile, the pearling industry in northern Australia was flourishing thanks to the hard work of Aboriginal divers and Asian immigrants. In places such as Broome, Western Australia, Darwin, Northern Territory, and Thursday Island, Queensland, thousands of Japanese, Malaysian, Philippine, and Chinese divers and immigrant workersoften underpaid and driven to take on the most hazardous jobs that white Australians refused to take onformed the backbone of the Australian pearling industry. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Australian pearls gained worldwide fame, primarily due to the efforts of thousands of immigrant workers from Asia alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander divers.Dismantling the White PolicyWarsaw, Poland, photograph by Maksym Harbar. Source: UnsplashIn the aftermath of World War II, Arthur Calwell (1896-1973), who served as the Minister for Immigration in the Chifley government and was a strong supporter of the white Australia policy, allowed refugees from Europe and Eastern Europe, particularly from Poland and the Baltic countries, to migrate to Australia. Although they were not English-speaking, they were perceived as fair-skinned and blonde enough to assimilate successfully into the white Australians without posing a threat to the white Australia policy.By the 1950s, it became evident that the strict implementation of not only the Immigration Restriction Act but also the Pacific Island Labourers Act and the Post and Telegraph Act, were significantly hindering population growth. By the early 1970s, the white Australia Policy was obsolete and was acknowledged as openly and shamelessly racist. The dismantling of this policy is notably tied to two names in Australian politics: Harold Holt and Albert Grassby.Prime Minister Harold Holt (second from left), with various Southeast Asia Treaty Organization leaders in Manila, photograph by Frank Wolfe, 1966. Source: National Museum of AustraliaIn 1966, the Liberal Government, led by Harold Holt (1908-1967) passed the Migration Act, the first immigration law that enabled all potential non-European workers or immigrants with academic qualifications to apply for entry into Australia. The shift was groundbreaking, as immigrants were now being selected based on their skills and academic achievements rather than, as had been the case for over six decades, the color of their skin or country of origin.Eight years earlier, the Migration Act of 1958 had repealed the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 by removing the application of the dictation test. While the Migration Act of 1958 effectively initiated the dismantling of the white Australia policy, it was not formally abandoned until 1973. In 1973, Albert Grassby (1926-2005), the Minister for Immigration in the government led by Prime Minister Gough Whitlam (196-2014), traveled to the Philippines and announced that the white Australia policy was officially dead.Albert Grassby, the father of Australian multiculturalism, was also famous for his floral ties, in the 1970s. Source: Museums Victoria CollectionGive me a shovel and I will bury it, he declared. Today, Grassby is widely recognized as the father of Australian multiculturalism. The same year, the Whitlam government implemented the Universal Migration Policy, which allowed individuals from any country to apply for immigration to Australia.In 1975, the White Australia Policy was definitively renounced when the Australian Parliament passed the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA), which aimed to ensure that everyone is treated equally, regardless of their race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin. Additionally, the RDA made racial hatred unlawful and provided a series of examples of racial discrimination in employment practices. Requiring all employees to speak only English, for instance, is considered discriminatory. 70 years earlier, this requirement had been one of the pre-conditions for any immigrant who wanted to live and work in Australia.MulticulturalismEmigrants landing at the Queens Wharf in Melbourne, by Frederick Grosse, 1860s. Source: National Museum of AustraliaIn 1901, the year the Immigration Restriction Act was enacted, Australia had a population of approximately 3.8 million people, with 22.6 of them born overseas. According to data provided by the Commonwealth Parliament in its 2018 Population and migration statistics in Australia, the majority of those born overseas came from the United Kingdom, what is now Ireland, present-day Germany, and China, notably the only Asian country among the top five. The 1901 census also indicated that significant numbers arrived from New Zealand and present-day Sweden and Norway, as well as from South Sea Islands and British India.Statistics from 1954 show a significant shift in immigration trends. While the United Kingdom remained at the top of the list, Italy took second place. Germany ranked third, while Poland replaced China in the fourth position. The Netherlands and Ireland followed, with New Zealand taking the place of the South Sea Islands, and Greece replacing India.Vietnamese refugees landing in Darwin, Northern Territory. Source: National Museum of AustraliaBetween 1947 and 1981, the number of non-white individuals of non-European descent living and working in Australia more than doubled. After the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, and the dismantling of the white Australia policy, thousands of Vietnamese refugees arrived in Darwin, the northernmost city in Australia, seeking a new home.A century after the passage and implementation of the Immigration Restriction Act, the Pacific Island Labourers Act, and the Post and Telegraph Act, the 2001 census revealed a dramatically different demographic landscape. While the United Kingdom still topped the list, New Zealand and Italy ranked second and third, respectively. In fourth and fifth places were two major Asian countries, Vietnam and China, with the Philippines and India occupying the eighth and ninth spots. By the 2016 census, the demographic composition of those born overseas had changed significantly once again compared to the 2001 results.The Australian Citizenship Quilt, made from 140 individually designed squares, is a symbol of the multiculturalism of Australian society today. Source: National Museum of AustraliaChina, India, the Philippines, and Vietnam rose to occupy the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth places, respectively, ousting Italy. Notably, Malaysia and Sri Lanka filled the ninth and tenth places, resulting in six Asian countries being listed among the top ten countries of birth for foreign-born Australians.The census data from 1901, 1954, 2001, and 2016 illustrate the profound impact that the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 had on Australian society and its demographic composition. For over half a century, strict immigration regulations created a predominantly white, insular society based on British and European values, while seasonal workers from Asia and the Pacific were often excluded or deported.Today, thanks to the efforts of politicians such as Harold Holt and Albert Grassbythe latter commonly referred to as the father of Australian multiculturalismAustralia has become a multicultural society that thrives on the cultural and economic contributions from individuals coming from a diverse array of countries, including Vietnam, India, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

One of the many long-standing oddities of Windows is that it has never had native support for NVMe SSDs, despite them being around for well over a decade and being the standard option for modern gaming PCs. However, this just changed recently with Microsoft rolling out native support in Windows Server 2025, and now users have discovered a way of enabling the feature in Windows 11, too, bringing leaps in performance of up to 85%. NVMe is the connection standard used by most modern M.2 SSDs, and, as you can see from our best gaming SSD guide, the ones we currently recommend for PC gamers are M.2 drives that use the NVMe standard. As such, there's potential for big gains for millions of Windows 11 PCs. There are some major caveats to this news, though.Read the full story on PCGamesN: This one Windows 11 tweak can boost SSD speed by up to 85%, but there's a catch

Vince Zampella, best known for co-creating the Call of Duty and Titanfall series, has died at the age of 55. As a co-founder of both Infinity Ward and Respawn Entertainment, his impact on the medium of videogames cannot be understated. Under his leadership, Infinity Ward produced Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Similarly, he steered Respawn to enormous success as it created the Titanfall duology, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series. Most recently, Zampella took charge of the Battlefield franchise after 2042's challenging launch. He shepherded the series to release Battlefield 6, widely regarded as a return to form and one of 2025's best-selling titles. He will be remembered for helping create some of the best FPS games ever made.Read the full story on PCGamesN: Tributes pour in for FPS "visionary" Vince Zampella, co-creator of Call of Duty and Titanfall, who has died

l'occasion du Jump Festa 2026, les quipes de l'anime My Hero Academia ont fait une grande annonce en prvision des 10 ans de la srie l'anne prochaine.

Chaque anne, il y a forcment des gagnants et des perdants. Aujourdhui, on vous propose de dcouvrir la liste des dix plus gros checs vidoludiques de lanne 2025 selon Metacritic.

Please share our story! Print PDF Starting 27 December 2025, Australians using internet search engines such as Google and Microsoft Bing while logged in will be required to verify their age

In an announcement that came on Monday, December 15, Detroit-based FOX personality Rob Wolchek, an anchor of FOX 2 Detroit, announced that he would be retiring from the network after spending nearly three