Back in December last year when Pauline Hanson announced that she was going to take another tilt at Federal politics by contesting a Queensland Senate seat, the ABC radio program The World Today reported that stopping migration to Australia of black Africans was well and truly on her agenda:

PAULINE HANSON: We’ve got to look very seriously at the people that we bring here, that they will not create social incohesion (sic) in Australia.

We can’t just bring people in clearly for the vote, as the major political parties have done. We need to make sure that there’s going to be peace and harmony in Australia, and it’s clearly not happening.

DONNA FIELD: Ms Hanson says immigration needs to be overhauled. She’s most concerned that Africans are bringing diseases into Australia, in particular AIDS.

PAULINE HANSON: We have got people coming into Australia that I don’t believe are going to give this country their loyalty, and we need to look at health issues as well.

DONNA FIELD: Ms Hanson says she knows a lot of white South Africans who have immigrated to Australia, and they’ve been subjected to medical tests. But she’s concerned the same can’t be said for black Africans.

The Immigration Department says Ms Hanson is just plain wrong, and all people entering Australia on permanent and temporary visas, or as refugees, undergo stringent health checks.

Last Saturday – that’s right, Saturday, the day of the week designed to give a press statement the smallest possible amount of coverage – Kevin Andrews MP, the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship made an announcement headed “Priorities of Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Intake for 2007-08”.

And, surprise, surprise, Mr Andrews announced that while the intake would remain at 13,000, the intake from “the Africa region will be reduced to 30 per cent.”

And the number will only be that high because “processing of applications this programme year will primarily be for applications already received while keeping open a limited capacity for some new applications that are particularly compelling.” Hint, hint – next year there will be even fewer Africans.

Not that there is anything racial about that decision. Oh, no, while you may be fooled by those television pictures from Darfur, the “intake from the Africa region reflects an improvement in conditions in some countries and an increase in the number of people returning to their country of origin.”

Nor is there any religious influence about the decision either. Those Africans in the past might have included a lot of Muslims but this time we are taking more refugees from the Middle East. So there! It just happens though, as Mr Andrews explained, that much of the 2007-08 intake will be from Iraqis forced in to neighbouring countries by the war – “many of whom are Christian.”

Ms Hanson should be flattered that it is not only popular Labor Party policies that the Coalition is prepared to steal.