Mega billionaire businessman and Australian patriot Richard Pratt has come up with a good idea which has been met by a wall of silence. The cardboard supremo wants to establish a new category of annual awards in Australia to honour the contributions of migrants to the development of the nation. So far so good. He says he’ll be speaking to governor-general Michael Jeffery and the Man of Steel about his idea.

Pratt mooted this excellent idea last Monday, but so far not a word from anyone. Jeffery would be OK about it but he can’t initiate a sneeze until Howard agrees and we all know what the current government thinks about migrants. Imagine if the plan got airborne and the first award went to, say, an Asian or an Arab businessmen who, horror of horrors, was a Muslim to boot. Worse still, the Bolt/Akerman axis would be hysterical if a Muslim Australian got recognition for anything other than perhaps being deported.

The government’s latest attitude to those not born here but holding our citizenship is obscene to say the least and if things progress at the rate they are, non-Australian born citizens will soon have to carry documents proving they are here legitimately. Pratt has enormous clout with the governments of Australia – of all hues – and he may be forced to bring Howard to book over this one. Pratt himself migrated here from Poland when he was four and the contribution he has made to this country just can’t be calculated.