When was the White Australia Policy abolished?

The White Australia Policy was progressively dismantled between 1947 and 1973, ending formally with the Whitlam Labor government's reforms of 1973 to 1975 that introduced a non-racial migration framework based on skills, family ties, and humanitarian need. The Holt Coalition government of 1966 had made the most decisive earlier reform, ending specific restrictions on non-European professional and skilled migrants.

The dismantling happened in stages over about 26 years. The Chifley Labor government (1945 to 1949) admitted Japanese war brides of Australian servicemen, ended the practice of automatically refusing entry to non-Europeans married to Australians, and signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which established equality regardless of race as an international principle. The Menzies Coalition government (1949 to 1966) made smaller adjustments and admitted Asian Colombo Plan students from Commonwealth countries from 1950 onwards.

The Holt Coalition government's March 1966 reforms were the decisive break. Prime Minister Harold Holt and Immigration Minister Hubert Opperman announced that non-Europeans with skills useful to Australia would be admitted on the same basis as Europeans, that naturalisation requirements would be standardised across all ethnic groups, and that skilled non-European migrants would no longer be limited to specific occupations or settlement areas. The 1966 reforms ended the most overt racial restrictions but kept some administrative practices that effectively favoured European migration.

The Whitlam Labor government's 1973 reforms completed the dismantling. Immigration Minister Al Grassby announced on 11 September 1973 that migration would henceforth be decided strictly on skills, family, and humanitarian grounds, with no consideration of race or national origin. The Racial Discrimination Act 1975, passed in June 1975, made racial discrimination unlawful in employment, education, accommodation, and the provision of services, providing legislative backing to the new immigration framework. The Fraser Coalition government continued the non-discriminatory policy and substantially expanded the humanitarian programme to settle more than 100,000 Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian refugees between 1976 and 1985. Australia's multicultural character today reflects the complete reversal of the White Australia Policy, with about 30 per cent of Australians born overseas and more than 270 ancestries represented across the country.