I am blond haired, blue eyed fourth generation Australian. One of my great-grandparents was Chinese. I can make no claim to any Chinese cultural heritage but it is there in my genes. When my son, Jack, was born in 1993, one of the midwives pointed out that he had a Mongolian blue spot on his back - a sign that a child has Chinese ancestry. He is also blond haired and blue eyed. Appearances can be deceiving.

Australia has a rich vein of xenophobic hysteria that runs throughout our country's short history, from the Immigration Act of 1901 to our current government's decision in 2001 to use the Navy to "deter and deny" access to ships carrying asylum seekers from Iraq and Afghanistan. But on what grounds do any of us, aside from indigenous Australians, make a claim that would deny our immigrant status? Don't we all come from somewhere else?

It's now seen as a mark of honour in Australia to be able to trace your family's ancestors back to the convict days in the 18th and 19th centuries. But convicts were merely the fodder of an enforced immigration program designed by a ruthless Colonial power.